(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump’s latest financial disclosures show he or his investment advisers made more than 3,700 transactions in the first quarter; It’s a rush worth tens of millions of dollars and involves major companies doing business with his management.
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The transactions described in more than 100 pages of documents filed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics on Thursday list purchases and sales in broad ranges, making it difficult to calculate an exact value. But the volume of more than 40 transactions per day in the three-month period stands out as much as the potential value of the dollar.
“This is a crazy amount of trading,” Matthew Tuttle, CEO of Tuttle Capital Management, said in an interview, adding that it looked more like something done by “a hedge fund with big algo trades” that was buying and shorting securities than a personal account.
According to the documents, the president spent the first quarter on companies including Nvidia Corp., Oracle Corp., Microsoft Corp., Boeing Co. and Costco Wholesale Corp. for at least $1 million each. Other trades include eBay Inc., Abbott Laboratories, Uber Technologies Inc., AT&T Inc. and discount store Dollar Tree Inc. took place.
The statement reignites conflict of interest concerns that have cast a shadow over Trump’s terms in the White House. Critics regularly accused him of mixing his official duties with his business interests. Unlike his predecessors, Trump did not divest his assets or put them into a blind trust with an independent overseer. His sprawling business empire is run by his two sons and operates in a variety of areas that intersect with presidential politics.
Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also helps manage billions of dollars in investments in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, while also serving as the president’s “volunteer” envoy on issues affecting the war in Iran and the Middle East in general.
The White House dismissed questions about potential conflicts, and spokesman David Ingle said Trump was “acting solely in the interests of the American people.” He added: “There is no conflict of interest.”
A spokesman for the Trump Organization has previously said the president’s assets are independently managed by third-party financial institutions that maintain control over all investment decisions and that trades are conducted through automated processes. The spokesman said Trump, his family members and his company played no role in the transaction. He added that they received no advance notice of the trading activity and provided no input.
The trade volume exceeds anything Trump has previously reported. According to its filing, it made 380 transactions in the fourth quarter of last year, mostly municipal debt purchases, but it also purchased some commercial paper.
He made his first statement regarding asset purchases in August, reporting 690 transactions made since January 21, 2025, the day after the start of his second term. The total of these transactions, which spanned approximately seven months, amounted to at least 103.7 million dollars.
‘Shocked’
The president’s comments spurred questions from some on Wall Street, who expressed surprise at the trading volume.
“I was surprised,” said Eric Diton, president and chief executive of The Wealth Alliance. “In my 40-plus years on Wall Street, this is an unusual amount of trading by any standard.”
“We need to see actual transactions to understand why someone would want to make so many transactions,” Diton added.
Adam Sarhan, founder of 50 Park Investments, said trading frequency was “tremendous”.
“What I really want to know is, is the account positive or negative at the end of all this?” said Sarhan.
Trump has made a number of policy moves that affect the publicly traded companies he deals in, and he regularly interacts with many of the executives of those firms. This includes Nvidia, whose chips critical for artificial intelligence development require U.S. government approval for foreign sales.
Trump, Boeing, Citigroup Inc. and Tesla Inc., as well as pulled Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang on his recent visit to Beijing to join a delegation that included top executives from other major companies.
Trump’s six businesses included Intel Corp.; management signed a deal in August to acquire a 10% stake in the iconic chip maker for about $9 billion.
Trump’s comments have not always benefited the companies whose assets he trades. While in Beijing, he announced that China would purchase 200 Boeing jets, causing shares to fall as the order was expected to be larger.
Netflix Inc. and Paramount Skydance Corp. have engaged in a months-long battle to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., with both suitors citing potential antitrust concerns. Trump has made related investments in all three companies. In March, it bought a modest stake in Warner Bros. worth at least $30,000, and the same month it bought a stake in Paramount Skydance worth at least $15,000. It also completed 19 transactions on behalf of Netflix in the first quarter, including sales worth as little as $1,000 and as high as $5 million.
‘Big Question Mark’
“All of this raises questions that you would rather not ask as a president,” Tuttle said. “So now people are asking why are you buying Nvidia and other companies now? When you’re president, you know everything, so there’s a big question mark on any stock you buy.”
Previous presidents divested assets or took other steps to avoid conflicts of interest or even ethical issues arising while in office. George HW Bush had a blind trust that held onto his investments both while he served as vice president and when he became president himself in 1989. His successor, Bill Clinton, did the same after taking office.
Federal law required only office holders to report securities-related transactions following the passage of the STOCK Act in 2012; This law strengthened disclosure requirements for executive branch officials and members of Congress.
Neither former President Barack Obama, whose money was invested in Treasuries and a wide variety of mutual funds, nor Joe Biden traded stocks or bonds while in office. Trump became the first president to trigger the disclosure requirement.
$200 Fine
Trump’s biggest sales occurred on Feb. 10, when he divested holdings worth between $5 million and $25 million in three technology companies (Microsoft, Meta Platforms Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.). He also sold at least $5 million worth of shares of the Vanguard ETF in January.
Federal ethics laws require officials to report transactions no later than 45 days after they occur. Both of Trump’s filings missed that deadline, but the penalty in the law is nominal: a $200 fine for each late filing. Trump’s filings show he paid for both.
Tuttle said the sheer volume of transactions raises questions about why Trump’s accounts were managed this way.
“I don’t understand what they’re doing,” he said. “All of this raises questions that you, as a president, would rather not ask.”
Trump rejected critics who accused him of taking financial advantage of being US president. In a January interview with the New York Times, Trump said he received no credit for reining in his business interests during his first term.
“I have nothing but criticism,” Trump said.
In a separate matter, the government’s ethics office gave Trump a 45-day grace period to file his annual financial disclosure. This document provides information about his 2025 value and income from his expanding business empire that includes crypto, resorts, golf courses and a social media company.
Extensions are routinely granted upon request. The announcements, which were originally supposed to be made on Friday, will now be made on June 29.
–With help from John Harney, Vivien Ngo, Romy Varghese and Kevin Whitelaw.
(Updates to add context and background, starting in the ninth paragraph)
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