President Donald Trump got in a jab Tuesday night at Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the former speaker of the House, as he called on lawmakers to clamp down on insider trading by members of Congress.
As some Democrats stood to applaud Trump’s support for the Stop Insider Trading Act, the president turned his attention to the audience, asking if Pelosi was one of them.
“Did Nancy Pelosi stand up, if she was here?” Trump said.
Pelosi supported a congressional stock trading ban last year, but resisted legislation when leading House Democrats. She has faced years of scrutiny over the stock trading of her venture capitalist husband, Paul Pelosi.
“I wasn’t sure if anybody, even on this side, was going to applaud for that,” Trump said, referring to Democrats. “I was very impressed. Thank you. I’m very impressed.”
Democrats returned Trump’s remark with taunts of “including you” and “you too” as he asked lawmakers to “ensure that members of Congress cannot corruptly profit from using insider information.”
A House panel approved the Stop Insider Trading Act last month under pressure from a crop of congressional Republicans. Democrats opposed it, argued it does not go far enough, and introduced a competing measure that also covers the president and vice president.
The Trump-backed bill, supported by House GOP leadership, requires a public seven-day notice before a lawmaker, spouse, or dependent children can sell a stock. It still allows lawmakers to retain their existing stock holdings.
DEMOCRATS TARGETED OVER ‘ILLEGAL ORDERS’ VIDEO ATTEND TRUMP STATE OF THE UNION
Trump and Pelosi have a rivalry that dates back to his first term in office, with Pelosi notoriously shredding the president’s State of the Union speech in 2020 as she stood behind him on the podium.
On Tuesday, Pelosi attended the speech to “show solidarity and support for the [Jeffrey] Epstein survivors in the gallery,” according to a source familiar with the matter, and wore a “Release the Files” pin.
Lauren Green contributed to this report.