Rich McCormick, Republican congressman from Georgia's 7th district, is trending today for reasons that have nothing to do with the stock market. Clips of McCormick invoking Clausewitz on the House floor, apparently without having read Clausewitz, are bouncing around Bluesky, where the consensus is somewhere between bewildered and delighted. The phrase "Clownwitzian warfare" has entered the discourse. While the congressman works out his operational theory of dominance, Blind Trust has been looking at something else: the one trade he filed in the last 90 days, and what his broader financial record actually looks like.
The Clausewitz Moment
McCormick's Bluesky footprint today is six posts, which is not exactly a firestorm, but the content is uniform. Commenters are flagging a floor speech in which McCormick called for "Clausewitzian warfare" and said the U.S. Should "dominate them and bring them to their knees." The observation making the rounds: he seems confident about the Clausewitz reference. The secondary observation: that confidence may not be warranted.
McCormick sits on the House Committee on Armed Services. He also sits on the Armed Services subcommittees covering Cyber, Information Technologies, and Innovation and Tactical Air and Land Forces. So when he's talking about warfare doctrine, at least he's in his lane. Whether he's right is a different question, and Clausewitz scholars are welcome to weigh in.
It's about what we can document.
The One Trade He Filed
McCormick filed one disclosed trade in the last 90 days: a sale of American Tower Corporation (AMT) on April 17, 2026, in the $1,000-to-$15,000 range.
American Tower is a real estate investment trust that owns and operates wireless communications infrastructure. Cell towers, data centers, that kind of business. It has no particular connection to armed services appropriations or tactical air and land forces. It's a telecom infrastructure play.
Here's the wrinkle: per Blind Trust's alpha tracking, that AMT sale ranks as McCormick's second-worst trade in his scored sample. The 30-day excess return after the sale was negative 10.5 percent versus the S&P 500. He sold. The stock went up (relative to the index). The timing did not help him.
One trade is one trade. It proves nothing about anything except that selling AMT in April 2026 was, in hindsight, the wrong call.
The Broader Record
Blind Trust has scored 39 of McCormick's trades across his disclosure history. The record: 26 positive alpha outcomes, 13 negative. That's a 67 percent positive rate against a 2.1 percent mean 30-day alpha per trade.
Two things are true simultaneously. Sixty-seven percent sounds respectable. And a scored sample of 39 trades with positions mostly in the $1,000-to-$15,000 range is not Warren Buffett's portfolio. The dollar amounts are small enough that even a string of correct calls doesn't shift the picture on net worth. This is retail-scale trading by someone who happens to hold a congressional seat.
His three best trades by alpha: a purchase of Analog Devices (ADI) on November 5, 2025, up 17.0 percent over the S&P in the next 30 days. A purchase of Medtronic (MDT) the same day, up 15.9 percent. A purchase of Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), also November 5, up 12.0 percent. Three buys on the same day, all positive. No committee overlap on any of them, McCormick doesn't sit on Financial Services or Health, so there's no oversight angle. They were just good trades on a good day.
His three worst: a sale of ADP on March 19, 2026, down 11.5 percent on alpha (meaning ADP outperformed after he sold). A sale of AMT on April 17, down 10.5 percent. A sale of L3Harris Technologies (LHX) on March 19, down 9.5 percent.
Pause on that last one. L3Harris Technologies is a defense contractor. McCormick sits on Armed Services. That's precisely the kind of overlap worth flagging, not because it proves anything, but because the combination of committee jurisdiction and a stock trade in that sector is the definition of a fact the public record is allowed to notice. The alpha on the LHX sale was negative 9.5 percent, meaning the stock outperformed after he sold. He didn't profit from any special knowledge of the defense sector, at least not on that trade. But the overlap exists, and the filing is public.
The Committee-Overlap Trades
Blind Trust flags trades where the ticker's sector overlaps with a member's committee assignments. For McCormick, five trades in the scored sample carry an overlap designation.
Two technology-adjacent purchases: Apple (AAPL) on November 5, 2025, up 4.4 percent alpha; Microsoft (MSFT) on March 19, 2026, up 1.4 percent alpha. McCormick sits on the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, which has remit over tech policy. Both trades were purchases. Both ended in positive alpha. Both were in the $1,000-to-$15,000 range.
One energy purchase: NextEra Energy (NEE) on November 5, 2025, up 4.8 percent alpha. Science, Space, and Technology has some energy policy overlap, though the primary energy jurisdiction lives elsewhere on the Hill.
Two BlackRock (BLK) trades: a sale on September 18, 2025, up 0.7 percent alpha (he sold, it outperformed slightly); a purchase on November 5, 2025, up 1.0 percent alpha. The committee overlap listed for BlackRock is Financial Services, which McCormick does not sit on. Blind Trust's data flags it; the reader should weigh that the overlap designation here is loose.
The full picture on committee-overlap trades: five trades, five positive alpha outcomes, average alpha between 0.7 and 4.8 percent. Small positions. No dramatic wins. The receipts are public. Make of them what you make of them.
The Votes
McCormick's recent floor votes include a yes on the TRIA Program Reauthorization Act of 2026 on June 29, that's the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, the federal backstop for insurers on terrorism-related losses. Market relevance score of 80 in our system, meaning it's the kind of vote that affects financial sector pricing in ways that are at least theoretically traceable.
He also voted yes on the Financial Exploitation Prevention Act on June 25. Yes on the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act on June 23. Yes on a FISA extension on June 11, which failed. A string of veterans-related bills in May, all yes. And one no: the KIDS Act on June 29, which passed without him.
None of these votes map cleanly to the AMT sale. Blind Trust found zero vote-trade overlaps in the 90-day window, meaning no disclosed trade lands within a tight window of a relevant vote on a connected bill. The one trade filed, AMT, is a telecom infrastructure REIT that doesn't connect obviously to any bill McCormick voted on in the period.
The votes on TRIA and financial exploitation are worth watching for members with financial sector holdings. McCormick's flagged committee-overlap trades include financial services positions. But the direct vote-trade overlap is not there in the data, and we don't manufacture one.
The Summary
Rich McCormick is trending because of a Clausewitz reference that the internet found unconvincing. His financial record, per Blind Trust's full disclosure tracker, shows a member who trades actively in small amounts, beats the market on about two-thirds of scored positions, and holds technology and defense-adjacent stocks while sitting on Armed Services and Science, Space, and Technology.
The one trade he filed in the last 90 days was a losing call on a cell tower REIT. His worst trade in the full scored sample involved a defense contractor. His best trades came in a single-day burst in November 2025 across medical devices, semiconductors, and consumer staples, none of which touch his committee work.
His financial record shows a retail-scale trader with a slightly above-average hit rate, some committee-adjacent holdings, and a recent sale that the market has already judged. Whether any of that's relevant to why he's trending today is a question about Clausewitz, warfare doctrine, and the informational content of congressional floor speeches.
You decide if it's relevant.