Since taking office, Donald Trump has bought at least $103 million worth of bonds, including debt issued by corporations that could be impacted by federal policy, like T-Mobile, Meta, and Home Depot, according to government financial disclosures.
According to the August 12 filing with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, the president made nearly 700 bond purchases while in the White House, investing in bonds not only from name-brand companies but obscure local governments and utilities districts.
The disclosures, obtained by Bloomberg, do not list the exact size of the purchases, but they do show that the president bought between $500,000 and $1,000,000 in bonds from T-Mobile and Home Depot in February, as well as debt worth between $250,000 and $500,000 from Facebook parent Meta.
Meta, alongside a variety of other big names in the tech world, donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund.
A White House official told Reuters that Trump and his family had no role in managing the purchases, which were carried out by a third-party financial institution. The official added that federal ethics officials certified the purchases as in compliance with applicable laws.
Critics have alleged that Trump, a billionaire businessman and TV personality before becoming president, has continued highly lucrative activities while holding office.
Under federal ethics laws, presidents are not required to divest assets that might pose a conflict of interest, but most have done so anyway since the late 1970s, moving their assets into blind trusts managed by independent monitors.
Trump is the first president not to have done so since 1978, and his business empire is held in a trust managed by his two sons.
The Republican’s net worth has more than doubled since the final year of his first term, and since retaking office, the president has continued to promote his business interests, including by visiting a new Trump golf course in Scotland and hosting top investors in his cryptocurrency business for a tour of the White House in May.
On average, the president has visited one of his properties roughly once every other day since taking office, and has promoted his businesses at least 60 times, according to the watchdog group Citizens for Ethics in Washington.
The president’s sons, meanwhile, have pursued lucrative deals in the crypto world alongside Zach Witkoff, son of U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
A fund linked to the United Arab Emirates government, a U.S. ally, used $2 billion in the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial cryptocurrency to invest in a crypto exchange.
The Trump sons have also inked multiple business deals in the Middle East since their father took office, including a Trump branded golf course in Qatar partially backed by the country’s sovereign wealth fund.
