'Corruption in plain sight': MTG buried for buying Tesla stock as DOGE committee chair

Newly released financial disclosures from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) show that she bought numerous blue chip tech industry stocks, including Alphabet, Amazon, Meta (parent company of Facebook and Instagram) and Tesla.

Greene's purchase of Tesla stock is particularly noteworthy, as she was recently named chair of the House Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) subcommittee. Forbes investigative reporter Zach Everson combed through Greene's disclosure forms and found that she purchased between $4,000 and $60,000 of Tesla stock on January 8 (financial disclosure forms only require ranges, rather than exact amounts).

On Bluesky, Democratic strategist and ad maker Greg Pinelo referred to Greene's stock purchase as "corruption in plain sight," given that she chairs the subcommittee that pertains to Tesla CEO Elon Musk's crusade to drastically slash federal spending. The Hill reported that Greene has strongly defended Musk's actions, and called a federal judge's ruling blocking DOGE representatives from accessing the Treasury Department's payment systems "absurd."

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"I've been reading federal ethics laws recently, and this is a VERY CLEAR VIOLATION," Mother Jones senior editor Michael Mechanic wrote on Bluesky.

Others noted that Greene has likely lost money on her investment, given Tesla's middling performance in the markets over the last month. Former Hill staffer Josh Zembik observed that while Tesla traded as high as $402.50 per share on the day of her purchase, it has since dropped to less than $356 per share, meaning her investment was "down anywhere from 8% to 12%." CNBC's Carl Quintanilla narrowed it down, finding that if Greene bought Tesla stock on January 8, her investment has currently lost approximately 11% of its value already.

"Tell her to go all in," wrote Alexandrea Townsend, who is the assistant director of federal government affairs for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union. "She's even dumber than I previously thought."

Investor Tom Hearden of Skylands Capital sarcastically praised Greene's Tesla stock purchase on Bluesky. He wrote "hot damn, finally some good news," before reminding his followers that Greene is "the same moron who paid $94/share for $DJT," referring to President Donald Trump's media company that owns his Truth Social platform. NBC reported last year that the Georgia Republican bought shares of Digital World Acquisition Corp. (the Special Purpose Acquisition Company, or SPAC, that facilitated $DJT going public) on the day it opened for trading at more than $118 per share. Greene has not said whether she sold the stock or held onto it.

Click here to read Forbes' full report about Greene's financial disclosures.