White House reportedly pushes back on Sen. Hawley’s stock trading ban

There has been an impressive bipartisan push in Congress to ban certain types of market trading activity. The push for such laws comes as many have been critical of members of Congress seemingly getting rich off of the stock market.

According to Axios, Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R-MO) attempt to get a bill passed that would ban stock trading for elected officials is reportedly getting some pushback from the White House. 

The reason is that a ban on certain investments would reportedly include the vice president and the president, which reportedly isn’t sitting well with some GOP members.

Hawley has worked overtime to appease those standing in the way of the bill advancing, like Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who happens to be the committee chair.

What’s going on?

In order to get Sen. Paul on board with the ban, Hawley included language that would also ban the president and vice president from certain trading activities.

Reportedly, the White House’s Office of Legislative Affairs caught wind of the included language and immediately pushed back on the idea of including the vice president and president in the stock trading ban.

“This was a last-minute deal struck to include the Executive Branch equities without touching base with the White House to discuss potential Article II concerns,” a White House official said.

Axios noted:

Hawley’s Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments (PELOSI) Act bans members of Congress from trading or holding individual stocks.

Notably, a similar bill passed committee last year, and it included the president and vice president in the trading restrictions. President Trump showed interest in supporting the bill at the time.

Axios added:

It’s this language from last year’s bill that is expected to replace the PELOSI Act ahead of the committee markup — though negotiations are still in flux. In response to White House pushback, Hawley also plans to make the ban effective only at the start of a member’s or elected official’s next term, per a source familiar with the plans.

Social media reacts

Users across social media weighed in on the White House’s pushback on Hawley’s new version of the bill.

The White House is lobbying against Sen. Hawley’s bill banning stock trading for lawmakers.

The White House is concerned the ban could extend to the president and vice president.

Follow: @AFpost pic.twitter.com/F2Bak1LbbT

— AF Post (@AFpost) July 30, 2025

“Limit it to 401K, or hedge fund type investing,” one X user wrote.

Another X user wrote, “It should absolutely extend to the POTUS and VP.”

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