President Donald Trump made 1,156 stock, bond or other financial fund trades in July — a demonstration of his willingness to pursue personal wealth while holding the nation’s highest public office.
Trump disclosed the trades Tuesday in a filing with the Office of Government Ethics. The filing indicates the president, who says financial advisers make trades on his behalf, averaged 77 individual transactions per active trading day. On July 29 alone, Trump made over 300 transactions.
Many of the companies Trump bought or sold stock in are corporate giants that his administration helps regulate or that do business with the federal government.
Trump made trades in companies such as Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta — tech giants that are pursuing artificial intelligence ventures. Trump has been reluctant to heed calls to regulate the industry.
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The president also traded shares of major defense contractors, including Palantir, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, GE Aerospace and SpaceX.
Trump also purchased up to $500,000 worth of stock in Axon Enterprise, the manufacturer of Tasers, which has done tens of millions of dollars worth of business with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, according to federal records.
Among Trump’s notable stock sales, he dumped a seven-figure amount of Oracle stock over five separate trades. Oracle is a major government contractor, and the company is part of a Trump-brokered deal to place video site TikTok under the control of U.S. corporations.
The president also traded in a number of oil and gas companies, including ExxonMobil, Chevron and Gulfport. Gas prices have proved to be a headache for Trump as he struggles to bring his nearly seven-month-long war with Iran to a close.
Trump also traded in a number of small municipal bonds, including the Norton County Unified School District 211 in Kansas and the Springtown Independent School District in Texas.
A number of Trump’s trades were disclosed more than 45 days after they were made — in violation of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, which also applies to top officials in the executive branch. It’s not the first time the president has run afoul of the stock trading law.
The dollar values of the trades are disclosed in ranges, not in exact amounts. In July, Trump traded roughly between $70 million and $230 million worth of stock, according to the disclosure.
Trump has long maintained that he is not behind the stock trades made in his name and that financial advisers he’s hired to manage his money have sole discretion over buying and selling stocks and bonds within his portfolio.
“President Trump’s stock and bond portfolio is independently managed by third-party financial institutions,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in a statement Tuesday to The Washington Sun. “All holdings are maintained in discretionary accounts and invested through computer-based model portfolios that automatically replicate recognized indexes, such as the Schwab 1000,”
“Neither President Trump nor any member of his family has any ability to direct, influence, or provide input regarding how the portfolio is invested or when investments are bought or sold,” Ingle said. “All investment decisions are made entirely by independent managers. There are no conflicts of interest.”
But Trump is ostensibly aware of the contents of his portfolio, given that he personally certified his most recent disclosure, which bears his signature.
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