A U.S. Senator Bought Oil and Defense Stocks Days Before Trump’s Venezuela Invasion

More evidence that members of Congress shouldn't be trading stock.

On December 29, 2025, just five days before the Trump Administration invaded Venezuela, killed at least 32 people, and captured Nicolas Maduro, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) purchased between $15,000 and 50,000 worth of stock in the oil companies Chevron and Conoco Phillips. He also bought stock in Raytheon, a major defense contractor.

On the morning of January 3rd, flanked by Administration officials Stephen Miller, Pete Hegseth, and Marco Rubio, during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago, President Trump said that the United States would now “run” the country of Venezuela: “We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest in anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars … and start making money for the country.” Share prices for Chevron, Conoco Phillips, and Raytheon were all up when markets opened that Monday.

Ten days later, during an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Senator Mullin directly stated his belief that the U.S. military invasion would benefit the shareholders of major US oil companies. “When you start looking at Venezuela, if they stabilize, most of these majors, including Exxon, [are] going to run there,” Mullin told Sorkin. “We’ve had relationships, I mean, look at Chevron. … Once that stabilizes, every major company is going to be buying to get involved in that area, because there’s a tremendous amount of opportunity for the company and for their shareholders.”

Between December 29th, when Mullin purchased his stocks in Chevron and Conoco Phillips, and today, the share price for Chevron is up around 20% and Conoco Phillips around 18%. The S&P and Nasdaq, in contrast, are down. So, it looks like Mullin made a great purchase for his portfolio.

Was it just a coincidence that Mullin, a confidant of Trump and a member of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, decided to buy stock in U.S. oil companies mere days before the Trump Administration led a military campaign that Mullin assumed would benefit the shareholders of those very companies? It’s always possible, of course, that Mullin did not receive special information as a result of his congressional committee membership or his personal relationship with Trump, even though he’s visited with Trump in the Oval Office.

At the same time, it’s reasonable to wonder if Mullins did have more information than the public. When members of Congress trade stocks, there’s always the looming possibility that they’re trading – and profiting – on insider information they’ve learned during confidential briefings or their connections with high-ranking officials and lobbyists. These aren’t minor conflicts of interest. According to Common Cause, in 2025, members of Congress and their spouses and dependents executed at least 13,300 trades worth $635.6 million.

There are numerous obvious problems with Congress owning all those billions in company stock (beyond the most evident fact that their wealth doesn’t reflect that of the American people). Mullin has vigorously supported the Trump Administration’s military action in the Caribbean and in Venezuela. And now we know that he’s personally profited from it.

What if, in a hypothetical scenario, Trump had followed the Constitution and asked for Congressional approval for the invasion of Venezuela? Mullin and many other members of Congress would’ve been in a position to approve or stop an act of war that they would personally benefit from. In the last year, according to Capitol Trades, 31 sitting members of Congress have traded roughly $6.67 million in energy stocks.

Look, we don’t even have to choose a hypothetical scenario. Many members of Congress hold stock in industries like Big Pharma and Big Tech that they’re supposed to be regulating in their assigned committees. According to Capitol Trades, many of the stocks Mullin owned as of January 2025 were related to industries overseen by the Senate committees he sits on. So, he’s literally bought into the industries that he’s supposed to be regulating.

That’s true of other members of Congress as well. In 2024, members of Congress traded high volumes of stock in tech giants like Alphabet Inc., Apple, and Meta – all of which were simultaneously facing major anti-trust lawsuits brought by federal watchdogs. Last year, members of Congress also traded a collective $15.8 million worth of NVIDIA Corp. stock and $1.1 million of Palantir stock. Both companies sell products that supply ICE with its surveillance technology, and Congress was simultaneously voting on the Republican mega-bill that dramatically expanded funding for ICE operations.

Here’s another example: According to Capitol Trades, in the last year, 59 members of Congress have traded $25.3 million worth in healthcare industry stock, while Republicans included major cuts to Medicaid in that same Republican mega-bill. As Democracy News covered previously, Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan (PA-8) dumped stocks in Medicaid providers valued at roughly $130,000 a week before voting to significantly cut Medicaid as part of the Republicans’ mega-bill.

Representative Lisa McClain (MI-9) is also facing accusations of insider trading. Her husband bought between $100,000 and $250,000 worth of stock in Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, just before the Pentagon announced its plans to integrate the company’s products into its Department of Defense systems. McClain claims that her husband didn’t use her insider information when deciding to make the purchase. McClain sits on the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Cyber, Information Technologies, and Innovation, which oversees issues like the tech used for national security. So, even if her husband didn’t buy the stock with insider information, her family’s wealth is directly connected to a company she’s supposed to be helping to regulate.

Then there’s another layer of this corruption hiding in plain sight: Some members of Congress own stock in companies and industries that are actively donating to them – as well as lobbying them on specific legislation. The oil and gas industry is Mullin’s biggest industry donor, for example. In 2024, he received $482,516 from the oil and gas industry, including Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Exxon. And then he bought stock in oil and gas companies.

The American people understand that it’s wrong for sitting members of Congress to trade stock. 86% of Americans support Congressional stock trading bans. In a country divided by so much else, that’s a staggering number. The fact that our elected officials – theoretically elected to do right by us, not billionaires, major corporations, or their own stock portfolios – haven’t passed legislation that would be so overwhelmingly popular is itself proof that we are living in an oligarchy.

None of this will change until we elect leaders who are willing to break the cycle and get Big Money out of politics. End Citizens United has an Unrig Washington program with over 140 elected officials and candidates across the country who have vowed to support a Congressional stock trading ban, refuse corporate PAC money, and crack down on dark money. The coming midterms will be a referendum on a broken system, and we can all support candidates whose views reflect the overwhelming majority of Americans who want Congress to ban its members from trading stocks.