'Wolf of Wall Street' backs Donald Trump over 'insider trading' on tariffs

Thesays there is “no way” that is guilty of market manipulation over his “great time to buy” claim. Trump offered financial advice Wednesday morning when stocks were wavering between gains and losses.

He wrote on social media at 9.37am: “This is a great time to buy!!! DJT” and then less than four hours. 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.

And it has led to claims that Trump was manipulating the market with insider trading but the infamous Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort, believes this is not the case and referred to that the statement was made publicly rather than tipping off a few people.

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"I personally don't find it overly suspicious. Especially since he's told it to everybody at once,” he told . "If he hadn't said anything and told five of his best friends 'I'm gonna ease this tariff situation - you should be buying', that would be illegal."

Insider trader involves information being shared which has not been made public and so people can take advantage by buying or selling shares. And Trump critic and former White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter gave a warning to the US President over his activity.

“He’s loving this, this control over markets, but he better be careful,” he said. “The people who bought when they saw that post made a lot of money.”

But Mr Belfort, who was played by Leonardo DiCaprio in a Hollywood film about his earlier life and has admitted to crimes involving stock manipulation, said Trump was just making a statement that it was a good time to buy. And he had also previously said the market was well-positioned to make an investment.

"He had been saying that all along [to buy], it wasn't the only time he'd said that," said Mr Belfort. "[Treasury] Secretary Bessent had been saying that too. It's a really basic piece of advice."

Democratic senators, though, are also calling for an investigation. “Did anyone buy or sell stocks, and profit at the public’s expense?,” said Democratic Senator Adam Schiff in a post on the platform BlueSky. Added Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut on X, “An insider trading scandal is brewing.”

A key element of whether he can be accused of market manipulation is whether he had in mind the 90-day pause in tariffs when he made the social media post. “Over the last few days, I’ve been thinking about it,” said Trump himself when asked yesterday directly about when he arrived at his decision, but then added to the confusion, stating, “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.