A president bought Nvidia stock, and a week later, his own Commerce Department approved Nvidia chip sales to China.
That's not the headline the White House is highlighting. But it's in the filings.
The Q1 Trading Sheet
Trump's Office of Government Ethics filings hit Thursday, showing more than 3,700 transactions in the first three months of 2026.
Reuters added up the disclosed ranges and got a total between $220 million and $750 million for the quarter.
Big tech filled most of the basket. Among trades valued between $1 million and $5 million each, the president bought stocks including ServiceNow, Nvidia, Adobe, Microsoft, Oracle, Broadcom, Motorola, Amazon, Texas Instruments, and Dell.
The four largest sales? Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta, all sold on February 10, with dozens of other trades clearing the same day.
Note that the filings list each trade as a range, not a hard dollar figure, which is why the cumulative total spans such a wide band.
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The Timing That's Raising Eyebrows
News outlet NOTUS noticed something. Two Trump trades on Nvidia lined up oddly with company news.
Trade one: He bought between $1 million and $5 million in Nvidia stock on February 10, and a week later, Nvidia announced a major chip deal with Meta.
Trade two: He bought between $500,000 and $1 million in Nvidia stock one week before the Commerce Department officially approved the sale of some Nvidia chips to China.
Some trades in the filing are flagged as "unsolicited," and the Office of Government Ethics hasn't said what that label actually means. The agency didn't respond to CNBC's request for clarification.
The Trust Defense
The White House says no one should be reading anything into the trades. Spokesman Davis Ingle told CNBC the president's assets are held in a trust managed by his children.
"There are no conflicts of interest," Ingle said. "President Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public."
Presidents are allowed to hold and trade stocks while in office, but they have to report it. Trump's annual disclosure is due later this year and will cover the full year of transactions.
Worth Noting
The filings only required trades over $1,000 to be reported, and they don't cover mutual funds, U.S. Treasury bonds, or property held outside securities accounts.
For investors, the takeaway is simple. Big tech is still the asset class with the most policy exposure, and when the policy and the trading happen at the same desk, the optics matter.
The annual filing later this year will give a clearer read on whether Q1 was the pattern or the outlier.
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