President Donald Trump hopped on Truth Social final 12 months to share some “very big and exciting news.” Nvidia, the pc chip manufacturing behemoth, had simply introduced plans to construct AI supercomputers within the United States.
“All necessary permits will be expedited and quickly delivered” to Nvidia and related companies, Trump vowed within the April 15, 2025 submit to his greater than 9 million followers.
What the president didn’t disclose on the time was that days earlier, he had bought between $200,000 and $500,000 of the corporate’s inventory.
A NCS investigation discovered that Trump has promoted greater than 20 companies on his Truth Social account days after buying inventory in these corporations – at instances asserting authorities actions that would profit the companies he simply invested in.
The White House has strongly denied that Trump has ever used his workplace for monetary achieve and mentioned his actions are geared toward benefiting the American public. All of the president’s inventory trades are carried out by exterior monetary managers, his administration mentioned, and Trump and his household have zero management over which trades are made.
Trump’s property are “held in fully discretionary accounts managed by independent third-party financial institutions,” mentioned White House spokesperson Anna Kelly. “President Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public – which is why they overwhelmingly re-elected him to this office, despite years of lies and false accusations against him and his businesses from the fake news media. There are no conflicts of interest.”
But in contrast to many previous presidents, Trump has not positioned his property in a blind belief — which means he can know which stocks his cash managers are buying or promoting. It’s not clear whether or not Trump was conscious of any of his purchases when he was posting concerning the companies.
While Trump has endorsed banning congressional inventory buying and selling, he’s bashed efforts to carry presidents to the identical commonplace.
“This is an ethics disaster,” mentioned Dan Greenberg, a senior authorized fellow on the libertarian Cato Institute who served as a Labor Department coverage adviser throughout Trump’s first time period.
Trump is each a frequent poster and inventory dealer, sending greater than 6,000 Truth Social posts final 12 months and sometimes sharing his opinions about main companies, whereas his managers made greater than 20,000 inventory purchases or gross sales in that very same timeframe.
There’s no proof that Trump has posted about particular companies to spice up his portfolio. The overwhelming majority of Trump’s trades weren’t adopted by related Truth Social posts.
Still, there are dozens of circumstances the place Trump promoted companies that the majority of his followers had no thought he had just lately invested in.
NCS used synthetic intelligence to match a database of Trump’s Truth Social posts with a full listing of inventory trades launched in his annual financial disclosure, on the lookout for circumstances when the posts talked about corporations during which he’d just lately purchased or bought inventory. Reporters then manually reviewed a whole lot of flagged posts and confirmed whether or not every was related.
The evaluation discovered that Trump made not less than 44 inventory purchases of 21 totally different companies inside per week earlier than he posted a complimentary Truth Social message concerning the corporations, their executives or their merchandise. Many of the posts embody Trump’s personal commentary, whereas others quoted firm CEOs or linked to favorable information articles.
Trump additionally made different inventory purchases shortly earlier than sending extra common messages highlighting coverage modifications that would profit these companies, however with out particularly naming them.
In distinction, Trump made not less than 17 purchases of eight companies’ inventory after which posted unfavourable messages concerning the corporations or their executives shortly afterward.
Government watchdogs say Trump’s social media posts and high-volume buying and selling increase questions on whether or not the president has a battle of curiosity – as Congress debates whether or not presidents and lawmakers must be allowed to commerce stocks in any respect.
Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, the interim vp of coverage and authorities affairs on the Project on Government Oversight, referred to as Trump’s mixture of social media posting and inventory buying and selling “a case study in presidential conflicts of interest.”
“This is why we’ve long said government officials should not be able to trade stock while they’re in office,” he mentioned. “That definitely applies to the president and the disproportionate power of that office.”
Even if Trump shouldn’t be actively directing trades or working to spice up his portfolio, Hedtler-Gaudette argued, “the appearance of impropriety” results in “a slow chipping away” of public belief in elected officers.
Trump’s monetary disclosure, which was released final month by the Office of Government Ethics, lists greater than 21,000 monetary transactions he revamped the course of 2025, largely purchases and gross sales of inventory. The quantity of every transaction is reported in broad ranges.
Trump’s inventory portfolio is held in discretionary accounts, which give his brokerage corporations full authority over the buying and selling and forestall Trump and his relations from requesting or inserting trades.
“Neither President Trump, his family, nor The Trump Organization plays any role in selecting, directing, or approving specific investments,” a Trump Organization spokesperson mentioned in an announcement. “They receive no advance notice of trading activity and provide no input regarding investment decisions or portfolio management of any kind.”
The means Trump’s property are arrange differs from all of his latest predecessors. Every president going again at least five decades who has owned particular person stocks or companies put these property in a blind belief, which means that they weren’t conscious of what particular stocks they held.
Trump bucked that development, opting as a substitute to place his property in a belief together with his son Don Jr. as a trustee. That signifies that even when Trump can not direct trades, he can find out about his holdings, and he studies particular person stocks and transactions on his monetary disclosures.
