Trump Traded 3,642 Stocks in Q1 — Praised Boeing After Buying It, Stock Jumped 12%

A sitting U.S. president is directly trading individual stocks. It hasn't happened since George W. Bush — until now.

Trump disclosed 3,642 trades in Q1 2026 through his OGE Form 278-T filing — a 113-page document. Obama and Biden kept their assets in blind trusts or index funds to avoid conflicts of interest. Trump refused a blind trust from the start and issues trading instructions himself.

What He Bought

The most notable purchase is Nvidia (NVDA). Starting February 10, Trump bought shares multiple times at multi-million dollar scale. Palantir (PLTR), Robinhood (HOOD), and Apple (AAPL) also appear on the buy list.

Intel (INTC) was purchased with an explicit "Unsolicited" designation — shortly after the U.S. government acquired a 10% stake in Intel. A president personally buying additional shares in a company the government just took equity in.

Corporate bonds were purchased up to $161M. The list includes tech bonds from Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta, Broadcom, CoreWeave, and Netflix, financial bonds from JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and Citigroup, and energy bonds from Occidental Petroleum and Constellation Energy. Individual stock purchases ranged from $1M to $5M per transaction.

What He Sold

Amazon (AMZN), Meta (META), and Microsoft (MSFT) were sold in the $5M–$25M range each. The structure: sell the equity, buy the bonds. Reduce stock exposure while locking in bond yields.

Boeing — Where the Line Is Thinnest

The clearest conflict of interest in the filing involves Boeing. Trump purchased Boeing (BA) stock worth $1M–$5M in February. Then on May 8, he publicly praised Boeing at an official event. Boeing's stock surged 12% that day.

It's well established that presidential praise moves stock prices. Whether buying first and praising later was coincidental is hard to prove. But the structure is clear.

Trading Surges Before Policy Announcements

BBC's analysis is more uncomfortable. Trading volume surges in the minutes before each of Trump's five major policy announcements were confirmed in all five cases. The tariff pause announcement is the most prominent example.

When tariffs are paused, stocks rise. Buying just before the announcement generates returns. Whether this meets the legal definition of insider trading is the central question.

Members of Congress are caught in the same controversy. Representatives including Marjorie Taylor Greene were separately identified buying large positions the day before the tariff pause announcement.

Late Filings and Penalty Fees

There were disclosure violations. Trades from May through November 2025 were reported more than 30 days late. Penalty fees were paid. A sitting president filed stock trade disclosures late.

What "Unprecedented" Actually Means

No sitting president since Bush has directly traded individual company stocks. A blind trust is a structure where a third party manages the president's assets without the president's knowledge — eliminating the ability to make policy decisions that benefit personal holdings. Obama and Biden adopted this structure. Trump refused it from day one.

3,642 trades across 113 pages is the consequence of that choice.