When it comes to domestic politics, Donald Trump tends to focus much of his fury at his political opposition — the president has, for example, recently described Democrats as “evil” — but he still occasionally lashes out at his fellow Republicans. Indeed, House Republicans such as Thomas Massie, and Senate Republicans such as Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell, are frequent Trump targets.
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, however, tends to be closely aligned with the White House and even makes regular appearances in conservative media where the senator eagerly carries water for the president. So why did Trump direct his ire at the Missouri lawmaker this week? It’s all because of a single piece of legislation. NBC News reported:
A bipartisan group of senators announced a deal Wednesday on a congressional stock trading ban aimed at preventing members from profiting from insider knowledge. Sens. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., Gary Peters, D-Mich., Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., announced their legislative proposal, dubbed the ETHICS Act, on Capitol Hill.
The relevance of the underlying issue is tough to overlook. In recent years, there have been a great many controversies surrounding members of Congress who’ve made well timed and lucrative stock trades, raising legal and ethical concerns, while exacerbating public concerns about routine corruption on Capitol Hill.
There are some limits currently in place, but the bipartisan ETHICS Act intends to add teeth to the status quo. NBC News’ report added that the proposed legislation “would bar lawmakers from buying stocks and other covered investments and prevent members from selling stocks 90 days after the bill is enacted,” and impose similar restrictions on members’ spouses and dependent children.
The penalties for violations, the report added, “would be either the officials’ monthly salaries or 10% of the value of the assets in violation of the law, whichever is greater.”
Not surprisingly, the reform effort has generated some pushback from predictable corners. Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida called the entire endeavor “disgusting,” adding that he believes proponents are trying to “attack people because they make money.”
It’s not easy to miss the point of a bill this badly.
But Scott wasn’t alone. Trump, just a couple of hours after saying he likes the bipartisan bill “conceptually,” published an item to his social media platform in which he questioned whether Hawley is a “real” Republican, accused him of being a Democratic “pawn” and labeled Hawley “a second-tier senator.”
It’s difficult to say with confidence why Trump was so outraged, given that the bill wouldn’t make much of a difference to him personally. As a Politico report noted:
Hawley, who reiterated his ‘love’ for the president, emphasized that Trump is not covered by the bill. Indeed, while the stock trading ban would go into effect for the executive and legislative branch elected officials immediately, Trump would not be required to divest his holdings for the remainder of his term.
The bipartisan bill narrowly cleared the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee this week, though nearly all of the panel’s GOP members voted against it. The legislation’s future remains uncertain, though Hawley will presumably let the president know that the reform effort won’t hurt him directly. Watch this space.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
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