Updated May 18, 2026, 12:18 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump bought and sold stocks worth at least $220 million involving companies such as Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft and Tesla, whose executives he has hosted at the White House and on his trip last week to China.
The big-dollar trading raised alarms among Democratic lawmakers and ethics advocates who contend the transactions represent a conflict of interest for the president. Many of the companies are regulated by the federal government or could benefit from Trump including them at official conferences.
But the president’s company, the Trump Organization, said his accounts are managed by third-party financial institutions without any input from Trump or his family.
“Neither President Trump, his family, nor The Trump Organization plays any role in selecting, directing, or approving specific investments,” the Trump Organization said in a statement. “They receive no advance notice of trading activity and provide no input regarding investment decisions or portfolio management of any kind.”
The stock purchases and sales were reported in broad ranges to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. The total value of the transactions ranged from $220 million to about $750 million during the first three months of the year. But the reports offer a snapshot of investments rather than tallying overall holdings or the profits and losses from specific transactions.
The transactions reflected a broad overlap of companies that Trump has promoted at the White House and on his trip to meet with China’s President Xi Jinping. Trump made no secret of bringing top executives aboard Air Force One for his trip to China such as Jensen Huang of Nvidia, Tim Cook of Apple and Elon Musk of Tesla.
Trump said on social media he was urging Xi to “open up” China to the foreign businesses, including Boeing and GE Aerospace, and financial services companies such as Citigroup, MasterCard and Visa.
Trump announced on the first flight that China agreed to buy hundreds of new Boeing jets and GE engines. His accounts had bought at least $1 million of Boeing stock and sold at least $500,000 during the first quarter. He also bought at least $80,000 in GE Aerospace.
Reporters had shouted questions to the executives during the trip, who said it went well.
“Meetings went well,” Huang said. “Mr. Xi and President Trump were incredible.”
Asked what had been achieved, Musk said: “Many good things.”
Trump’s accounts bought at least $2 million and as much as $7 million in Nvidia stock during the first quarter, according to the ethics reports. The accounts also sold at least $1.8 million in Nvidia stock during that period.
One of the purchases – of at least $1 million on Feb. 10 – came a week before Nvidia announced a strategic partnership with Meta, the parent company of Facebook, spanning infrastructure for cloud storage and artificial intelligence.
Trump had urged lawmakers during his State of the Union address to Congress in February to approve legislation barring them from trading in individual stocks. He argued that lawmakers should not be allowed to “corruptly profit from using insider information.”
Rep. Mark Takano, D-California, agreed. But he said the president and vice president should also be prohibited from trading individual stocks.
“He’s the last person to lecture Americans or anyone about transparency while in office,” Takano said.
The nonprofit advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said on social media that “presidents are not supposed to be day traders.”
