Donald Trump carried out 517 securities trades in August, with combined purchases and sales totaling about $74.3 million to $273.3 million, according to CNBC’s analysis of his August financial disclosure. The filing showed that, while the number of trades dropped from June and July, his portfolio remained highly active during the month.
Meta was the largest single trade in August
CNBC said Trump’s total purchases in August were at least $44.2 million, while total sales were at least $30.1 million.
The biggest single transaction came on Aug. 21, when Trump bought $5 million to $25 million of Meta stock. On the same day, he also purchased AT&T, ConocoPhillips, Abbott Laboratories, Netflix and Chevron, with each trade falling in the $1 million to $5 million range.
On the selling side, Trump sold AMD and Church & Dwight on Aug. 21, also in transactions worth $1 million to $5 million each. He also reduced or exited positions in Boeing, Home Depot, T-Mobile, Datadog, Dell Technologies, Palo Alto Networks and NVIDIA, with each of those sales valued at $500,000 to $1 million.
Trading activity slowed from the prior two months. The disclosure showed that Trump reported more than 1,000 trades in both June and July, compared with 517 in August.
SpaceX bond purchase came two days before policy signing
Another transaction that drew attention in the disclosure was Trump’s investment in SpaceX debt.
On Aug. 18, Trump’s account bought $1 million to $5 million of SpaceX senior unsecured notes with a 5.35% coupon and a July 2031 maturity date. Two days later, on Aug. 20, Trump signed a national space transportation policy that calls for the United States to support more than 1,000 launches and atmospheric reentry missions each year by 2030. The policy also directs federal agencies to make launch facilities more accessible to commercial companies and encourages private investment and public-private partnerships in space infrastructure.
SpaceX is described in the report as a major contractor for the U.S. military and a key launch service provider for NASA, with an important position in the commercial launch market. CNBC said the company could directly benefit from the policy.
Earlier SpaceX stock holdings were much smaller
The disclosure also showed that Trump had already held a small amount of SpaceX stock. He bought $15,000 to $50,000 in June and again in July, then sold $1,001 to $15,000 in July. Against that backdrop, the new $1 million to $5 million debt investment was much larger.
The piece was written by Li Jia for Wallstreetcn and republished by MarsBit.