After being suspected of "insider trading," people around Trump began to "exonerate" him.

Vance just gave a public endorsement of his boss's innocence during a White House press briefing, rebutting a journalist's question challenging whether Trump was trading stocks from his office. He expressed his loyalty to his leader:

"Come on, man, can you please be more objective when asking questions... First of all, the president does not sit in the Oval Office, using his Robinhood account on a computer to trade stocks. That’s absurd."

He has independent financial advisors managing his funds. He is a wealthy individual who achieved success in business. He doesn’t personally execute these stock trades, yet your question implies otherwise—even if not explicitly stated. Any rational person hearing this question would assume the president is sitting there doing these trades. He isn’t.

Secondly, you're right. I strongly support banning members of Congress from trading stocks—so too should the president. We all believe no one should use inside information gained through public office to trade stocks. We must prohibit such behavior and outlaw such practices. In my view, leading by example means making it illegal—and that’s exactly what the president advocates."

Not long after speaking, Trump’s second son, Eric, expressed gratitude to Vance:

"The media is so dishonest... President Trump’s investment holdings are entirely held in fully discretionary accounts managed by independent third-party financial institutions.

These institutions hold sole and exclusive authority over all investment decisions, including asset allocation, trading, rebalancing, and portfolio management.

Investment execution and allocation are carried out entirely based on automated, model-driven investment portfolios and direct indexing strategies managed by these firms.

President Trump, his family, or The Trump Organization play absolutely no role in selecting, guiding, approving, influencing, or soliciting specific investments.

They receive no advance notice of trades (They receive no advance notice of trades), cannot alter or override the managers’ strategies or models, nor do they offer any input on investment decisions or portfolio operations.

This structure was specifically designed to maintain a clear separation between the president and independent third-party investment managers, and to avoid even the appearance of any potential conflict of interest."

It sounds utterly implausible that the president or his family or company used insider information to place trades ahead of time.

If such information and decisions were shared with his inner circle in advance, they would also make huge profits—this would be called "profiting from insider advantage."

Friends who made big fortunes would naturally feel obliged to repay those who provided them with the information.

Neither Vance nor Eric touched on this crucial point.

Original article: toutiao.com/article/1865654058258432/

Disclaimer: This article represents the personal views of the author