Sen. John Fetterman is personally investing in a company behind one of President Donald Trump’s signature priorities, according to a new congressional financial disclosure.
Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania) reported purchasing two corporate bonds in Dell, the computer company helping power Trump Accounts — the tax-advantaged financial accounts Trump’s administration is creating for every U.S. citizen child.
The corporate bonds, purchased three weeks ago, are each valued at between $1,001 and $15,000 and earmarked for at least one of his dependent children, the congressional disclosure indicates. (Lawmakers are only required to disclose the value of their transactions in broad ranges.)
Fetterman’s disclosure Wednesday coincided with an Oval Office event attended by Michael Dell, CEO of Dell Technologies, and his wife, Susan, celebrating children’s enrollment in the Trump Accounts program. Dell Technologies donated $6.25 billion to the project, which the Trump administration designed to give children “a big jump on life.”
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The White House called the donation “one of the largest direct investments ever made in American families.” The Dell donation is expected to be invested across 25 million Trump Accounts accounts by Friday.
“Hopefully, we’re not just giving them $250, we’re giving them the beginning of an education and learning,” Dell told Yahoo! Finance.
The purchase follows criticism from Fetterman’s own party about his coziness with Republicans. Fetterman appeared by video to denounce socialism at Republicans’ midterm convention in September in Dallas.
After the cameo, Fetterman responded to speculation he’d switch parties by calling himself “a lifelong Democrat.” He told The Washington Sun: “Should the Senate flip in November, I will still be the 51st vote that I ran on.”
Fetterman’s Senate office didn’t respond to The Sun’s requests for comment on Thursday.
Earlier this year, Fetterman violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act when he was nearly a year late disclosing a financial trade made on one of his children’s behalf, The Sun reported. He told Senate officials the purchase was “inadvertently omitted” because of an “administrative error.”
Last week, Fetterman joined Senate Democrats in rejecting the proposed Stop Insider Trading Act, which would have prevented federal lawmakers from purchasing individual stocks.
Republicans had packaged the stock-purchase ban with an unrelated voter identification requirement, prompting Democrats to reject the bill during a procedural vote, even if many supported the stock ban in principle.
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