Donald Trump’s portfolio includes thousands of stock trades disclosed in filings with a federal ethics agency, a disclosure that has prompted renewed questions about potential conflicts of interest for a president who can shape policy that affects corporate earnings. The Associated Press reported that the president disclosed more than 3,600 buy and sell orders during the first quarter of this year, with many of the trades involving companies whose performance has been directly influenced by his decisions.
The filing that AP reviewed, which was submitted to the federal Office of Government Ethics, showed the pace of trading and the scope of the holdings. AP said the report runs more than 100 pages and showed possibly more than $100 million changing hands over three months, with an average of about 50 trades per day the markets were open.
The AP report said some of Trump’s trades involved Nvidia, disclosing as much as $6 million in the company. AP also connected that Nvidia holding to Trump’s earlier approval of advanced chips for sale to China, describing the relationship between the companies in his portfolio and policy decisions.
AP said the portfolio also included stocks of military contractors that could be affected by the Iran war, listing Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman among the companies the report described. The filing further listed other holdings, including Apple, Boeing and Tesla, and AP said the chief executives of those companies accompanied Trump on a recent trip to China.
In addition to those named companies, AP reported that the portfolio includes Intel, and that it also includes shares in fast-food and consumer-focused companies such as Shake Shack, Papa John’s and Cheesecake Factory, among others. AP also reported that Trump has traditionally held relatively little in the stock market compared with his net worth, but that the portfolio size and trading activity could be changing along with his wealth.
The report drew criticism from ethics experts. AP quoted Richard Painter, the chief White House ethics adviser in the George W. Bush administration and a major critic of congressional trading, saying, “If he were defense secretary, he would be committing a crime,” and adding, “Technically he can do this, but it is a fundamental breach of trust.”
AP said U.S. law generally bars federal employees from holding financial assets that could be impacted by their policy work, but it includes a carveout for the president. In response to scrutiny, AP reported that a spokesperson for the Trump family business said third parties handle the president’s investments and have “sole and exclusive” authority to make decisions, adding that Trump and the Trump Organization do not receive advance notice of trading activity or provide input into specific trades.
Ethics officials, AP said, have pointed to a different concern as well: that even the knowledge of what is held in the portfolio can raise conflict risks because it could potentially influence decisions on health policy, government contracting and war-related questions. AP also said the report includes ranges for individual transactions, making it impossible to determine a precise ratio of purchases to sales.