Trump promotes the companies whose shares he buys and makes hundreds of thousands from it.

Investigation CNN revealed that Trump, on more than 20 occasions, published posts on Truth Social about companies just days after purchasing their shares. Sometimes, he simultaneously announced government actions that could benefit those same companies.

Last year, President Donald Trump posted a message on his social media account, Truth Social, about "very big and exciting news." Nvidia, one of the largest computer chip makers, announced plans to build supercomputers in the United States to handle artificial intelligence.

"All necessary approvals will be processed expeditiously and issued as quickly as possible," Trump promised on April 15, 2025, in a message to more than nine million followers. However, he failed to disclose that he had purchased between $200 and $500 worth of shares in the company a few days before the announcement.

The White House categorically rejected suggestions that the president is using his position for personal financial gain, stating that his actions are solely for the benefit of the American people. Administration officials claim that all stock transactions are handled by outside financial managers, and that Trump and his family have no control over the transactions.

According to White House press secretary Anna Kelly, the president's assets "are held in discretionary accounts managed by independent financial institutions":

"President Trump acts solely in the interests of the American people—that's why he was re-elected, despite years of lies and false accusations from unscrupulous media. There is no conflict of interest."

On the subject: Trump quietly and cheaply bought thousands of shares the day before the tariff suspension and made millions.

Unlike many of his predecessors, the White House chief did not transfer his assets to a "blind trust," where the owner doesn't know the exact shares they own. This means he may be aware of the purchases and sales of his managers. However, it is unknown whether he was aware of specific transactions at the time the reports were published.

While Trump supported a stock trading ban for members of Congress, he criticized efforts to extend similar restrictions to the president.

"It's an ethical disaster," said Dan Greenberg, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute who previously served as a policy adviser to the U.S. Labor Department during Trump's first term.

The president is active on social media while simultaneously trading stocks. Last year, he published over 6 posts on Truth Social, frequently commenting on large corporations, while his executives executed over 20 stock purchases and sales.

There's no direct evidence that he posted specifically to boost his portfolio's value. In most cases, the transactions weren't accompanied by any relevant publicity. However, journalists have uncovered dozens of instances in which Trump publicly endorsed companies he'd recently invested in, without his followers knowing.

CNN compared Trump's Truth Social posting database with the full list of his transactions disclosed in his annual financial disclosure. The analysis was initially conducted using artificial intelligence, then journalists manually verified hundreds of matches.

It turned out that in at least 44 cases, Trump purchased shares of 21 companies in the week before publishing positive reports about them, their management, or their products. In some posts, he offered his own assessments, while in others, he quoted company executives or referenced favorable news.

In addition, there were instances where he purchased shares shortly before the publication of more general announcements about policy decisions potentially beneficial to those companies, but without directly mentioning them.

At the same time, there have been at least 17 recorded instances of Trump buying shares in eight companies and then publishing negative reports about them or their executives.

Government watchdogs say the combination of active trading and public statements raises questions about potential conflicts of interest, as Congress debates whether the president and lawmakers should be allowed to trade stocks at all.

Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, acting vice president for policy and government engagement at the Project on Government Oversight, called the situation "an example of a conflict of interest at the presidential level."

"That's why we've long said that public servants in power shouldn't trade shares. This especially applies to the president, given the scope of his powers," he said.

Even if Trump doesn't directly influence the deals, the very appearance of possible interest, Hedtler-Gaudette says, gradually undermines public trust in elected officials.

According to a financial disclosure form released last month by the Office of Government Ethics, Trump made more than 21 financial transactions in 2025, mostly stock purchases and sales. The amounts reported range widely.

Trump's stock portfolio is held in discretionary accounts, which give brokerage firms complete discretion and prevent the president or his family from initiating trades.

"Neither President Trump, his family, nor the Trump Organization are involved in the selection, direction, or approval of specific investments," the company spokesperson emphasized. "They receive no prior information about transactions and do not influence investment decisions."

