Trump Outpaces All of Congress in Stock Trades While Backing Ban That Excludes Him
RegulationManagementDigital Finance
President Donald Trump has outpaced every member of Congress combined in securities trading since returning to office in January 2025, even as he endorses legislation that would bar lawmakers from trading stocks while leaving the president unrestricted, according to Bloomberg. Based on an analysis of security transaction disclosure forms, Trump's trading pace works out to roughly 80 transactions on each market day, and he logged more than 21,000 trades in 2025 with transactions totaling as much as $1.06 billion. His current holdings span thousands of positions across equities, fixed income, and digital assets, a sharp contrast with his first term, when his reported wealth was concentrated in real estate and other non-public business interests. The House measure Trump has backed, which cleared the chamber in July, applies solely to sitting lawmakers along with their spouses and minor children, leaving the president free of any such restriction despite his access to classified intelligence and his capacity to move markets through a single executive action or social media post. Trump expressed support for the measure in his State of the Union address earlier this year, saying it should be passed without delay so Congress cannot corruptly profit from using insider information, but after Senator Josh Hawley pushed legislation that would have subjected the president and vice president to the same trading limits, Trump branded the Missouri senator a pawn and denounced him on the social media company he controls. White House Spokesman Davis Ingle said Trump plays no role in the trading and that outside financial firms oversee the accounts through automated model portfolios benchmarked to indexes such as the Schwab 1000, while Kedric Payne of the Campaign Legal Center said potential conflicts extend beyond insider trading because officials can still influence a stock's value through their official duties. An Economist/YouGov poll of 757 U.S. adult citizens conducted May 22 to 26 found that three-quarters opposed allowing members of Congress and other elected officials to buy and sell stocks, and Republican strategists see the issue as a potent wedge heading into this fall's midterm contests. The broader legislative push faces significant obstacles, with the House measure attached to a voter identification bill that Democrats consider a poison pill in the Senate, while in committee Hawley stood as the sole Republican to back his own Senate bill. Trump's accounts recorded 1,051 transactions in June alone, with total transaction values ranging from $78.1 million to $263.1 million, and Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Robert Garcia have separately demanded that Trump identify the money managers behind his accounts and explain more than 30 transactions they said raised questions about whether he was using his office to benefit his personal portfolio.
