Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy Unloaded Stocks 2 Days Before Trump Announced Tariffs & Markets Tanked

On Feb. 11, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy sold stocks in 34 companies, valued between $75,000 and $600,000 – just two days before President Donald Trump announced his tariffs on foreign imports on Feb. 13. On the day of the announcement itself, Duffy sold up to $50,000.

As the head of the Transportation Department, he was required to sell his stock in seven of the companies he invested in during his first three months in office to comply with the ethics agreement and avoid conflicts of interest.

The transportation department typically does not have much say in tariff policies, but Trump’s foreign tariffs mirror those of Duffy’s proposed bill when he served in the House of Representatives—the United States Reciprocal Trade Act. Duffy claimed that Trump’s tariffs were inspired by his own proposed legislation.

The Transportation Department has stated that Duffy had no influence over when his stocks were being sold and that his transactions were not managed by him. The Department claimed that Duffy had no insider knowledge of the tariffs, which may have influenced his decision to sell before the stock market plummeted. 

Duffy isn’t the first member of the president’s cabinet to sell stock at a fortuitous time.

Attorney General Pam Bondi sold between $1 and $5 million worth of shares of Trump Media on April 2. This was on the day Trump announced his tariffs, and the market sank. Similarly to Duffy, Bondi was also required to sell stock within her first three months as a member of the Cabinet.

The Justice Department did not comment on the timing of the transactions despite Democratic members of Congress requesting investigations into these trades.

Former and current government officials have asked the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission to conduct deep-dive investigations into activities by Trump or his cabinet.

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Article by Sherry Chen