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Despite President Donald Trump’s harsh criticism over his bill to ban stock trading among top government officials, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., insists he has a good rapport with the president, who shares his goal of enacting such a ban.
“The president and I had a really good conversation,” Hawley told Fox News Digital on Thursday, adding “he wants to get it done.”
“What the White House wanted was that the president, the vice president not be covered. They’re not, the offices are, but it’ll be the next office holders,” he explained.
The Missouri Republican added that “in fairness, we did the same thing for Joe Biden. We passed this last year, and we set the date out so that it would be the next president who had to comply.”
“So, Trump and Vance are not covered, but all the members of Congress are. And it’s not a perfect bill, but it’s pretty tough,” said Hawley.
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Hawley’s measure, originally named the PELOSI Act but switched to the HONEST Act after Senate Democrats agreed to support it, irked Trump and many Senate Republicans. The bill was advanced out of committee by an 8-7 vote, with Hawley joining Democrats to approve the bill.
Shortly after the vote, Trump drilled into Hawley in a Truth Social post in which he called him a “pawn” and “second-tier” senator.
“The Democrats, because of our tremendous ACHIEVEMENTS and SUCCESS, have been trying to ‘Target’ me for a long period of time, and they’re using Josh Hawley, who I got elected TWICE, as a pawn to help them,” he wrote. “I wonder why Hawley would pass a Bill that Nancy Pelosi is in absolute love with — He is playing right into the dirty hands of the Democrats. It’s a great Bill for her, and her ‘husband,’ but so bad for our Country! I don’t think real Republicans want to see their President, who has had unprecedented success, TARGETED, because of the ‘whims’ of a second-tier Senator named Josh Hawley!”
Despite the pushback, Hawley told Fox News Digital, “I want to get this done.”
“I want to get this banned. So, I will work with anybody, I said to my colleagues, like if you’ve got good faith changes you want to make, you think will make this stronger, I’m all for it. I will do it,” he went on. “What I will not do, though, is consensus stuff that’s going to kill the bill.”
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He blasted an amendment proposed by Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and promoted by Trump, which he said, “would have gutted the bill.”
“Scott made really clear he’s opposed to this bill, and he was attempting to kill the bill,” said Hawley.
“I’ve seen this for six years now. Members campaign on banning stocks, and then they get here, and they’re like, well, this isn’t the right time, or maybe let’s do it later, or let’s never do it, or you heard today, let’s have another hearing. We’ve had hearings for years,”
For his part, Scott told Fox News Digital that “Trump’s on the right side.”
“This was a bill that Senator Hawley teamed up with Democrats to attack Trump,” he said. “Here’s a guy that went through Russiagate, went through an indictment, went through conviction, went through all this stuff, and then this is just a new bill to go target the president.”
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Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., meanwhile, told Fox News Digital that he thinks it is “hypocritical” of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to be supporting the bill after years of her husband engaging in lucrative trading.
“I thought it was interesting that all the Democrats, together with Senator Hawley, voted against Rick Scott’s excellent amendment, which would have asked GAO to do an investigation of how did she get so wealthy,” he said. “If they really wanted to get to the bottom of that, they would have supported that amendment. The fact that they voted against it speaks volumes.”
“The idea is good, the execution is not as good,” said Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla.
“I wanted to be able to see a bill that’s actually fixed and that actually works. This bill bans things like cryptocurrency, digital currency, it says you can’t use stablecoin,” he explained. “It’s a straightforward idea. But we’ve got to be able to clean up the language of this particular version of it to make sure it’s right.”
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., also took issue with the bill specifically for exempting Trump. He told Fox News Digital, “If it were a good bill, they would apply it to Donald Trump. The fact that they’re excluding Donald Trump, and he’s going to be exempt from it, probably means it’s not a very good bill.”
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He said that if passed, the bill would “deter” leaders with strong business acumen.
“I think you want to bring people like that. You’re going to deter a lot of people like from coming, not just banning them from owning stock, but saying they have to sell all of their businesses. I think it’s over the top and not well thought out,” said Paul.
On the other side of the aisle, Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., voiced support for the bill, saying, “treat everyone equally, and don’t trade stock if you’re a member here.”
In conclusion, Hawley said he agreed to the changes to exclude Trump and Vance, to get a bill that could be signed into law.
“I want something that’ll pass and that he can sign, and I think we took a step forward on that today,” he said.
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