OPINION:
It takes a special kind of person to become a politician, but not in a good way. The modern politician deeply craves love from strangers, will say and do anything to stay in office, and once in office invariably gets very, very rich by engaging in insider trading that is illegal for anyone but politicians.
Meet Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican whose financial journey is as unconventional — and, let’s be honest, as head-scratching — as her political career. Since taking her seat in Congress in 2021, MTG hasn’t just been making headlines; she’s been making bank. Her net worth skyrocketed from a modest $700,000 when she took office to a cool $25 million in just a few short years, according to Quiver Quantitative.
Not bad when your annual salary is $174,000.
Perhaps the answer to her incredible surge in wealth lies in her uncanny, almost clairvoyant, knack for stock trading. Since joining the House, Ms. Greene has executed a staggering 450 stock trades.
Her timing was particularly exquisite. Take, for instance, a curious shopping spree this past April. According to financial disclosures, Ms. Greene went on a veritable stock-buying binge, snapping up $32,000 to $480,000 worth of shares in major tech and logistics companies like Apple, Amazon, Nvidia and FedEx.
These purchases were made just hours before her one-time staunch ally, President Trump, took to Truth Social to declare it was “a great time to buy,” a message that preceded a White House announcement of a 90-day pause on tariffs, which spiked the markets.
What a stroke of luck! Democrats cried foul, suggesting it smelled suspiciously like insider trading. But Ms. Greene, ever the picture of innocence, had a simple explanation: She doesn’t manage her own portfolio. A financial adviser, she claims, is the puppet master behind these prescient moves. It seems she’s outsourced not just her financial planning but her good fortune as well (and, of course, it would be crass to think that she told her adviser about Mr. Trump’s move in advance).
This isn’t her only brush with fortuitous investing. In 2021, she bought up to $50,000 of Amazon stock, according to Quiver Quantitative. The stock has risen nearly 39.8% since then. She also bought up to $50,000 of Apple a few months later, which has risen 84.9% since then. And she dumped up to $50,000 worth of Facebook. That stock has fallen 84.7% since she bailed.
Now, after a whirlwind career marked by controversy and a dramatic, recent split with Mr. Trump — who called her a “traitor” — Ms. Greene has announced her resignation. Citing frustration with her own party and a desire to spend more time with her family, she plans to step down on Jan. 5.
And here’s where the timing gets truly poetic. Her chosen departure date is a mere two days after her federal pension fully vests. To qualify for a lifetime pension, lawmakers must serve for five years. Her start date was Jan. 3, 2021. Do the math.
Critics, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat, were quick to connect the dots. “She’s carefully timing her departure just 1-2 days after her pension kicks in and after making millions of dollars insider trading stocks,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Instagram last Friday.
Far-right activist Laura Loomer was even more direct, dubbing her “Marjorie TRADER Greene” and noting: “It’s all about the money for her. Always has been.”
To be fair, some have poured cold water on the pension theory, calculating that her monthly payout would amount to only around $1,250. But when you’ve already turned $700,000 into $25 million, every little bit counts, right? And the pension includes lifetime health care (remember, members of Congress make sure they get the kind of top-notch health care regular Americans can’t).
In the end, it’s not about the amount; it’s about the principle: Secure every last taxpayer-funded dollar you can on your way out the door.
In her resignation video, Ms. Greene lamented that she was “despised in Washington, D.C.” Perhaps. But with a financial record like hers, it’s hard to imagine she’s leaving with anything less than a very wide, very satisfied smile. She arrived a public servant and will depart a multimillionaire, pension in hand.
That, people, is the dirty side of politics — if you really need yet one more example.
• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times. He can be reached at josephcurl@gmail.com and on Twitter @josephcurl.
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