Trump’s ‘buy’ tip on social media before his tariffs pause made money for investors who listened

NEW YORK (AP) - When Donald Trump offered some financial advice Wednesday morning, stocks were wavering between gains and losses.

But that was about to change.

"THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT," he wrote on his social media platform Truth Social at 9:37 a.m.

Less than four hours later, Trump announced a 90-day pause on nearly all his tariffs. Stocks soared on the news, closing up 9.5% by the end of trading. The market, measured by the S&P 500, gained back about $4 trillion, or 70%, of the value it had lost over the previous four trading days.

It was a prescient call by the president. Maybe too prescient.

"He's loving this, this control over markets, but he better be careful," said Trump critic and former White House ethics lawyer, Richard Painter, noting that securities law prohibits trading on insider information or helping others do so. "The people who bought when they saw that post made a lot of money."

The question is, Was Trump already contemplating the tariff pause when he made that post?

Asked about when he arrived at his decision, Trump gave a muddled answer.

"I would say this morning,” he said. "Over the last few days, I've been thinking about it."

He then added, "Fairly early this morning."

Asked for clarification on the timing in an email to the White House later, a spokesperson didn’t answer directly but defended Trump’s post as part of his job.

"It is the responsibility of the President of the United States to reassure the markets and Americans about their economic security in the face of nonstop media fearmongering,” wrote White House spokesman Kush Desai.

Another curiosity of the posting was Trump’s signoff with his initials.

DJT is also the stock symbol for Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent company of the president’s social media platform Truth Social.

It’s not clear if Trump was saying buying stocks in general, or Trump Media in particular. The White House was asked, but didn’t address that either. Trump did not include "DJT" on his other posts Wednesday but he does use it intermittently, typically to emphasize that he has personally written the message.

The ambiguity about what Trump meant didn’t stop people from pouring money into that stock.

Trump Media closed up 22.67%, soaring twice as much as the broader market, a stunning performance by a company that lost $400 million last year and is seemingly unaffected by whether tariffs would be imposed or paused.

Trump's 53% ownership stake in the company, now in a trust controlled by his oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., rose by $415 million on the day.

Trump Media was bested, albeit by only two-hundreds of a percentage point, by another Trump administration stock pick - Elon Musk’s Tesla.

Last month, Trump held an extraordinary news conference outside the White House praising the company and its cars. That was followed by a Fox TV appearance by his commerce secretary urging viewers to buy the stock.

Tesla’s surge Wednesday added $20 billion to Musk's fortunes.

Kathleen Clark, a government ethics law expert at Washington University School of Law, says Trump’s post in other administrations would have been investigated, but is not likely not to trigger any reaction, save for maybe more Truth Social viewers.

"He’s sending the message that he can effectively and with impunity manipulate the market," she said, "As in: Watch this space for future stock tips."