There are two Tim Moores, and they disagree with each other about the American economy.

The public one goes on camera and tells North Carolina that Trump's agenda is working. In the summer of 2025, talking about the tax cuts in Trump's budget bill, he said they were "going to spur the economy, which, by the way, we are already seeing happen already." His summary: "America is back."

The private one was quietly moving up to $245,000 into a fund that only makes money when American companies lose value.

The Fund

NOTUS reporter Dave Levinthal laid it out on September 5, 2025. Between late June and late August of that year, Moore poured as much as $245,000 into the Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares fund.

This is not a normal investment. It's an inverse, leveraged fund tied to the Russell 2000 — the index of small American companies. In the fund's own words, it "will lose money when the value of the index rises." It gains when the index falls. And the "3X" means it moves three times as hard in either direction.

You do not buy this by accident. You do not buy it as part of a diversified retirement plan. You buy it because you think small American businesses are about to get hammered, and you want to make money when they do.

Two of his purchases:

• August 25, 2025 — $50,001 to $100,000
• August 28, 2025 — $15,001 to $50,000

He Used to Bet the Other Way

The timing is the part that should bother people in the 14th District.

From early 2025 until mid-July, Moore was betting on the economy — moving hundreds of thousands of dollars into the Direxion Daily Small Cap Bull 3X Shares fund, the mirror image of the bear fund. Then he stopped. According to congressional disclosure records, he hasn't gone back to the bull fund since.

So sometime around mid-July 2025, Tim Moore's money changed its mind about where the American economy was headed.

Tim Moore's mouth did not. He kept telling constituents the boom was underway.

He Sits on the Committee That Polices This

Moore is vice chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. That is the panel whose job is to investigate misconduct in the financial industry.

Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette of the Project on Government Oversight told NOTUS he didn't fault anyone for expecting trouble ahead — "Given uncertainty around tariffs and the general volatility of the White House, I can't say I blame anyone for predicting economic troubles ahead." His objection was more basic:

"Members of Congress shouldn't be trading stocks and other similar assets in the first place, full stop."

Moore's office did not respond to NOTUS by phone or email.

The Rest of the Trading Record

The bear fund isn't an isolated bet. It's one entry in a very active year.

In June 2025, Fortune reported that Moore failed to properly disclose stock purchases worth hundreds of thousands of dollars made around Trump's April 2025 "Liberation Day" tariff announcement — the announcement that moved every market in the country. Under the STOCK Act, members have 45 days to report a trade. He blew the deadline. He is one of 45 Republicans on this site who broke that law.

He also bought Intel stock in late July 2025, weeks before the Trump administration announced on August 22 that the federal government was taking a stake in the company. Intel's share price jumped on the news. Moore's spokesperson said he had sold his entire Intel position before the announcement and hasn't held it since.

And in the summer of 2025, shortly after voting for the budget bill that cut roughly $1 trillion from Medicaid, he bought stock in Centene and UnitedHealth — two companies that make money administering Medicaid plans. His office denied insider trading.

What He Was Telling His Constituents Instead

This is what makes it more than a portfolio story.

While Moore's money was positioned for a downturn in small-cap American companies, North Carolina was living one. The state lost 7,200 manufacturing jobs in 2025. Daimler Truck laid off 573 workers at its Mount Holly plant, citing the economic uncertainty that tariffs created. The state's furniture industry, centered on the High Point Market, was staring down tariffs of 25% to 50%.

Moore's advice to constituents facing tariff-driven prices was that if tariffs create jobs, "maybe we ought to pay a little more."

He asked them to absorb the pain and believe the boom was coming. He put his own money on the opposite outcome.

That's the whole story of Tim Moore in one trade. He is not confused about which way things are going. He just isn't telling you — the same instinct that shows up in how he handled a piece of property he owned as Speaker, and in how he blocked Medicaid expansion for a decade and then took a bow for it.

We deserve better.

Source

• N.C. Rep. Tim Moore Is Betting Against Trump's Economy — Dave Levinthal, NOTUS, September 5, 2025.