This arrangement differs from the practice of all recent US presidents. For at least five decades, heads of state who owned stocks or businesses transferred them to "blind trusts" to prevent disclosure of the asset composition.

Trump abandoned this practice by transferring his assets to a trust managed by his son, Donald Trump Jr. This means that even without direct control over transactions, he can understand the structure of his investments and reflect individual shares and transactions in his financial statements.

According to Greenberg, the use of discretionary accounts "is not a full replacement for a blind trust" and does not solve the problem.

The overlap between stock purchases and publications began even before Trump took office, CNN discovered. On January 6, 2025, he purchased at least $1 worth of US Steel shares, and on the same day, he wrote that his planned tariffs would "make the company much more profitable and valuable."

"Wouldn't it be great if US Steel, once the greatest company in the world, could once again lead the charge to greatness? It could happen very quickly!" he wrote. However, it's unclear which came first—the acquisition or the publication.

Tesla has become one of the most frequently traded stocks in Trump's portfolio. Over the past year, he has made more than 50 purchases of the company's shares, totaling at least $4 million, as well as several sales. Some of the purchases—totaling at least $17—were made just days before the release of a video showing Trump, along with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, inspecting cars near the White House and discussing plans to expand production in the United States.

By summer, relations between Trump and Musk had soured: the president raised the possibility of cutting government subsidies for Tesla and even publicly discussed deporting Musk. Meanwhile, he continued buying the company's shares.

On July 23, Trump made one of the largest Tesla deals of the year, buying shares worth between $500 and $1 million. The very next day, he posted a message downplaying the controversy: "Everyone says I'm going to destroy Elon's companies by cutting off their subsidies. Wrong! I want Elon and all businesses in our country to thrive—like never before!"

Trump sometimes bought shares of several companies at once, then wrote about them in a single post. For example, on March 10, the president purchased shares of GE Aerospace, Eli Lilly, and Apple for between $15 and $50 each. Two days later, he mentioned all three companies in a single post, citing a Fox News report about their investments in American industry.

The volume of transactions is so large that it's often impossible to establish a connection between specific transactions and publications. On the same day, March 10, Trump purchased shares not only in these three companies, but also in more than 300 others.

In addition to major tech companies, he traded shares of smaller consumer brands. On July 31, the White House chief bought between $15 and $50 worth of American Eagle Outfitters shares, and four days later, he praised the brand's controversial online advertising campaign featuring actress Sydney Sweeney.

"Sydney Sweeney, a registered Republican, has the hottest ad right now. It's for American Eagle, and the jeans are flying off the shelves. Go ahead, Sidney!" he wrote.

Not all reports about companies Trump invested in were positive. For example, he repeatedly purchased Comcast shares, then published tweets calling the company "Concast" and criticizing its NBC and MSNBC networks. Similarly, the president purchased at least $1,3 million worth of Microsoft shares just days before publishing a tweet criticizing the company for hiring a former Biden administration official.

In other cases, he posted messages related to companies or their products without naming them directly. On August 18, Trump bought at least $250 worth of shares in two defense contractors—RTX and Boeing—and invested at least $100 more in Northrop Grumman. That same day, he sold at least $100 worth of Lockheed Martin shares, and a few days later, he posted a video of the F-22 Raptor, calling it "the greatest and most beautiful fighter jet in the world."

Trump stated that he would support legislation banning stock trading for members of Congress, but opposed initiatives that would extend such restrictions to the president and vice president. When Republican Senator Josh Hawley co-sponsored the bill with Democrats, Trump responded sharply, declaring that "true Republicans don't want their president, who has achieved unprecedented success, to be persecuted because of the whims of a second-rate Senator named Josh Hawley."

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In recent months, Congress has been debating bills that would prohibit stock trading only for lawmakers.

Transparency International US Executive Director Gary Kalman noted that previous presidents have tried to avoid financial conflicts of interest, such as Jimmy Carter voluntarily placing his peanut farm in a blind trust.

“The fact that the only person who cannot remove himself from the conflict of interest is exempt from restrictions should be alarming,” he noted.

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