Donald Trump Jr. said Thursday that evidence of a “rigged system” was on full display this week soon after retail investors sent GameStop stock soaring.
Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade (owned by the former) and Robinhood all moved to restrict transactions after members of the Reddit thread r/WallStreetBeats threw Wall Street power players for a costly loop.
“It took less than a day for big tech, big government and the corporate media to spring into action and begin colluding to protect their hedge fund buddies on Wall Street,” Mr. Trump tweeted Thursday. “This is what a rigged system looks like, folks! #RobinHood #RedditArmy #GME #GMEtothemoon.
His comments came less than 24 hours after an op-ed by CNN’s Chris Cillizza, which forwarded the premise that “Trumpism” inspired the GameStop stock buy.
“There is no real point beyond showing up the pros — proving to them that they aren’t as smart as they think they are and that they don’t have the ability to control everything,” Mr. Cillizza wrote Wednesday. “Which, again, has its roots in Trumpism. The entire notion of Trump’s candidacy and presidency was to stick it to the elites. And then, well, uh, there wasn’t really a plan beyond that. The screwjob was the point.”
A TD Ameritrade spokesperson defended its decision in the face of “an unprecedented market environment.”
“We have made what we believe to be prudent and appropriate decisions to place some limits on certain transactions for certain securities,” the spokesperson told The Washington Examiner. “It is not uncommon for us to make such decisions, which we consider on an individual basis, in the interest of mitigating risk.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki also vowed that “the first female treasury secretary” would have the GameStock controversy on her radar.
“Our team is, of course, our economic team, including Secretary [Janet] Yellen and others, are monitoring the situation,” Ms. Psaki said Wednesday.
“I wish the SEC had as much of an issue with Insider Trading as they seem to have with Outsider Trading,” Mr. Trump added Thursday.
It took less than a day for big tech, big government and the corporate media to spring into action and begin colluding to protect their hedge fund buddies on Wall Street. This is what a rigged system looks like, folks! #RobinHood #RedditArmy #GME #GMEtothemoon https://t.co/UhrwGHCjng
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 28, 2021
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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