Trump discloses 21,000 securities trades during first year in office
Across President Donald Trump's first year back in the White House, his investment advisers made more than 21,000 securities trades, amassing sizable holdings in companies that are directly involved in deals tied to his administration, according to a review of his annual financial report.
According to the report, Trump's investment accounts grew to at least $858 million and included stakes in approximately 1,600 companies.
The staggering number of trades across eight separate accounts marks a significant departure from previous presidents, who have either divested their holdings or traded exclusively in diversified mutual funds. By contrast, Joe Biden made a total of 13 stock trades during his entire tenure as president.
Trump's investment advisers have also carried out more trades than prior years, according to his prior financial disclosures. For instance, the report for the first year of Trump's first term in 2017 lists 86 stock transactions.
While the trades overall suggest Trump's investment portfolio is professionally managed and in line with industry practices, Trump holds stakes in dozens of companies that have government contracts, such as Palantir, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Intel, Nvidia, as well as private prison operators GEO Group and CoreCivic.
Many of the companies the president has invested in also benefit from his policies, prompting criticism from Democrats about alleged conflicts of interest.
On the same day that the White House unveiled its "AI Action Plan" on July 23, 2025, Trump purchased between $1-5 million each in six companies -- Amazon, Apple, Broadcom, Meta, Microsoft, and Nvidia -- whose work with AI was directly impacted by the policy, which sought to lessen regulations on the industry.
The financial disclosure did not indicate whether those trades were executed before or after the announcement, and Trump also purchased stocks unrelated to AI that day.
The White House has defended the president's stock trades and highlighted that his investment accounts are managed by professional advisers who do not regularly communicate with Trump.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Trump argued that "everyone" including himself is profiting from overall growth of the stock market.
"You know why I'm profiting? Because the stock market's going up, everybody's profiting," Trump said.
Trump has also actively traded in multiple companies whose stock prices have been impacted by his posts on social media.
In the months before Trump publicly praised software maker Palantir on social media earlier this year, his investment advisers purchased between $200,000 and $680,000 worth of the company's stock, according to a different disclosure report covering the first quarter of 2026.
Trump also sold between $1-5 million of the stock during the same time frame, undercutting claims that he was trying to buy the stock when it dipped.
"Palantir Technologies (PLTR) has proven to have great war fighting capabilities and equipment. Just ask our enemies!!! President DJT," Trump wrote on April 10 in a post that included the stock ticker of the company.
After Palantir's stock suffered one of the worst weeks in a year, Trump's subsequent public endorsement of the company preceded a significant uptick in the company's stock price.
Another high-profile post by Trump that moved the market -- his April 9, 2025, declaration that "THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT" -- came four hours ahead of his announcement that he would pause tariffs for 90 days.
One day before that market-moving post, one of Trump's investment accounts made 327 purchases of a broad array of securities. While those trades appeared to benefit from the rally caused by Trump's post, that account also made similar trades over the last year and appeared to increase trading activity during high volatility events -- suggesting the trades may be part of a broader practice to rebalance his portfolio.
