Morning Joe aghast Trump is trading more stocks than all of Congress

"Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough stopped the morning headlines read during the show Wednesday after a Bloomberg report revealed that President Donald Trump has made 28,700 stock trades up until the end of June.

“Wait! Wait a second. Can you say that again? I’m confused,” Scarborough asked.

“There’s 535 of them!” said John Heilemann, combining the House and Senate membership.

“Are you saying one person has made more – the guy constantly attacked Nancy Pelosi – her husband — [for] making stock trades. This person has made more stock trades than every member of Congress combined?” asked the former Republican congressman.

As co-host Mika Brzezinski read through the history, Scarborough chimed in, "That's not draining the swamp." It prompted a slight chuckle from his co-host.

Trump's stock trades compare with 22,000 trades from all of the members of the House and Senate. When Brzezinski read that Trump has made over 28,000 trades, Scarborough lamented, "Oh, come on."

Scarborough said that most Americans likely agree with him "that if you're in Congress, you should not be trading stock."

Republicans are pushing a "ban" on member stock trading, but it excludes the White House, earning Trump's wholehearted support.

Trump claimed, unironically, "lawmakers should not profit from insider information."

Scarborough asked Willie Geist how many times Trump has profited off of insider information.

Geist laughed, saying, "28,000 times."

"He'll invite people over to the White House. He'll talk about how great their company is, like after he's bought their stock," Scarborough said.

Geist noted that it isn't merely Trump; his family has benefited significantly. "And he's made morethan $2 billion in this termsince he arrived a year and a half ago."

Jonathan Lemire noted that it isn't merely Trump and his family; Howard Lutnick and his family continue to profit off of his public service. So have Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and her son. It equals "billions, at least," he said.

"I was doing some doing some math here as you were reading the story. I mean, it's 1,600 a month. It works out to nearly 60 stock trades a day every day since he has taken office. Sixty stock trades!" Lemire added.

It wasn't that long ago that President Donald Trump posted an AI photo of himself appearing as though he was a day-trader with several monitors on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.

The Bulwark's publisher, Sarah Longwell, said that in her focus groups, corruption is among the top three most important issues to voters.

Ethics watchdogs called it a "volcano of corruption" under Trump's leadership.

Heilemann cited the recent New Yorker piece about Jared Kushner by Dexter Filkins.

He wrote that Kushner "represents a new kind of Washington figure, for whom public office serves as a means to extraordinary wealth. In the past two years, an array of people linked to the White House — including Witkoff’s sons, the cryptocurrency adviser David Sacks, and other members of the Trump family — have used their official positions to bring in billions of dollars for themselves."

One American official who served in the Middle East told Filkins, “I know all these guys. They go into these meetings, and they are doing business right alongside their diplomacy. ‘O.K., enough about the ceasefire. We have this hotel we want to build.’ That’s the kind of foreign policy America has now.”

Heilemann said that's what Trump's presidency is.

Axios founder Mike Allen said this is what Democrats will focus on if they regain control of Congress in the midterms.

A recent Gallup poll showed that 89 percent of Americans say "government corruption" is now widespread, and all parties agree.