OPINION:
“Nancy Pelosi should be investigated because she has the highest return of anybody practically in the history of Wall Street,” President Trump remarked this week on Mrs. Pelosi and her husband Paul’s spectacular stock trades during her time in office. “She knows exactly what is going to happen, what’s going to be announced, she buys stock, and the stock goes up after the announcement is made.”
This column has reported on Mr. Pelosi’s lucky stock picks, writing about how he has a knack for buying shares of companies right before they score contracts with the federal government or dumping stocks before they undergo federal regulatory actions. According to financial disclosures, the Pelosis’ net worth is estimated to be around $413 million, a significant jump from the $370 million reported in 2023.
Last year, Mr. and Mrs. Pelosi’s investment portfolio pulled in an estimated 54% return, more than double the S&P 500’s 25% gain and beating every large hedge fund, the New York Post reported, quoting numbers in Bloomberg’s end-of-year tally of hedge funds’ returns.
To note: Mrs. Pelosi’s annual congressional salary is $174,000, and when she served as speaker of the House, it was $223,500 annually — hardly a millionaire in the making.
When Mrs. Pelosi was confronted with the president’s accusations of insider trading Wednesday, she bristled.
“We’re here to talk about the 60th anniversary of Medicaid. That’s what I agreed to come on to talk about,” Mrs. Pelosi scolded CNN’s Jake Tapper for even asking the question.
Mr. Tapper pressed on: “I wanted to give you a chance to respond. [President Trump] accused you of insider trading. What’s your response to that?”
“That’s ridiculous,” Mrs. Pelosi quipped. “In fact, I very much support stopping the trading of members of Congress — not that I think that anybody is doing anything wrong, if they are, they are prosecuted and they go to jail — but because of the confidence it instills in the American people, don’t worry about this.
“I have no concerns about the obvious investments that have been made over time. I’m not into it, my husband is,” Mrs. Pelosi concluded, inferring she and her husband don’t discuss such matters.
In fact, throughout her 37-year career as a public servant, Mrs. Pelosi has opposed legislation outlawing individual stock trading by members of Congress and their families.
On Wednesday, a Senate committee advanced the PELOSI Act, [Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments], which bans stock trading by members of Congress, their spouses and future presidents and vice presidents.
To get Democrats on board, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, with Republican Sen. Josh Hawley’s approval, agreed to rename the bill the HONEST Act. An amendment to investigate the Pelosis based on their trades was not included in the final passage, catching the president’s ire.
Despite calling Mr. Hawley a “second-tier senator” on Truth Social, Mr. Trump reiterated his support for a congressional stock trading ban.
“I like it conceptually,” Mr. Trump said Wednesday of the HONEST Act. “I don’t know about it, but I like it conceptually, and you know, Nancy Pelosi became rich by having inside information. She made a fortune with her husband. And I think that’s disgraceful.”
Although Mrs. Pelosi conceded to Mr. Tapper that she supported the revised legislation, her history indicates she will do nothing to advance it. In 2021, while speaker, she blocked several bills prohibiting lawmakers and their spouses from trading in corporate stocks from coming to the House floor for a vote. This April, she rejected calls for a ban, stating, “We’re a free market economy.”
• Kelly Sadler is the commentary editor at The Washington Times.
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