Trump Bought Hundreds of Stocks the Day Before He Paused Tariffs and Sparked a Historic Rally

The day before President Trump announced a 90-day pause on his sweeping tariffs, sending markets exploding higher, his investment accounts quietly purchased hundreds of stocks near the market low, trades that were not publicly disclosed until more than a year later despite federal disclosure requirements. The purchases, finally disclosed in a 927-page annual financial disclosure filed with the Office of Government Ethics on Monday, reveal a churn of transactions that was quietly playing out all last year: Trump's accounts were actively trading stocks throughout 2025 while he was making policy decisions that moved markets, and the public had no idea. On April 8, 2025, the day before Trump announced the tariff pause, the disclosure shows 327 individual stock purchases worth as much as $12.8 million, one of the largest single-day stock buying sprees disclosed in the filing. The purchases included Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, and Alphabet, each valued as much as $250,000, along with scores of other companies. The S&P 500 jumped nearly 10% the following day when Trump announced the pause, one of the largest single-day gains in the index's history. Federal ethics law requires executive branch officials, including the president, to publicly disclose securities transactions worth more than $1,000 within 45 days on forms known as periodic transaction reports, or 278-Ts. The requirement exists so the public can monitor whether officials are trading in companies affected by their own decisions. Trump filed no such reports covering the April trades—or virtually any of the thousands of stock trades his accounts executed throughout 2025. A note from an OGE reviewer on the cover page of the annual filing states: "The filer paid late filing fees related to transactions not previously reported on 278-Ts." The late fee under federal law is capped at $200. “It is critical that the public and the press have a full accounting of the financial holdings, investments and stock transactions of senior public officials,” said Craig Holman, a government ethics expert with Public Citizen. “These officials are in a unique position of having access to inside information about economic and business trends, offering a prime opportunity for insider trading. Worse yet, they are also in a position of being able to manipulate those economic and business trends for self-enrichment.” The annual filing covers thousands of transactions spanning the full calendar year, with purchases and sales in hundreds of individual companies. The only periodic transaction reports that Trump filed in 2025 show transactions in municipal and corporate bonds, which carry far less potential for conflicts, as presidents’ day-to-day decisions do not move bond markets the way they can move individual stocks.