WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump spoke with Sen. Josh Hawley about a Senate measure that would ban trading and ownership of stocks and certain other assets by lawmakers, the president and vice president and their spouses and dependent children shortly after he panned the Missouri Republican.

“The president has spoken to Sen. Hawley, who called him and the president took that call, as the president said in the Roosevelt Room yesterday,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday. “Conceptually, he, of course, supports the idea of ensuring that members of Congress and United States senators who are here for public service cannot enrich themselves.”

Hawley authored the measure, which the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved Wednesday on a tight 8-7 vote, with Hawley joining Democrats to advance it. The panel tacked on a Hawley substitute amendment that extended the trading prohibitions to the president and vice president.

That amendment would allow officials elected before the date of enactment until the conclusion of their current terms to divest assets. Still, Trump objected to the presidential and vice presidential language after initially telling reporters during a Roosevelt Room bill signing event that he supported the bill “conceptually.”

A short time later, he ripped into Hawley on social media.

“The Democrats, because of our tremendous ACHIEVEMENTS and SUCCESS, have been trying to ‘Target’ me for a long period of time, and they’re using Josh Hawley, who I got elected TWICE, as a pawn to help them,” the president wrote. “I don’t think real Republicans want to see their President, who has had unprecedented success, TARGETED, because of the ‘whims’ of a second-tier Senator named Josh Hawley!”

Leavitt signaled that Trump was interested in putting his fingerprints on the legislation — notably, she did not issue a verbal veto threat from the lectern.

“As for the mechanics of the legislation and how it will move forward, the White House continues to be in discussions with our friends on Capitol Hill,” she said.

Hawley told Fox News on Wednesday evening that he and Trump “had a good chat” and indicated there was a misunderstanding about what the legislation would and would not force the occupant of the Oval Office to do with his assets.

A major misconception was that Trump would be forced to sell his Mar-a-Lago club in South Florida, home of his official personal residence, and other assets, Hawley said.

“Not the case at all,” he told the network, saying Trump during their phone call “reiterated to me he wants to see a ban on stock trading by people like Nancy Pelosi and members of Congress, which is what we passed.”

Trump and Republican lawmakers have long criticized Pelosi, claiming that the former speaker and her husband benefited massively from insider information that she used to inform stock trades. In fact, the original version of the Homeland panel’s bill applied only to lawmakers and was titled the PELOSI Act.

Leavitt renewed that criticism of Pelosi on Thursday when asked about the stock trading legislation.

“And the reason that this idea to put a ban on stock trading for members of Congress is even a thing is because of Nancy Pelosi. I mean she is … rightfully criticized because she makes, I think, $174,000 a year, yet she has a net worth of approximately $413 million,” Leavitt said.

“This was a fascinating statistic to me,” Leavitt contended of Pelosi’s stock portfolio, claiming it “grew 70% in one year in 2024.”

“So, I think the president stands with the American people on this. He doesn’t want to see people like Nancy Pelosi enriching themselves off of public service and ripping off their constituents in the process,” she said.

Pelosi’s husband, Paul, is a wealthy businessman who owns San Francisco-based Financial Leasing Services Inc., a real estate and venture capital investment company.

In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, the former speaker called the allegations “ridiculous” and said her husband’s investments “isn’t anything to do with anything insider.”

“But the president has his own exposure so he’s always projecting,” the California Democrat told host Jake Tapper. “And let’s not give him any more time on that, please.”

In a Wednesday statement, Pelosi endorsed the Senate legislation.

“We must have strong transparency, robust accountability and tough enforcement for financial conduct in office because the American people deserve confidence that their elected leaders are serving the public interest — not their personal portfolios,” she said. “If legislation is advanced to help restore trust in government and ensure that those in power are held to the highest ethical standards, then I am proud to support it — no matter what they decide to name it.”

(Paul M. Krawzak contributed to this report.)

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