US President Donald Trump bought at least US$82 million in corporate and municipal bonds from late August to early last month including new investments in sectors benefiting from his policies, financial disclosures made public on Saturday showed.
Trump carried out more than 175 financial purchases from Aug. 28 through Oct. 2, according to the forms released by the US Office of Government Ethics.
The disclosures, made under a 1978 transparency law called the Ethics in Government Act, do not list exact amounts for each purchase, only providing a broad range.
Photo: Reuters
The maximum total value of the bond purchases exceeded US$337 million, according to the filings.
Most of the assets listed in Saturday’s disclosures consist of bonds issued by municipalities, states, counties, school districts and other entities with ties to public agencies.
Trump’s new bond investments span several industries, including sectors that have already benefited, or are benefiting, from his administration’s policy changes such as financial deregulation.
Corporate bonds acquired by Trump include offerings from chipmakers such as Broadcom and Qualcomm, tech companies such as Meta Platforms, retailers such as Home Depot and CVS Health, and Wall Street banks such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
Purchases of the debt of investment banks in late August included bonds of JP Morgan.
On Friday, Trump asked the US Department of Justice to investigate JP Morgan over its ties to the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The bank has said it regrets its past ties with Epstein and did not help him commit “heinous acts.”
Trump also acquired Intel bonds after the US government, under his direction, acquired a stake in the company.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday.
The administration has said before that Trump has continued to file mandatory disclosures about his investments, but that neither he nor his family has a role in running the portfolio, which is managed by a third-party financial institution.
Trump, who became wealthy in the real-estate sector before entering politics, has previously said that he placed his companies into a trust overseen by his children.
A disclosure filed in August indicated that Trump had purchased more than US$100 million in bonds since returning to the presidency on Jan. 20.
Trump also submitted his annual disclosure form in June, which indicated that income from his various ventures still ultimately goes to him, raising concerns of potential conflicts of interest.
In that annual disclosure, which appeared to cover last year, Trump reported more than US$600 million in income from cryptocurrencies, golf properties, licensing and other ventures. It also showed Trump’s push into crypto had added substantially to his wealth.
Overall, the US president’s June disclosure reported assets worth at least US$1.6 billion, according to a Reuters calculation at the time.
The death of a former head of China’s one-child policy has been met not by tributes, but by castigation of the abandoned policy on social media this week. State media praised Peng Peiyun (彭珮雲), former head of China’s National Family Planning Commission from 1988 to 1998, as “an outstanding leader” in her work related to women and children. The reaction on Chinese social media to Peng’s death in Beijing on Sunday, just shy of her 96th birthday, was less positive. “Those children who were lost, naked, are waiting for you over there” in the afterlife, one person posted on China’s Sina Weibo platform. China’s
‘POLITICAL LOYALTY’: The move breaks with decades of precedent among US administrations, which have tended to leave career ambassadors in their posts US President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered dozens of US ambassadors to step down, people familiar with the matter said, a precedent-breaking recall that would leave embassies abroad without US Senate-confirmed leadership. The envoys, career diplomats who were almost all named to their jobs under former US president Joe Biden, were told over the phone in the past few days they needed to depart in the next few weeks, the people said. They would not be fired, but finding new roles would be a challenge given that many are far along in their careers and opportunities for senior diplomats can
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday announced plans for a national bravery award to recognize civilians and first responders who confronted “the worst of evil” during an anti-Semitic terror attack that left 15 dead and has cast a heavy shadow over the nation’s holiday season. Albanese said he plans to establish a special honors system for those who placed themselves in harm’s way to help during the attack on a beachside Hanukkah celebration, like Ahmed al-Ahmed, a Syrian-Australian Muslim who disarmed one of the assailants before being wounded himself. Sajid Akram, who was killed by police during the Dec. 14 attack, and
RUSHED: The US pushed for the October deal to be ready for a ceremony with Trump, but sometimes it takes time to create an agreement that can hold, a Thai official said Defense officials from Thailand and Cambodia are to meet tomorrow to discuss the possibility of resuming a ceasefire between the two countries, Thailand’s top diplomat said yesterday, as border fighting entered a third week. A ceasefire agreement in October was rushed to ensure it could be witnessed by US President Donald Trump and lacked sufficient details to ensure the deal to end the armed conflict would hold, Thai Minister of Foreign Affairs Sihasak Phuangketkeow said after an ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting in Kuala Lumpur. The two countries agreed to hold talks using their General Border Committee, an established bilateral mechanism, with Thailand
RSS