At the State of the Union, Congress heard President Donald Trump urge it to pass a ban on members trading individual stocks “without delay.”
But will Trump’s words make a difference after months of Congress talking about—but not passing—a stock trading ban?
On Tuesday, Trump told members to pass the Stop Insider Trading Act, backed by Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis.
“Let’s … ensure members of Congress cannot corruptly profit from using insider information,” he said.
Several Democrats, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, stood up in applause.
“If Donald Trump is serious about stopping insider trading in Congress, let’s pass a bill right now that truly bans lawmakers from owning and trading stocks,” Warren wrote in a social media post on Wednesday.
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., similarly said of Trump’s call for a ban, “Well, Donald Trump has said one thing so far that is true: We need to ban stock trading in Congress. I’ve been fighting for years to get it done. Just need Republicans to put it up for a vote.”
Since December, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., has backed Steil’s bill.
Steil’s bill is separate from the Restoring Trust in Congress Act, which also has several sponsors, both Democrat and Republican, in the House. This bill would also only apply to Congress.
Some lawmakers still have reservations and questions about a stock ban after Trump’s speech.
“I think as long as that applies to every single person and every single branch, I love it so much I want to marry it,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told The Daily Signal of Trump’s call for a stock trading ban.
Steil’s bill does not include a ban on members of the executive or judicial branches trading stocks.
“I’m just saying that we’re coequal branches so we should have coequal restrictions,” Tillis added.
The White House’s press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether it would be open to applying a stock ban to other branches of government.
In July 2025, Trump criticized the HONEST Act, a bill backed by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., which would have banned the president and the vice president from trading stocks as well.
“I don’t think real Republicans want to see their President, who has had unprecedented success, TARGETED,” Trump wrote on social media at the time after the bill had passed out of committee.
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., asked by The Daily Signal what he felt of Trump’s call for a stock trading ban, said most in the Senate already avoid trading individual stocks.
“I don’t know exactly what they’re talking about as far as how deep it goes or anything like that, but I personally think we get enough inside information to where most of us have already said we’re not going to do stock purchases ourselves other than index funds.”
Insider trading is illegal and members of Congress are technically supposed to report trades after the STOCK Act of 2012. However, some in Congress have alleged that these restrictions go unenforced.
