Trump buys another US$82 million of corporate and municipal bonds
[WASHINGTON] President Donald Trump has continued his purchases of municipal and corporate debt this fall, including bonds of companies affected by his administration’s policies.
New disclosures posted on Saturday (Nov 15) by the US Office of Government Ethics show that Trump’s purchases of at least US$82 million include bonds from Netflix, UnitedHealth, Boeing, Meta Platforms, Home Depot, Broadcom and Intel, of which the US government acquired a stake under his administration.
He also purchased municipal bonds from US cities and local school districts, utilities and hospitals. The disclosures were dated Oct 17 and Oct 20 and released by OGE after the end of the government shutdown.
The reports, which all federal elected officials and appointees who trade must submit, don’t specify exact amounts or prices, since only broad ranges of transactions involving stocks, bonds, commodity futures and other securities are required. Trump reported no sales.
In August, he reported 690 transactions, totalling at least US$103.7 million in bond purchases.
When the August report was issued, a senior White House official said that neither Trump nor any of his family members made the investment decisions. Independent financial managers made the bond purchases using programmes that replicate recognised indexes when making investments, the official said, adding that OGE signed off on the filings.
Unlike his predecessors, Trump didn’t divest or move his assets into a blind trust with an independent overseer. His sprawling business empire is managed by two of his sons and operates in several areas that intersect with presidential policy.
On Intel, Trump sealed a deal in August that gives the US government an almost 10% stake in the company, an unusual market intervention the administration said was needed to protect domestic chip manufacturing.
Intel has said the government would be a passive owner, with no board seat or other governance or information rights. The US$8.9 billion investment is partly funded from the US Chips and Science Act passed under former President Joe Biden. BLOOMBERG
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