U.S. President Donald Trump conducted hundreds of millions of dollars in securities transactions involving American companies in the first quarter of this year, reigniting conflict-of-interest concerns.
Bloomberg and Reuters reported on Saturday, citing public filings from the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE), that Trump executed more than 3,700 securities transactions involving major companies with stakes in his administration's policies during the first quarter.
During the period, companies in which he purchased securities worth at least $1 million (about 1.5 billion won) each included Nvidia, Apple, Oracle, Microsoft, Boeing and Costco. Notably, in February, he disposed of securities in three technology companies — Microsoft, Meta and Amazon — at amounts ranging between $5 million and $20 million (about 7.5 billion to 30 billion won) each.
The transactions also included securities linked to companies such as Broadcom, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, eBay, Abbott Laboratories, Uber Technologies, AT&T and Dollar Tree. The OGE filings did not specify whether the corporate securities Trump traded were stocks or corporate bonds.
The values of the trades were listed in ranges rather than precise figures. Trump's cumulative first-quarter trading volume is estimated at a minimum of $220 million (about 329.8 billion won) to a maximum of $750 million (1.1243 trillion won). According to Bloomberg, the daily average over the three-month period exceeded 40 trades.
Matthew Tuttle, CEO of asset management firm Tuttle Capital Management, called Trump's trading activity an "insane" volume of trades, adding that it "looks like a hedge fund running massive algorithmic trades."
The disclosures have rekindled debate over Trump's conflicts of interest, with critics arguing he is exploiting the public office of the presidency for personal business gain.
Indeed, Trump has taken several policy actions affecting companies he has traded, including Nvidia and Boeing, and regularly interacts with their executives. On his recent trip to China, he brought along the leaders of multiple companies in which he had invested, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg.
In particular, Huang, who had not initially been included on the list of business executives accompanying Trump to China, reportedly joined the delegation belatedly at the request of Trump during a stopover in Alaska.
A spokesperson for the Trump Organization, the president's family business, said, "President Trump's investment assets are held through a managed account independently administered by a third-party financial institution that has exclusive and complete authority over all investment decisions," adding, "Neither President Trump, his family, nor the Trump Organization plays any role in the selection, direction or approval of specific investments."
Meanwhile, the U.S. federal ethics law enacted in 1978 does not impose a mandatory requirement that the president "must divest assets that may pose a conflict of interest." However, past U.S. presidents have voluntarily divested assets with potential conflicts of interest or placed them in blind trusts. Trump is the first president since the law's enactment not to follow this practice.
