Trump wanted to stop Congress trading stocks while his own portfolio made millions in trades

President Donald Trump used his State of the Union address to push Congress into passing limits on lawmakers’ stock trading. A newly released financial disclosure shows his own investment accounts made 1,156 trades in July. Those purchases and sales were worth somewhere between $79 million and $270 million, according to The Guardian.

The largest July transactions were sales of between $5 million and $25 million each in Amazon and Microsoft stock, made on the same day. Three days later, the accounts bought back smaller amounts of both companies. Other purchases that month included Nvidia, Salesforce, Intuit, and Marvell Technology.

White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said third-party financial institutions manage the accounts through computer-based model portfolios that automatically track indexes such as the Schwab 1000. He added that neither Trump nor any member of his family can direct, influence or give input on what is bought or sold, or when.

The bill Trump pushed for wouldn’t even apply to him

The House passed the Stop Insider Trading Act 232-198 in July, but the bill only covers members of Congress, their spouses and dependent children. Trump and Vice President JD Vance are not included, so the president’s accounts could keep trading even if he signs the bill into law.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren responded to the filing by arguing it should be illegal for a president to trade individual stocks. Under the House version, lawmakers and their families would be barred from buying new individual stocks but could keep what they already own. Any sale would require public notice at least seven days in advance.

Republican leaders also attached an unrelated voter ID requirement, and just 13 Democrats voted for the combined package. Rep. Joe Morelle, a New York Democrat, called the voter ID provision a poison pill designed to sink the stock trading restrictions.

A Bloomberg analysis found Trump’s accounts made nearly 28,700 trades between his return to office and the end of June, more than every member of Congress combined. Lawmakers reported about 22,200 transactions over the same period. However, trade counts alone do not prove wrongdoing, as index-tracking portfolios can generate heavy volume through routine rebalancing.

The $79 million to $270 million estimate measures the value of securities that changed hands rather than profit. The upper figure is simply the top of every reported range added together, as disclosures list each trade within a broad dollar band. The filing does not show purchase prices or realized gains on any position.

A federal criminal law forces most executive branch officials to recuse from matters affecting their own finances. However, that statute does not apply to the president or vice president, and no general rule forces a president to sell individual stocks. The July trades are public now as the STOCK Act requires officials to report them within 45 days.

Trump has said he never speaks to the people who manage his money, and he recently claimed his trades benefit America in a Truth Social post. His latest annual disclosure showed at least $2.2 billion in income for 2025, with more than half tied to cryptocurrency businesses.

The Stop Insider Trading Act now sits in the Senate, where it would likely need Democratic votes to clear a filibuster. That support could be hard to find while the voter ID requirement remains attached.