Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) bought tens of thousands of dollars of stock in a defense contractor after repeatedly pushing President Donald Trump to increase Pentagon spending, according to a Wednesday Daily Beast report.
Inhofe reportedly dumped the stocks after being contacted by the Daily Beast about the story.
Though it seems Inhofe hasn’t broken any laws — news about the budget increase was public at the time of purchase, and the stocks were bought by Inhofe’s third party financial adviser — the move is still ethically murky.
It’s also just plain old bad optics, as Inhofe made the purchase soon after taking over the chairmanship of the Armed Services Committee upon the death of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).
