▲ U.S. President Donald Trump and Coupang
U.S. President Donald Trump has been confirmed to have traded shares of Coupang, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, again in June of this year.
According to financial disclosure data released by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) on the 28th local time, President Trump made a total of 1,051 stock transactions.
Among them, there were two transactions involving Coupang Inc. common stock.
On June 3, President Trump sold Coupang shares valued between $1,001 and $15,000.
Additionally, on the 24th of the same month, he purchased Coupang shares valued between $15,001 and $50,000.
President Trump has consistently traded Coupang common stock.
From October of last year through May of this year, he bought and sold Coupang shares 18 times.
According to previous financial disclosure reports, given his background as a real estate tycoon, the nominal value of the Coupang shares he held was estimated to be a maximum of $130,000, or approximately 200 million won in Korean currency.
While the exact scale of purchases and sales has not been disclosed, the purchase scale in June exceeded the sales scale, suggesting that his total holdings may have increased slightly compared to before.
Coupang, a U.S.-based company, is South Korea's top e-commerce firm that has faced controversy over a massive personal data leak.
The Coupang issue subsequently emerged as a pending diplomatic and trade issue between South Korea and the U.S., as the South Korean government imposed a large-scale penalty, and Coupang, refusing to accept it, lobbied U.S. political circles by claiming it was subjected to discriminatory treatment against American digital companies.
The fact that President Trump still holds shares in a company at the center of such conflict is expected to continually spark "conflict of interest" controversies.
Beyond Coupang, U.S. media outlets have continuously raised conflict of interest issues regarding President Trump's frequent stock trading.
Previously, CNN reported that President Trump traded energy and defense stocks, including ExxonMobil, Chevron, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, multiple times in June while the war in Iran was ongoing.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) also pointed out in an article analyzing President Trump's June stock trading records that "President Trump has been actively trading individual stocks since returning to the White House, raising concerns over potential conflicts of interest."
While the U.S. Ethics in Government Act enacted in 1978 does not establish separate mandatory regulations, past U.S. presidents have voluntarily disposed of assets prone to conflicts of interest or placed them in blind trusts.
President Trump is the first president since the enactment of the law not to follow this tradition.
The White House maintains its stance that President Trump does not exercise any influence over his investment accounts, stating that his investment portfolio is "independently managed by a third-party financial institution."