Aug. 20 (UPI) — President Donald Trump has bought at least $103 million of corporate and municipal bonds since he took office in January, new filings from the Office of Government Ethics show.
The documents were released Tuesday night and show that the president began the buying on Jan. 21, one day after being sworn in. The 690 purchases include debt sold by companies, local governments and entities that could be affected by his agenda.
Active trading by a president of the United States has never happened before, as they usually divest or put their holdings into a blind trust so they can’t make decisions on policies that will enrich them. Trump has eschewed that practice.
Besides municipal bonds issued by local governments, school boards, airport authorities and gas districts, Trump bought corporate debt in tranches of at least $500,000 each from Qualcomm, Home Depot and T-Mobile US on Feb. 10. He also purchased at least $250,000 of debt from Facebook owner Meta Platforms later that month, Bloomberg reported.
He has also bought bonds from Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and Citigroup worth at least $100,000 each.
His direct ownership of bonds from the banking giants also comes as he considers an eventual replacement of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, and weeks after he nominated Stephen Miran to the Fed’s board. The Fed can directly affect a bank’s profit by lowering or raising interest rates, along with other regulatory actions. Miran would have a direct say in many of those actions.
The filings did not show any sales by Trump.
Trump’s business empire is managed by two of his sons and operates in several areas that intersect with presidential policy.
Trump has held meetings with leaders of businesses whose supply chains have been hamstrung by his tariffs, as well as technology industry executives.
In an earlier financial disclosure report that covered his activity in 2024, Trump listed hundreds of bonds in personal investment accounts that are separate from his business. They include properties such as his Florida resort Mar-a-Lago, his stake in Trump Media & Technology Group and cryptocurrency ventures that have added at least $620 million to his fortune in recent months, according to the Bloomberg index.
Under federal ethics law, presidents don’t have to divest assets that may pose conflicts of interest, but they have done so in the past anyway.