How Trump’s 'unusual' brokerage account traded around his own market-moving decisions

Key Points:

• On February 10, 2026, President Donald Trump's brokerage account made significant trades, selling $5 million to $25 million in major AI-related tech stocks like Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta, while buying shares in software companies and AI hardware suppliers, reflecting a strategic bet aligned with an influential AI essay predicting disruption in software engineering.
• The trades, disclosed in a 113-page report by the Office of Government Ethics, reveal Trump’s active management of a public-market portfolio with 3,642 trades totaling between $220 million and $750 million in the first quarter of 2026, a highly unusual move for a sitting U.S. president who historically used blind trusts or passive investments.
• Ethics experts expressed concern over potential conflicts of interest, noting that while third-party institutions officially manage the account, Trump’s access to confidential information and policy decisions related to these investments raises significant ethical questions.
• The account’s trading activity also mirrored geopolitical events, such as divesting from U.S. equities following tariff announcements on Iranian oil and shifting into safe-haven assets like gold and treasuries during the Iran conflict, then buying energy and defense stocks as tensions deescalated.
• This filing provides rare insight into a sitting president’s active stock trading, highlighting trades made ahead of public endorsements and purchases in niche sectors, but experts warn the disclosure is incomplete as it excludes assets held in Trump-controlled LLCs and corporations.