Don’t fret, Josh Hawley. It’s easy to make Trump love you again | Opinion
Josh Hawley must have thought he had a sure thing. His Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments Act (get it — PELOSI?) made it out of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on Wednesday. The legislation would ban members of Congress, vice presidents and presidents from trading individual stocks.
“The American people are sending us a clear message,” Hawley said, correctly reading the room. We all remember when a bipartisan group of senators sold off vulnerable holdings after a closed-door 2020 meeting as the coronavirus pandemic and the shutdowns were about to change life as we knew it. It certainly looked like insider trading at the highest levels of government — and banning it is one of the most obvious things Missouri’s senior senator could back in his crusade to turn the Grand Old Party into one for the people. And naming the bill after Nancy Pelosi — an avid and wealthy trader married to a venture capitalist — was the cherry on top.
He clearly didn’t run it by the president first. “Very much like SABOTAGE!” Donald Trump rage-posted on his Truth Social platform, writing that Hawley, “who I got elected TWICE,” is being used as a “pawn” by Democrats. Trump finished off with the insult that must have hurt the most, calling Hawley “a second-tier Senator.”
This marks the second time in just a couple of months that Hawley has drawn the ire of his party’s leaders. He made waves in May when he penned a commentary in the GOP’s hated New York Times under a simple headline: “Josh Hawley: Don’t Cut Medicaid.” In it, the banker’s son targeted his party’s “Wall Street wing” and its deep cuts to important social programs for the working poor in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill. He rightly warned that more than 1 million of the Missourians he represents would be harmed by the unnecessary slashing, calling it “morally wrong and politically suicidal.”
Strong words. But a month later, he took them out of his own mouth and voted for Trump’s bill anyway. He promised to amend the law, you see. We’ll all be waiting with bated breath for how that turns out.
Washington, D.C., has never been a town for the courage of anyone’s convictions. We don’t expect politicians to keep their word, because those of us who aren’t near the top of the donors list have watched the general population’s concerns pushed to the bottom of the to-do list for a lifetime. And one of Trump’s great geniuses is his ability to regain power after demonstrably not delivering on any of his first-term promises to the working voter. It’s 2025, and we still don’t have the massive new manufacturing sector he promised. His six-week paid leave never materialized. Grocery prices are still high. And despite some people’s optimism about the strength of the economy, Trump’s disastrously wrongheaded and haphazardly implemented tariffs haven’t even kicked in yet. Friday’s disappointing jobs reports and stock market plunge didn’t help things.
But Hawley doesn’t really have anything to worry about, despite Trump’s fit of pique this week. Because as long as you’re still on his team, this president doesn’t hold grudges. In 2018, he raged against “Sloppy Steve Bannon,” who “has been dumped like a dog by almost everyone” — but Bannon is back in Trump’s ear today. He denounces authors’ and reporters’ work as “FAKE,” then picks up the phone to leak them juicy new tidbits. I mean, a man who called Trump an “idiot” and mused whether he’s “America’s Hitler” now serves as his vice president.
Trump, who once effusively praised Hillary Clinton as “a good woman and a great woman,” doesn’t cling tightly to positions, so I’ve always thought Barack Obama made a big mistake by not befriending him after his first inauguration. I believe Obama could have sweet-talked Trump into realizing he had an opportunity to take on that Wall Steet wing himself by pivoting to genuinely populist positions. Because he has such an iron grip on his base, he could ironically have become the president to strong-arm the actual ruling class — big business — into fixing our disastrous health insurance system, and finally doing something about gun violence. As much as he loves his grudges, Trump loves to be loved even more.
So don’t worry, Sen. Hawley. You can get back in Trump’s good graces. Hawley already told Fox News’ Jesse Watters that the two had a “good chat” after the vote. With this most transactional president, no bridge is ever burned. Come up with a new piece of doomed show legislation, cute-name it the TRUMP Act, and I bet you’ll be back up to first-tier status in no time.
This story was originally published July 31, 2025 at 12:23 PM.
