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Comment by mentalgear | Hacker News Reader

> In the last week, Trump has gone wild on the global economy, saying tariffs are the key to American prosperity.

> As a result, global stock and bond markets tanked.

> The reversal prompted the S&P 500 stock index to climb over 7 percent in just minutes.

> Traders with inside information about what Trump was about to do — some of them, presumably, Trump family members and cronies — just made a fortune.

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If insider trading is proven true, what are potential consequences for Trump? Is such behavior a no-no even for presidents or he'll get away with it until his term ends?

In theory Congress can impeach him for it, but in practice there won’t be the votes to convict him. If there are ever, somehow, the votes to convict him, it’ll be for something worse.

After his term ends… I don’t know whether the law says that the insider trading exemption Congress has also applies to the Executive branch… but I’d fully expect the Supreme Court to say it does, if it got that far.

Isn't he legally immune for anything done in the course of his duties?

You'd need pretty solid proof he was colluding with others to place trades, and not just running his tariff policies as he saw fit with advanced notice given to his inner circle as some sort of courtesy.

I'd be surprised if anything could be made to stick.

Crucially, you need the proof, but you are not allowed to bring the proof to court!

If he got away with what he got away already like January 6th 2021, I would say there are no consequences.

The potential consequences is that he probably will make a ton of money. Assuming historical data might somehow resemble what will happen in the future, he'll probably get away with it after his term as well. Hopefully, the prediction is wrong though.

None. Trump will face no consequences because Republicans have decided there should be none.

Republicans, however, will face consequences in a year and a half.

who's going to stop him? he violated the Emoluments Clause on day 2 of his first term and nobody did a thing.

There was a big spike in trading 20 minutes before Trump's announcement.

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