He Promised to Ban Stock Trades in Congress… Then Out-Traded Buffett’s Last 50 Years in 6 Months

You ever notice how the people who lecture us the loudest about morality, ethics, and “doing the right thing” usually end up being the same ones caught doing something sketchy behind the scenes? It’s like being scolded for drinking soda by your old college buddy who has a Bud Light IV drip.

Or watching Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates take separate private jets to a climate change conference. Yeah, two of the richest guys on Earth burned enough jet fuel to melt the polar caps… all so they could shake hands and talk about saving the planet. (Can’t make this stuff up. One more of those “carbon-neutral yacht” weekends and we’ll all be shopping for beachfront property in Iowa.)

But our latest contestant in the “do as I say” Olympics is none other than freshman Congressman Rob Bresnahan. This guy ran on the “ban congressional stock trading” platform like it was his whole personality. He practically came out of the womb waving a No Insider Trading sign. Wrote an op-ed in the Wilkes-Barre Citizens’ Voice that screamed “I’m here to drain the swamp!” even harder than a Floridian with a gator infestation.

And yet… since taking office in January, Rob has made over 530 stock trades. That’s not a typo. That’s more trades than Dave Portnoy made during his COVID-era day trading meltdown when he decided the stock market “only goes up” (source: trust me bro). In fact, in just the last month, Bresnahan dropped 150+ trades. That’s five a day. While serving in Congress. While sitting on the infrastructure committee. While supposedly working for “the people.” (Unless by “people” he means his financial advisor and Charles Schwab.)

And if you're wondering what he was dabbling in… it’s not just one sleepy ETF or some “set it and forget it” mutual fund. We’re talking a batch of tickers that would make even the greediest Reddit degenerate scared: NVIDIA, Alphabet, Eli Lilly, Exxon, ConocoPhillips, Tesla, Alibaba. The dude's in deep. Oh, and he still hasn’t co-sponsored the congressional stock trading ban bill. But he did introduce his own version called the TRUST Act. Not to be confused with the TRUST in Congress Act.

Now, to be fair (because we like receipts here), Bresnahan says he’s not the one pushing the buttons. His financial advisor does it. He's working on a blind trust. Any day now. (Cue the Jeopardy music.) But let’s just be real: if you tell voters you’re going to ban stock trading in Congress, you probably shouldn’t let your advisor turn your portfolio into a damn pinball machine. It’s like a gym coach telling kids to eat healthy while door-dashing a chili cheese dog in the parking lot.

One ethics watchdog put it perfectly: “He made the choice to run for Congress. He has the choice to not be engaged in the stock market.” And that’s the crux of it. We’re not mad he trades stocks. We’re mad he traded trust for trades. In politics, hypocrisy is currency. And right now, Rob’s portfolio isn’t the only thing that’s active… so is the BS detector of everyone in America. So hey Rob… if you’re banning Nancy from doing it, maybe don’t be the one asking your intern how to short a SPAC.

At the time of publishing this article, Stock.News has positions in Alphabet, Exxon, and Tesla as mentioned in the article.