The Trump Organization said the transaction was handled by a third-party financial institution and that the president and his family were not involved in the transaction.
President Trump says he spoke with President Xi about Taiwan and Iran
President Donald Trump said Chinese President Xi Jinping has agreed to buy 750 Boeing aircraft from the United States.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has bought and sold at least $220 million worth of stocks involving companies such as Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft and Tesla. Executives from these companies were hosted at the White House and during a visit to China last week.
The high-priced deal raised alarm among Democratic lawmakers and ethics advocates, who argued that the deal represented a conflict of interest for the president. Many of the companies are federally regulated or could benefit from President Trump including them in his official meetings.
But the president’s company, the Trump Organization, said his accounts were being managed by a third-party financial institution without input from Trump or his family.
“Neither President Trump, his family, nor the Trump Organization plays any role in selecting, directing or approving any specific investments,” the Trump Organization said in a statement. “They receive no advance notice of trading activity and do not provide input on investment decisions or portfolio management of any kind.”
The stock purchases and sales were extensively reported to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. Total transaction volume in the first three months of this year ranged from $220 million to about $750 million. However, this report provides a snapshot of your investments, rather than aggregating your overall holdings or the gains and losses from specific trades.
The deal reflects the broad overlap in companies Trump touted at the White House and in meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping. President Trump has made no secret of the fact that he brought top executives such as Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Apple’s Tim Cook, and Tesla’s Elon Musk on Air Force One to visit China.
Trump said on social media that he asked Xi to “open up” China to foreign companies such as Boeing Co. and GE Aerospace, as well as financial services companies such as Citigroup, Mastercard and Visa.
On his first flight, President Trump announced that China had agreed to buy hundreds of new Boeing jets and GE engines. His account had him buying at least $1 million in Boeing stock and selling at least $500,000 during the first quarter. He also purchased GE Aerospace for at least $80,000.
During the trip, reporters yelled at executives and asked questions about how the trip went.
“The meeting went well,” Huang said. “Mr. Xi and President Trump were great.”
Asked what had been accomplished, Musk said: “A lot of good things.”
Mr. Trump’s account purchased at least $2 million and as much as $7 million in Nvidia stock in the first quarter, according to the ethics report. The account also sold at least $1.8 million in Nvidia stock during that period.
One of the acquisitions (for at least $1 million on February 10) came a week before Nvidia announced a strategic partnership with Facebook’s parent company, Meta, across cloud storage and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
During his State of the Union address in February, President Trump urged lawmakers to approve legislation that would ban trading in individual stocks. He argued that lawmakers should not be allowed to “use insider information to gain unfair advantage.”
Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) agreed. But he said the president and vice president should also be prohibited from trading individual stocks.
“He was the last person in office to lecture Americans and others about transparency,” Takano said.
“The president should not be a day trader,” the Washington nonprofit advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics said on social media.
