John,
 
I hope you had a great holiday season spent with family, friends, and loved ones. This past year was incredibly hectic and at times exhausting, for all of us. But America enters 2025 with a lot of promise. President Trump will be returning to the White House with a Republican majority in Congress to help him undo the damage done to our country by Joe Biden. It’s going to be a busy year, but I am confident that we will make serious headway on the important issues facing American families - tackling the Mexican drug cartels, securing our southern border, getting our economy back on track, and restoring peace through American strength around the world. 

I’m looking forward to this year, as it is the first time since I was elected to Congress that Republicans have control of the White House, Senate, and House. 

But I thought it was worth starting this year by addressing my recent back and forth on social media with people who spread lies about me. So here it goes. 

First, an explanation for why I even bother to do this: Primarily, it’s because you deserve to hear from me about serious allegations. You deserve the truth, straight from me. 

You know by now that I do not shy away from these public fights. It is in my nature to push back forcefully when I am being lied about in such a public way, no matter who is spreading the lie. 

Do I want to be spending my time doing this? Of course not. I would rather be spending my time on the issues that matter to me and to the country - coming up with a national strategy to combat the Mexican drug cartels, helping our veterans access the treatment they need to stop the unacceptable rate of veteran suicide, and making sure our country is secure from our foreign enemies. I would rather spend Christmas break relaxing with my daughter than worrying why thousands of people believe lies told by anonymous accounts on X. Nevertheless, people who profit off of social media engagement have discovered using my name in a lie gets them a lot of engagement and a lot of money. So they do it constantly. It is a feedback loop fed by money and outrage, which is the nature of politics these days, unfortunately.

But every time one of these lies gains traction on social media, I hear from people like you who reach out to me directly asking whether a specific allegation is true. When I respond by saying of course it isn’t true, you usually ask me why I’m not pushing back. So, that’s exactly what I do. Your support is invaluable to me, and I feel that my supporters are being slandered whenever I am being slandered online with no response. 

Each of these allegations - insider trading, spearheading efforts to get a congressional pay raise, me making millions off of my public service - all of it is entirely false. Here’s the truth. 

No, I have never engaged in “insider trading”

Yes, I have made investments in the stock market since I’ve been in Congress. It is not something I started when I was elected; it’s something that I’ve done since I was a private citizen - just like anyone allowed to save money and invest it for their future -  and it is much less glamorous than you think. I have not made millions from the stock market. In fact, I’ve profited around $25,000 TOTAL since 2018. 

Some misleading stories or graphics on social media report a percentage gain, not the monetary value, of my trading volume to make it seem like I am investing millions and getting millions in return. Other misleading stories take the public reporting Members of Congress are required to submit on stock trades and make dishonest interpretations of the report. They do this by inferring the highest possible dollar amount from those reports. Here is what you probably didn’t know: Each report doesn’t have exact values of the stock trade, but rather ranges of investment amounts. We have to click a box in the online reporting. The first range is $1,000 - $15,000 per stock trade. Of course, the stories (and more importantly the headlines) infer the highest possible total from that range. In reality, every time I have made an investment in the stock market it is near the bottom of the range. Right now, my only brokerage account has about $23,000 invested in the stock market TOTAL. It has been around this amount during my entire time in Congress. Shocking, I know, considering how extreme the accusations against me have been. But as you can see, I am not exactly the Wolf of Washington. Quite the opposite. 

Now, to the allegation of “insider trading.” That is a serious allegation. In fact, it's a crime. Let me be clear: I have never once used non-public information from my committee work, legislative work, or congressional investigations to make gains in the stock market. Period. 

And let’s apply some common sense logic: my records are public, which means everyone knows when I buy and sell stocks. This means everyone accusing me of insider trading knows I have only bought stocks ONCE in the last 3 YEARS. It’s hard to “insider trade” if you aren't doing any trading. I buy and hold investments, many of which are not even individual stocks, but ETF’s. That simple fact makes the claims against me all the more malicious. 

