Donald Trump / Photo by Andrew Harnik / Getty Images
The Mail on Finance took a closer look at Mr. Trump’s stock holdings.
According to calculations by Bloomberg experts, Donald Trump earned more money during his second presidential term than he did in the previous 60 years of his life.
In the first quarter of 2026, the U.S. presidential administration filed a report with the Office of Government Ethics, disclosing details of President Donald Trump’s investment portfolio. Over the course of three months, more than 3,600 securities transactions were recorded, totaling between $220 million and $750 million. This wide range is due to reporting rules that do not require the exact amounts for each transaction to be specified. However, it is not the president himself who manages these assets, but his sons—Donald Jr. and Eric.
Donald Trump’s portfolio appears quite sound, but its structure is driven not by classical asset management theory, but by the investor’s personal characteristics and status, says financial analyst Yuliana Sorokina, a professor at the Institute of International Economic Relations. According to her, he trusts major investment funds such as Blackstone and Citigroup. His strategy is to profit from news: he buys stocks based on rumors about streaming services, such as Netflix and Disney, and sells the shares after they are revalued.
Independent trading is unlikely to be compatible with the president’s busy schedule, according to Kirill Kononov, an analyst at BCS World of Investments. He believes the president’s portfolio is speculative, and its purpose is to capitalize on short-term opportunities rather than a “buy-and-hold” strategy. Within this framework, the portfolio may well be well-balanced.
Fresh bait for voters, profit for the president
One of the most talked-about episodes was the purchase of shares in a major sushi restaurant chain. The irony is that the president himself has publicly stated his dislike of raw fish. However, his personal culinary preferences did not prevent him from achieving returns of over 100% on a number of positions. The absolute record-holder was a stock in an egg producer, which yielded the head of state a profit of about 500%.
An analysis of the timeline reveals an interesting pattern: a number of purchases were made several days or weeks before government decisions, after which the stock prices of companies in Trump’s portfolio rose sharply.
Chip Architecture and Neural Networks
The core of his portfolio consists of investments in the technology sector, which powers artificial intelligence.
Nvidia. The main beneficiary of the AI market. Trump purchased shares worth up to $1 million a week before the U.S. government authorized the export of powerful H200 processors to China. A second major purchase—up to $5 million—took place before Nvidia signed a contract with Meta. As a result, the value of these assets rose by more than 100%. It is noteworthy that Trump himself had previously called the development of neural networks “the most dangerous” phenomenon of our time.
Intel. Purchases began in March, immediately after the announcement of a massive deal in which the U.S. government would acquire nearly 10% of the company’s shares for $41 billion. The return on investment exceeded 100%.
AMD. The position was opened in February; by May, the stock price had risen by 109%.
Component manufacturers. Broadcom, Marvell, Texas Instruments, and Micron Technology form the foundation for network equipment and server memory. Purchases of Broadcom shares were accompanied by public praise for the company from the president.
Chip designers. Investments of up to $10 million were directed toward Synopsys and Cadence Design. This is highly specialized software without which it is impossible to design any modern processor.
Enterprise software and cloud systems
The president is betting on digital business infrastructure.
Oracle. A purchase of up to $5 million coincided with the administration’s negotiations to transfer TikTok’s data to Oracle’s U.S. servers.
Adobe, Dell Technologies, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Apple. Millions have been invested in these giants. For example, in February, positions in Microsoft and Amazon were closed at their peak prices, locking in a 20% profit, while Trump’s call to buy Dell products at an official event boosted Dell’s stock price by 14%. In addition, the Dell family pledged to contribute more than $6 billion to the president’s private investment account program.
ServiceNow and Workday. Positions were opened during pullbacks in the enterprise cloud sector, allowing for entry into these assets at a discounted price.
Motorola Solutions. Communications systems for emergency services, purchased in mid-May.
Defense Industry and Law Enforcement
Government contracts remain one of the most reliable sources of income.
Palantir Technologies. A developer of big data analytics systems for intelligence. Palantir’s software is used in the classified Project Maven (“Google Earth for war”) to identify military targets. After the company’s federal contracts nearly doubled—to $970.5 million—Trump bought its stock and soon publicly endorsed the company on social media.
Axon Enterprise. A manufacturer of stun guns and body-worn cameras. Two weeks after Trump purchased $5 million worth of shares, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced a $220 million tender to purchase the company’s equipment.
Boeing and GE Aerospace. Traditional pillars of the American aircraft and engine manufacturing industries. The purchases were recorded at the beginning of the year; the exact amounts have not been disclosed.
Instead of directly owning Bitcoin, Trump prefers to invest through Coinbase shares and Strategy Inc. This allows him to legally report his holdings in financial statements while avoiding the complications associated with digital keys, notes Yuliana Sorokina.
At first glance, Trump’s portfolio appears diverse: it spans finance, media, energy, aerospace, and retail. However, behind this apparent breadth lies a clear imbalance in risk exposure. It completely lacks safe-haven assets such as gold or Treasuries, and the high concentration in companies with aggressive corporate cultures and growth strategies makes the capital hostage to Fed policy: any rate hike or recession would cause the portfolio’s financial sector to underperform the broader market significantly.
Could an investigation into insider trading be launched?
Could a U.S. president ever face a lawsuit alleging that he acted as an insider and traded on the rise or fall of stock prices?
The STOCK Act of 2012 explicitly prohibits the president from using non-public information for personal gain, and the coincidental trades described here create the perfect conditions for such a case. But winning such a lawsuit is extremely difficult, says Yuliana Sorokina. The defense need only cite the “intuition of an experienced developer.” The courts, for their part, must take into account the political nature of the decisions made by the head of state—decisions in which they typically do not intervene.
Nevertheless, the facts—such as the trading of Blackstone shares during visits by its executives to China—pose significant reputational risks and give Congress grounds for years of investigations.
Is it normal for the president of a leading nation to be an active investor?
In global politics, active trading by a head of state is considered a rarity. However, in recent years, this has become the new norm in American political tradition. While the leaders of the United Kingdom, Germany, and Canada are required to transfer their assets to an independent trust, effectively without knowing the composition of their portfolios, Donald Trump has rejected this practice, leaving his capital under family management, notes Yuliana Sorokina.
Politicians and members of Congress in the U.S. and other Western countries periodically act as active and successful investors, and their transactions bear the formal hallmarks of insider trading, Kirill Kononov points out. A textbook example is Nancy Pelosi, an American politician and stateswoman, a Democrat, and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California since 1987. For many years, the return on her securities portfolio has outperformed the growth of the S&P 500 index.
“As far as I know, no charges of insider trading have been brought against such politicians,” the analyst notes.
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