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As markets gyrated due to Trump tariff moves, Congressman Jared Moskowitz was buying and selling stocks

Anthony Man, South Florida Sun Sentinel on

Published in News & Features

As the stock market plunged in reaction to the draconian tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump — before the president backed down and the market soared — Congressman Jared Moskowitz was buying.

On April 7, the Florida Democrat bought 23 stocks, worth between $23,023 and $345,000. He also sold two stocks, worth between $2,002 and $30,000, on that day. It was his most active trading day in April, a month in which he had 35 transactions, according to a periodic transaction report he filed with the Clerk of the House.

Reports show he had more transactions on that one day than during any month of the first quarter.

Congressional financial disclosure forms require information in broad ranges, so it’s impossible to know how much Moskowitz or any other member of Congress bought and sold.

There’s no indication he did anything untoward or was anything more than a savvy investor. But stock trades by members of Congress, which must be disclosed after the fact, often draw attention. And a spokesperson for the House Republican campaign organization, Maureen O’Toole, asserted that the representative “is in Congress to get attention and line his own pockets, not serve Floridians.”

Moskowitz is apparently the only Broward or Palm Beach County member of Congress who reported buying or selling during that volatile period early in April. Members of Congress have to disclose their transitions within 30 to 45 days, and as of Friday morning, none of the other local lawmakers had done so.

In this case, Moskowitz was buying on April 7, according to a financial disclosure he filed with the Clerk of the House and first reported by Business Insider. That’s the day that Trump threatened to add more tariffs on China and said he wouldn’t pause “Liberation Day” tariffs, sending markets tumbling (policies which were later reversed).

Those proved to be timely buys, because the market has generally recovered most of the losses incurred that month.

A Moskowitz spokesperson said the congressman wasn’t the one doing the trading. “These trades were managed by an outside third-party financial advisor, as all of the congressman’s trades are. He is not involved in them,” the spokesperson said via email.

Also, records show, Moskowitz did not do what ProPublica, the nonprofit investigative news organization, reported Thursday that other government officials did.

“More than a dozen high-ranking executive branch officials and congressional aides have made well-timed trades since Trump took office in January, most of them selling stock before the market plunged amid fears that Trump’s tariffs would set off a global trade war,” ProPublica reported. “All of the trades came shortly before a significant government announcement or development that could influence stock prices.”

Trump’s imposition of taxes on imports, his pausing some, imposing others and then relaxing many caused market turmoil. It looks as if Moskowitz was “buying the dip,” in other words buying stocks when the market is down, with confidence that ultimately the share prices will go up.

A review of period transaction reports filed so far this year with the Clerk of the House shows that the transactions reported in April didn’t represent Moskowitz rushing into the stock market to take advantage of tariff-related turbulence.

In March, he reported 16 transactions (six sales and 10 buys) for himself or his dependent children. In February he reported one sale. In January he reported 18 transactions (nine sales and nine buys).

The National Republican Congressional Committee, the party organization dedicated to electing Republicans, has highlighted Moskowitz’s trades and suggesting — but not flat-out declaring — that they might be problematic. “When stock prices were low due to Trump’s tariff’s announcement — Moskowitz conveniently bought between $20,000 and $300,000 worth of stocks,” the Republican congressional committee said in a statement.

Moskowitz’s two congressional wins, in 2020 and 2024 in the Broward-Palm Beach County 23d Congressional District, were the two closest U.S. House races in Florida. The NRCC ignored the district both times, but for 2026 it has placed Moskowitz on the list of Democratic incumbents it is targeting for defeat.

 

The disclosure report shows Moskowitz bought a range of technology, pharmaceutical, and industrial stocks.

Among the April 7 stock purchases were Amazon, Caterpillar, Lockheed Martin, NVIDIA Oracle, Pepsico, Sherwin Williams and Visa. On that day he sold Lincoln Electric Holdings and NextEra Energy. (NextEra is the parent company of the much better known Florida Power & Light Co.)

On April 10, he sold between $20,006 and $125,000 of stock in the investment bank Goldman Sachs and in Starbucks for himself and his dependent children.

Two years ago, another Moskowitz stock trade attracted attention.

As Silicon Valley Bank was imploding, with depositors lining up to make withdrawals, its stock value collapsing and people wondering if another global financial crisis was emerging, Moskowitz was among U.S. investors with bank stock holdings who decided to sell.

On March 10, 2023, he sold Seacoast Banking Corp. of Florida stock worth between $65,002 and $150,000 from accounts held in trust for his young children. On the next trading day Seacoast shares fell 19.7%.

Silicon Valley Bank and Seacoast didn’t have a financial relationship. Selling the stock was suggested by his financial adviser, Moskowitz said at the time.

Moskowitz is among the current cosponsors of bipartisan legislation that would require members of Congress, their spouses and dependent children to divest themselves of individual stock holdings or move their investments into a qualified blind trust while in office. The idea is to prevent members of Congress from profiting from their access to nonpublic information.

In 2023, Moskowitz said he supported the current disclosure process, but not a prohibition. He said the current system provides transparency, explaining then that “everything happens in the sunshine.”

One of his stock purchases this year, on April 7, was $1,001 to $15,000 in TJX Cos., the parent of discount clothing retailers TJ Maxx and Marshalls.

Moskowitz and Marshalls have been in the news together before. In May 2023, six months after he was elected, a Moskowitz for Congress T-shirt ended up for sale on a rack in a Marshalls in Coral Springs, in his congressional district.

It was discovered there by a friend of the congressman’s wife. Someone, evidently, had returned the shirt claiming to have bought it at the store, and it was then placed on the sales floor with a price tag of $8.99.

Moskowitz said at the time, with tongue in check, he was offended by the low price, writing on social media that the store had reduced the value of his life’s work to less than $9.

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©2025 South Florida Sun Sentinel. Visit at sun-sentinel.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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