I have said publicly, multiple times, that I would vote to ban Members of Congress from trading in stocks. I would be happy to rid ourselves of these BS claims about insider trading. I hope the bill to ban stock trading is one of the first we take up in the new Congress so I can be one of the first to vote for it. 

No, I did not “spearhead the effort behind the scenes” to raise pay for Members of Congress

Before Christmas, there was a heated and public debate surrounding a government funding bill that included a pay raise for Members of Congress. The pay raise wasn’t nearly as much as some online claimed (the raise was actually 3.8%... $6,600 total… not a 40% pay increase as was claimed), but it was a raise nonetheless.

I was accused of “spearheading the effort behind the scenes” to have this pay raise included in the government funding bill. That, of course, was a lie. I never talked to anyone in Republican leadership about the government funding bill itself, much less the pay raise for Members of Congress, and I was listed as a NO on voting for the bill before it was tanked. If I wanted a raise, I would have fought for the funding bill to pass. But I was a no on that bill. 

That lie grew legs from a podcast interview I gave before Thanksgiving, almost a month before the government funding fight. In the podcast, I pointed out that Members of Congress had not gotten a raise in 15 years and it is one of the reasons why much of Congress is populated by uber wealthy individuals. I did not say I would fight for a pay raise. I did not even say that I wanted one. I simply stated a fact - Congress is made up of a lot of rich people, in part, because Members of Congress have not even seen a cost of living increase in their salaries since 2009. 

No, I am not a millionaire nor did I become one since taking office. 

This is the easiest one to debunk. All of my finances are publicly reported. I honestly don’t know where some of the crazy numbers I see online even come from, which makes it hard to explain. We report ranges when reporting assets, so it’s possible that people wrongly assume the highest end of the range, I don’t know. In the end, some people get a kick out of spreading lies, what can I say.

Many Members of Congress can say they are millionaires (and they should not be shamed for that by the way… most of them worked for it, earned it honorably, and that’s the beauty of America!). I am not one of those members. I went straight from military service into Congressional service - not exactly a pathway to earn wealth. I wrote a book that was a best-seller, and it still didn’t make me a millionaire! I live in Atascocita, Texas, which is a middle-class community, not a gated one. I have not “profited” off my service in Congress. I am 40 years old, and my wealth is easily comparable to any 40 year old who has had consistent employment and good financial sense. I saved money while I was deployed to Iraq and invested in real estate as a young officer in the military.  I wrote a best-selling book. Does any of this sound like I’ve profited unfairly? Of course not. 

That’s the truth.

Of course, those aren’t the first ridiculous claims made against me and my character since I’ve taken office. And I know they won’t be the last. 

I’ve debunked lies in the past that I was “part of the WEF,” and lies that I “voted for red flag laws.” There was even a viral tweet these last few weeks that listed the “kickbacks” paid to Members of Congress from Ukraine aid. All of it was completely fabricated. False. Lies. Not even a hint of truth.

Why do the haters do this? I’ve got plenty of theories. But it really comes down to this: the twitter trolls know they can’t control me, and they know I will call them out. Truth telling is a threat to people who make a living off social media engagement, often gained by exaggerating, twisting, or entirely destroying the truth. 

In the end, that’s what this is all about. TRUTH. And I guarantee you that I will push back, at times aggressively, on smears against me. I simply won’t ignore lies about me, even when it would be politically convenient or beneficial for me to do so.

I tell you the truth and take the time to do it because I believe you deserve it. You are owed that as one of my supporters. 

Politics is a tough business and it always will be. But I am a fighter and always will be. I fight back when lies are told about me. I fight back when you’re being lied to. And I fight back when politicians and those grifting off of politics deliberately try to hurt our country. 

I am grateful for your dedicated support. Thank you for being in my corner and for reading these messages. 

Here’s to a safe and prosperous New Year for you and all Americans. 

In Service,

Dan Crenshaw

 

[Twitter]([link removed])
[Facebook]([link removed])
[Instagram]([link removed])

No longer want to receive these emails? [Unsubscribe]([link removed]).
Team Crenshaw 5900 Memorial Drive Suite 215 Houston, Texas 77007