In the days before President Donald Trump’s April 2 tariff announcement sent markets tumbling, two of his top advisors sold off at least $1.3 million combined in stocks, averting potential losses.
The trades, made by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino and White House Presidential Personnel Office Director Sergio Gor, were disclosed in ethics documents made public this month.
Both men sold off stock in Trump Media and Technology Group, the company that runs Trump’s Truth Social platform.
Gor sold between $15,000 and $50,000 in stock on March 27, while Scavino sold between $1 million and $5 million in stock on April 1, the day before Trump’s announcement.
Officials are generally only required to disclose value ranges of their assets on ethics documents, so the exact value of the stock when it was sold remains unclear.
Scavino previously consulted for Trump Media and Technology Group and reported earning $860,000 in fees in 2024. He also sold between $15,000 and $50,000 in Robinhood Markets stock on March 26.
Based on his financial disclosure, Scavino appears to have sold off the bulk of his stock holdings just before the tariff announcement.
‘I would take a class in financial literacy’
Three top Trump administration officials have now reported selling Truth Social stock before the tariff dip: Scavino and Gor, along with Attorney General Pam Bondi, who also sold her shares on April 2.
It is unclear why the three officials sold stock at the time, but as top advisors to Trump, it’s possible they may have been aware of the details of Trump’s tariff announcement, which led to a week-long dip in the market before he announced a 90-day pause on April 9.
Bondi had signed an agreement to divest from her holdings in Truth Social within 90 days of her confirmation, but it’s unclear if Scavino and Gor made similar agreements.
The White House did not address questions from BI about whether the two top aides were obligated to sell the stock, or whether they had advance knowledge of Trump’s tariff plans.
In a statement, White House Assistant Press Secretary Taylor Rogers said that Scavino and Gor “fully comply with the executive branch ethics rules, attending required ethics briefings and complying with conflict of interest and financial reporting obligations.”
By selling off the stock just before Trump’s announcement, all three officials avoided potential losses. After closing at $20.26 per share on April 1, the stock tumbled to a low of $16.16 on April 8.
When asked about the sale at a House hearing last month, Bondi defended it, saying she had complied with her ethics agreement.
“I would take a class in financial literacy if you think I profited from that because I lost a tremendous amount of money,” Bondi said.
The value of the stock did decline significantly over the course of the early months of the Trump administration, falling from a high of $42.91 in mid-January.
Several other politicians traded stocks around Trump’s tariff announcement, with some appearing to profit significantly from “buying the dip,” including Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz of Florida.
Though Trump’s April tariff announcement caused significant volatility in the markets, subsequent announcements haven’t had the same impact.
Some refer to this as the “TACO Trade,” with TACO standing for “Trump Always Chickens Out.”
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