Instead of seeing the 90-day pause on tariffs for most of the world and the rallying stock market as a sign of trade negotiations going well, ABC News co-host Sunny Hostin used her platform on Thursday’s edition of The View to accuse President Trump of “certainly” being “guilty of insider trading.” Her evidence? A social media post vaguely touting the market.
“I got to tell you, I think what's fascinating to me is that the corruption is just completely out in the open at this point,” Hostin, a former federal prosecutor, proclaimed.
According to Hostin, Trump’s post on Truth Social, which didn’t give information on what stocks to buy/when/other information needing for trading, was evidence of Trump committing a federal offence:
You know, because these kind of actions where Trump tweeted out before this little pause, he said, ‘this is a great time to buy.’ And that's really a whistle to those billionaires that can -- or people that have money that can buy low and then the stock market, prices go up. That's generally called insider trading and that would ordinarily trigger an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Hostin lamented that Trump wouldn’t be prosecuted for it. “We know now that that's not probably going to happen because all of these government agencies have been, you know, destroyed and dismantled,” she asserted, effectively creating the narrative as to why nothing would happen to Trump, rather than the fact that he didn’t commit a crime.
“But someone with knowledge of an economic policy change, that would cause the markets to shoot back up right before posting about how great a time it is to buy right before the policy change happened, would certainly be guilty of insider trading, in my view,” she continued.
Bizarrely under the impression that courts and judges do the investigating of crimes, moderator Whoopi Goldberg hoped someone would take up Hostin’s argument: “Let's see if somebody brings it to a court and says, ‘hey, what about this?’”
It’s rather ironic that Hostin was baselessly accusing someone else of a crime they didn’t commit when, back in January, she accused American Transit, the insurance company going after her husband for insurance fraud, of defamation.
In quotes to Entertainment Weekly, Hostin claimed that by suing her husband and accusing him of insurance fraud the company, “used my celebrity status to start a disgusting media smear campaign against my husband.”
“We have put American Transit on notice and will file a five-million-dollar counter lawsuit for their defamatory claims, an amount that is likely to increase as the reputational damage that American Transit has intentionally caused is difficult to quantify at this time,” she told the magazine. Hostin also wanted them to “withdraw these false allegations” and “a public apology.”
What you smell there is rank hypocrisy.
On Thursday, Hostin’s co-hosts didn’t agree that Trump’s post amounted to insider trading. “I don't know that I assign that much strategy to it to be honest because people who lost money, the wealthiest among us, even if they bought the dip they still have less money today than they did before he sparked the trade war,” argued faux conservative Alyssa Farah Griffin.
“He definitely did not plan this,” pretend independent Sara Haines pushed back on Hostin. “I'm going to second Alyssa in there was no strategy here. What happened was he was trying to go hard and one by one he lost everyone!”
Fake Republican Ana Navarro suggested that if it was planned, than Trump was a “sadist”:
Look, you know, if they're saying that this was all strategic then he is a sadist because what kind of government leader puts his people through this kind of distress and sadness and anxiety for a week just for giggles.
“His supporters always say that he plays fourth-dimensional chess. I think he should be in a padded room playing with his own drool,” Navarro declared.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
ABC’s The View
April 10, 2024
11:04:19 a.m. Eastern(…)
SUNNY HOSTIN: I got to tell you, I think what's fascinating to me is that the corruption is just completely out in the open at this point, you know, because these kind of actions where Trump tweeted out before this little pause, he said, ‘this is a great time to buy.’ And that's really a whistle to those billionaires that can -- or people that have money that can buy low and then the stock market, prices go up.
That's generally called insider trading and that would ordinarily trigger an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. We know now that that's not probably going to happen because all of these government agencies have been, you know, destroyed and dismantled.
But someone with knowledge of an economic policy change, that would cause the markets to shoot back up right before posting about how great a time it is to buy right before the policy change happened, would certainly be guilty of insider trading, in my view.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Let's see if somebody brings it to a court and says, hey, what about this?
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: I don't know that I assign that much strategy to it to be honest because people who lost money, the wealthiest among us, even if they bought the dip they still have less money today than they did before he sparked the trade war.
HOSTIN: But they gained 70 percent more. They gained 70 percent back, rather.
[Crosstalk]
FARAH GRIFFIN: It’s still a deficit on before the trade war even began, which is I think why some of his loudest supporters, Elon Musk, Bill Ackman were basically begging for this 90-day pause
HOSTIN: They want their money back!
(…)
11:06:50 a.m. Eastern
SARA HAINES: He definitely did not plan this. I'm going to second Alyssa in there was no strategy here. What happened was he was trying to go hard and one by one he lost everyone!
(…)
11:07:45 a.m. Eastern
ANA NAVARRO: Look, you know, if they're saying that this was all strategic then he is a sadist because what kind of government leader puts his people through this kind of distress and sadness and anxiety for a week just for giggles. I don't think – His supporters always say that he plays fourth-dimensional chess. I think he should be in a padded room playing with his own drool.
(…)
