SpaceX and Over 1,000 Trades Totaling $79.2 Million: What Stocks Did Trump Buy and Sell in July?

On September 22, U.S. President Donald Trump disclosed his July purchases of SpaceX stock and large sales of Microsoft and Amazon securities. His portfolio managers continued to actively trade shares of technology and defense companies, exchange-traded fund (ETF) shares, and bonds. In total, according to CNBC estimates, Trump’s purchases in July amounted to at least $43.6 million, while his sales totaled at least $35.6 million, which, according to the network, appears to indicate a major reshuffling of the president’s investment portfolio.

Trump’s portfolio managers purchased SpaceX shares on July 10 and sold a smaller amount of the stock a week later, according to CNBC, citing Trump’s July securities transaction report. They had also bought shares in June —following the record-breaking IPO of the world’s most valuable aerospace and defense company.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which last year served as an advisor to Trump, is one of the Pentagon’s major contractors and conducts launches for NASA. It turns out that Trump has a stake in a company that does extensive business with the federal government, the TV channel notes.

The managers of Trump’s portfolio sold shares of Tesla, the automaker also led by Musk, several times in July, and bought them again on July 27. The trades involving SpaceX and Tesla are just part of July’s trading activity: according to CNBC’s calculations, 1,156 securities transactions were carried out on behalf of the U.S. president that month—10% more than the previous month.

The managers made their largest trades on July 20, when they sold Microsoft and Amazon shares worth $5 million to $25 million each, according to CNBC (the range is due to U.S. financial disclosure rules—filings do not specify the exact amount of each transaction, but rather one of the ranges established by law). Three days later, they repurchased the same stocks, but for significantly smaller amounts, according to Stocktwits. Trump’s July purchases also included shares of Nvidia, Intuit, Marvell Technology, Salesforce, Church & Dwight, and Axon Enterprises.

Fund managers also continued to shift Trump's money among ETFs, CNBC notes. They bought shares in funds that invest in government bonds, companies in the communications services sector, and dividend-paying stocks, and sold shares in other funds focused on bonds and telecommunications, according to Stocktwits. In addition, the U.S. president’s accounts were bolstered by large holdings of municipal bonds.

The White House denies any conflict of interest in Trump's July deals, according to The Guardian. "All investment decisions are made exclusively by independent managers," said Davis Ingle, a spokesperson for the presidential administration.

According to him, neither Trump nor his family members can influence the selection of assets or the timing of transactions, including by giving instructions or recommendations. The managers invest Trump’s funds through model portfolios that “automatically track well-known indices, such as the Schwab 1000,” Ingle explained.

Meanwhile, Trump’s immediate predecessors in the White House typically sold off individual stocks or used “blind” trusts or diversified funds to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest, CNBC notes.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor