Congress has been given a disclosure deadline of May 15 as US President Donald Trump is accused of insider trading amidst his tariff announcements. A senator has called for transparency around recent stock trades by lawmakers. In a video post on X on Thursday, Adam Schiff said: “Is Donald Trump’s inner circle illegally profiting off of these huge swings in the stock market by insider trading?”

He continued: “We’re writing to the White House to demand answers. This is a president who is trading his own meme coin; his kids are trading their own cryptocurrency. It is more than necessary to ask whether people were personally profiting from insider information when people’s savings and retirement accounts were being torched?”

In an additional post, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X: “Any member of Congress who purchased stocks in the last 48 hours should probably disclose that now. I’ve been hearing some interesting chatter on the floor. Disclosure deadline is May 15th. We’re about to learn a few things. It’s time to ban insider trading in Congress.”

President Trump’s shifting tariff policy triggered market turmoil this week. Global stocks tumbled on Wednesday as higher tariffs took effect for more than 60 countries – including a staggering 104% levy on Chinese imports. Amid the chaos, Mr Trump posted on Truth Social, the platform that he owns: “BE COOL! Everything is going to work out well. The USA will be bigger and better than ever before!”

He added: “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT”

By that evening, Trump announced a 90-day pause on the new tariffs for all countries except China, sparking a sharp rebound in the markets. When announcing the pause, Mr Trump told reporters that “people were getting yippy” in an apparent acknowledgement of the market turmoil in recent days.

Spencer Hakimian, founder of Tolou Capital Management, shared a striking chart on X, showing an abrupt surge in NASDAQ call option volume on Wednesday afternoon. He wrote: “NASDAQ call volume spiked minutes before the 90 day tariff pause was announced. Not a good look at all.”