Greenberg mentioned Trump’s use of discretionary accounts which can be managed by exterior advisers “does not provide a fig leaf here” as a result of it isn’t a real blind belief.
The overlaps between Trump’s buying and selling and posting began even earlier than he took workplace, NCS discovered. On January 6, 2025, Trump purchased not less than $1,000 in US Steel inventory, and the identical day, posted on Truth Social that his deliberate tariffs would “make it a much more profitable and valuable company.”
“Wouldn’t it be nice to have U.S. Steel, once the greatest company in the World, lead the charge toward greatness again?” Trump wrote. “It can all happen very quickly!” It’s not clear whether or not the acquisition or the submit got here first that day.
Among Trump’s most continuously traded stocks was Tesla. He made greater than 50 purchases of Tesla inventory final 12 months, investing not less than $4 million, whereas additionally making a number of gross sales. Several of these purchases – totaling not less than $17,000 – have been made days earlier than Trump posted videos of himself and Tesla CEO Elon Musk admiring Tesla autos on the White House in March, and promoted the corporate’s plans to extend manufacturing within the US.
By the summer time, nevertheless, Trump and Musk had an acrimonious falling out, with Trump suggesting his administration might lower authorities subsidies to Tesla and even publicly speculating about deporting Musk. He continued making a number of purchases of Tesla inventory throughout this era.
Then, on July 23, Trump made one in every of his largest particular person Tesla purchases of the 12 months, buying between $500,000 and $1 million within the firm’s inventory. The following day, he despatched a Truth Social submit deescalating the feud together with his former ally.
“Everyone is stating that I will destroy Elon’s companies by taking away some, if not all, of the large scale subsidies he receives from the U.S. Government,” he wrote. “This is not so! I want Elon, and all businesses within our Country, to THRIVE, in fact, THRIVE like never before!”
At instances, Trump purchased inventory in a number of companies that he posted about collectively. On March 10, he purchased between $15,000 and $50,000 in inventory in every of GE Aerospace, Eli Lilly and Apple. Two days later, he talked about all three companies in a single Truth Social post, quoting from a Fox News article highlighting their just lately introduced investments in US industries.
The big quantity of stocks that Trump is buying and selling signifies that it’s unclear whether or not his purchases and messages are ever associated. On March 10, along with the three companies he posted about, Trump additionally purchased inventory in additional than 300 different companies.
While a lot of Trump’s most sizable purchases have been of outstanding tech companies, he additionally traded and posted about smaller client manufacturers. On July 31, he purchased between $15,000 and $50,000 in inventory within the clothes retailer American Eagle Outfitters. Four days later, he despatched a submit complimenting the model’s advert that includes the actress Sydney Sweeney, which had attracted controversy on-line.
“Sydney Sweeney, a registered Republican, has the ‘HOTTEST’ ad out there,” Trump wrote. “It’s for American Eagle, and the jeans are ‘flying off the shelves.’ Go get ’em Sydney!”
Not the entire messages Trump posted about companies he had just lately invested in have been complimentary.
For instance, Trump made a number of purchases of Comcast inventory earlier than posting missives tarring the corporate as “Concast” and criticizing its information channels, NBC and MSNBC. He equally bought not less than $1.3 million in inventory in Microsoft days earlier than a submit attacking the company for hiring a former Biden administration official.
In different situations, Trump posted messages associated to companies he had just lately purchased inventory in or their merchandise with out particularly naming them.
On August 18, Trump purchased not less than $250,000 in inventory in two protection contractors concerned in producing parts of the F-22 Raptor jet – RTX and Boeing – in addition to not less than $100,000 in inventory in a 3rd, Northrop Grumman. (He additionally bought not less than $100,000 in inventory within the jet’s prime contractor, Lockheed Martin, the identical day.) Days later, he posted a video of the F-22 Raptor, proclaiming it “the greatest and most beautiful fighter jet ever made.”
Trump has mentioned he would assist a invoice to ban congressional inventory buying and selling, however opposed efforts to move a broader invoice that may additionally limit buying and selling by the president and vp.
After GOP Sen. Josh Hawley joined Democrats final 12 months to assist a invoice to ban each congressional and presidential inventory buying and selling, Trump lashed out, writing that “I don’t think real Republicans want to see their President, who has had unprecedented success, TARGETED, because of the ‘whims’ of a second-tier Senator named Josh Hawley!”
In latest months, members of Congress have been debating extra restricted payments that may solely ban buying and selling by lawmakers, and never the president.
Gary Kalman, government director of Transparency International US, famous that earlier presidents have sought to keep away from monetary conflicts of curiosity – with Jimmy Carter even voluntarily placing possession of his peanut farm in a blind belief.
“The fact that we have exempted the one person who can’t actually recuse themselves from a conflict of interest should be a huge red flag for people,” Kalman mentioned. “We need to close this gap.”
NCS’s Em Steck contributed to this report.