CNBC host Jim Cramer was at a serious loss for words Monday after one of his co-workers noted just how many stock trades President Donald Trump made during the first three months of the year.
During a segment on “Squawk On The Street,” co-hosts Carl Quintanilla and David Faber were saying favorable things about Intel, which gave the U.S. government a 10% stake last August.
After Cramer started to suggest the government could sell some of its shares to benefit the American people, Quintanilla quickly noted that “according to the filings, the president’s been trading some Intel in the quarter, yeah.”
Cramer didn’t know how to react to that news and actually sputtered for 10 seconds, trying to formulate a response.
It didn’t help that Quintanilla and Faber teased his stammer, with Faber needling him with “Got nothing to say about that?”
Eventually, Faber rescued Cramer by telling the audience, “All right, don’t worry, we’re not having technical difficulties here everybody, but we gotta go.”
Yes, there’s video, and it’s something to behold.
QUINTANILLA: According to the filings, the president has been trading some Intel in the quarter
JIM CRAMER: Yeah, uh, yeah, hmm
FABER: Got nothing to say?
CRAMER: Uh, uh, yeah, whoa, yeah.
FABER: Don’t worry. We’re not having technical difficulties, but we gotta go pic.twitter.com/N4m6LTX8qT
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 18, 2026
HuffPost reached out to Cramer to find out what caused his sudden stammering, but no one immediately responded.
However, it was recently revealed that Trump has purchased stock in companies he later promoted or ahead of his moves that would benefit those companies.
Last week, he disclosed making at least $220 million in transactions related to major U.S. companies, according to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.
So the prevailing theory on social media was that Cramer was shocked by what looked like Trump’s open insider trading.
OMFG the CNBC anchors were puffing up the value of chipmaker Intel, they brought up Trump doing personal trades in the stock, and Jim Cramer stuttered for 15 seconds straight and then was quiet.
Was Cramer shocked by the corruption or mad Trump was picking better stocks? pic.twitter.com/oCl3ypNids
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) May 18, 2026
WOW — “We’re not having technical difficulties here, but we gotta go.”@jimcramer reduced to an unintelligible stammer as he tries to process the corruption of Trump making mountains of money trading stocks of companies he makes policies to help.
(H/T @matthewstoller) pic.twitter.com/jFlPMmHYIq
— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) May 18, 2026
Ring the bell because for the first time ever: Jim Cramer is stunned silent.
Just like the rest of us, he’s seeing the President commit insider trading right in front of our very eyes. https://t.co/Q4ALdzyOOT
— Governor JB Pritzker (@GovPritzker) May 18, 2026
Cramer here is having what should be the normal reaction to Trump actively insider trading on his own decisions. Just sputtering speechlessness. https://t.co/7lkYBM7K2D
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) May 18, 2026
Martha Stewart did time for one insider tip; Trump is doing it from the Oval Office with the whole U.S. government at his back. That’s not “smart investing,” that’s corruption on steroids.
And it’s not just Intel. Trump and his family are trading tech, energy, and other stocks… https://t.co/1XbqmCTR19
— Human☮🇺🇸🇺🇦🇺🇸🌊 (@4HumanUnity) May 18, 2026
Left utterly speechless. There is NO justification or spin anyone can say in the face of such clear corruption as the president trading stocks of companies he has some form of control over. We are in unprecedented times here. https://t.co/S4Vgn1AxRA
— Chad Brown (@chadbrown94) May 18, 2026
