CNN: Trump Faces Conflict of Interest Allegations Over Stock Purchases and Social Media Posts

An analysis suggests that U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly posted favorable comments about various companies on social media shortly after purchasing shares in about 20 of them.

CNN reported on July 16 (local time) that this finding emerged from an artificial intelligence (AI) analysis of stock trading records contained in the President's annual financial disclosures and his posts on Truth Social.

After journalists reviewed the AI analysis results, they identified 44 instances across 21 companies where President Trump posted positive remarks about a firm, its management, or its products within one week of purchasing its stock.

A prominent example was Nvidia, the world's largest company by market capitalization.

On April 15 of last year, President Trump mentioned Nvidia's plan to build an AI supercomputer in the U.S., stating, "All necessary permits will be processed and issued to Nvidia quickly."

Just days before that statement, President Trump had purchased between $200,000 and $500,000 worth of Nvidia stock.

In March of last year, he bought $17,000 worth of Tesla stock. A few days later, he posted a video at the White House showing him examining Tesla vehicles, including the Cybertruck, with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and promoted the expansion of Tesla's domestic production.

During the summer of last year, when there were rumors of a rift with CEO Musk, President Trump continued to buy Tesla stock while simultaneously suggesting the possibility of cutting government subsidies for Tesla or deporting the CEO.

Subsequently, after purchasing between $500,000 and $1 million (approximately 750 million to 1.5 billion won) worth of Tesla stock on July 23 of last year, he stated the following day that he had no intention of cutting subsidies for Tesla, posting a message to resolve the conflict by saying, "I want Elon and all companies in our country to thrive."

There was also a case where he mentioned GE Aerospace, Eli Lilly, and Apple all at once two days after purchasing their stocks. When an American Eagle jeans advertisement featuring actor Sydney Sweeney became controversial, he wrote after buying the company's stock that the jeans were "selling like hotcakes."

Even before taking office, in January of last year, he purchased U.S. Steel stock and announced on Truth Social on the same day that the tariff measures he was planning would make U.S. Steel a more valuable company.

Conversely, instances were observed where he criticized companies after purchasing their stock.

Such cases were identified 17 times across 8 companies, including criticizing Comcast and its affiliated channels NBC and MSNBC after buying the broadcaster's stock, and condemning Microsoft (MS) for hiring former Biden administration officials after purchasing MS stock.

Additionally, there were cases of mixed buy and sell orders, such as buying shares of RTX, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman—companies involved in the production of the F-22 Raptor—shortly before referring to the fighter jet as the "greatest and most beautiful fighter jet ever," while selling shares of Lockheed Martin, the main manufacturer of the jet, on the same day.

President Trump is known for being active in both stock trading and posting on Truth Social.

President Trump made over 6,000 social media posts last year, while his account managers conducted more than 20,000 stock trades during the same period.

However, CNN noted that there is no evidence President Trump posted about specific companies to increase the value of his assets, and that most stock trades did not lead to related Truth Social posts.

White House Press Secretary Anna Kelly also explained, "President Trump's assets are held in a fully discretionary account managed by an independent third-party financial institution," adding, "President Trump acts solely in the best interest of the American people."

However, Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, interim vice president of policy and government affairs at the Project On Government Oversight, criticized the practice of simultaneously trading stocks and writing social media posts as a "classic example of a president's conflict of interest."

He argued that even if President Trump does not direct the trades himself, "the appearance of impropriety erodes public trust in elected officials."

Past U.S. presidents placed their assets in a blind trust while in office, meaning they could not know which specific stocks were in their accounts.

In contrast, it has been pointed out that President Trump placed his assets in a trust where his son, Donald Trump Jr., serves as the trustee, meaning he could know the details of individual stock holdings and trades if he chose to.

The U.S. Congress moved to enact a law restricting presidential stock trading, but it effectively failed.

When Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) supported a bill last year, in cooperation with Democrats, to ban stock trading by the president and members of Congress, President Trump criticized the move.

Since then, Congress has been discussing a bill that would restrict stock trading only for members of Congress, excluding the president.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.