The ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ stockbroker has claimed President Donald Trump is not guilty of market manipulation or insider trading, after his abrupt U-turn on tariffs.
Just hours before Trump announced his 90-day pause on global tariffs, he told his online followers, “This is a great time to buy,” – leaving Democrats and lawmakers questioning whether he took advantage of non-public information to make a gain.
The president later recounted how much money his billionaire friends made after his announcement.
However, speaking to Sky News, Jordan Belfort, who admitted to stock manipulation, does not believe Trump has broken any laws.
“I personally don’t find it overly suspicious,” he said. “Especially since he’s told it to everybody at once.
“If he hadn’t said anything and told five of his best friends, ‘I’m gonna ease this tariff situation – you should be buying’, that would be illegal.”
Belfort, famously played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the Wolf of Wall Street movie, said Trump’s post merely repeated previous statements and that buying when share prices drop is a well-known tactic.
“He had been saying that all along (to buy); it wasn’t the only time he’d said that,” he added. “(Treasury) Secretary Bessent had been saying that too… It’s a really basic piece of advice.”
Stock markets plummeted globally on Monday after Trump implemented sweeping Liberation Day tariffs. Two days later, Trump’s announcement of a three-month pause on the majority of tariffs sparked a historic U.S. stocks rally – adding $5.1 trillion to the market.
The S&P 500 jumped 9.5 percent, marking the biggest one-day percentage increase since the 2008 financial crisis.
Democrat politicians said Trump’s post online raised “grave ethical concerns”, with lawmakers demanding a probe into whether his pause involved insider trading.
The White House said: “It is the responsibility of the President of the United States to reassure the markets and Americans about their economic security in the face of nonstop media fearmongering.”
Experts have warned that stock market volatility is still on the horizon despite the rally as China and the U.S. continue to pursue a trade war.
By Thursday, American indexes closed down, and Japan’s Nikkei fell by around 5 percent early on Friday. Hong Kong stocks are expected to face their worst week since 2008.
Belfort told Sky News he does not generally support tariffs but Trump’s intervention was necessary to correct what he sees as a trade imbalance.
“The United States has been drained of its wealth, drained of its factories,” he said. “It’s not gonna be pretty.
“There’s going to be pain – but the path we were on before is simply unsustainable. It had to change.”
While experts have predicted tariffs could impact U.S. consumers, especially through Chinese imports like iPhones, Belfort believes firms would move production away from China.
China retaliated against Trump’s tariffs by increasing its levies on U.S. goods to 125 percent from 84 percent.
The Trump administration confirmed on Thursday that the U.S. tariff rate on Chinese imports is now effectively at 145 percent.
Belfort also said he supports Elon Musk’s controversial government efficiency role which culled thousands of jobs.
“I love what is being done because the amount of abuse and waste and fraud, it’s absolutely insane,” he said.
