Donald Trump Trades Energy and Defense Stocks Repeatedly Amid Iran War

[Financial News] U.S. President Donald Trump, whose attacks on Iran this year rattled the global oil market and the defense industry, traded energy and defense stocks several times in June, when the war was at its height. The White House said the stocks were managed by a third-party institution and insisted that Trump did not intervene in the transactions.
CNN reported on the 27th (local time), citing stock-trading disclosures Trump submitted to the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) for June 2026. Under OGE rules, Trump must report stock trades exceeding $1,000. The exact amounts are not disclosed and are shown only in ranges.
Under the U.S. federal ethics law enacted in 1978, a sitting president is not required to sell existing holdings after taking office. However, past U.S. presidents voluntarily divested assets that could pose conflicts of interest or placed them in blind trusts. Trump was the first president not to follow that practice after the law was enacted.
According to OGE filings, Trump bought and sold stocks 1,051 times in June. During that period, he frequently traded shares of U.S. energy companies and defense contractors. He sold ExxonMobil shares twice and later bought them back at roughly the same price. Chevron shares were also traded three times. He sold ConocoPhillips shares three times, and Valero Energy shares were also sold. By contrast, he newly bought Occidental Petroleum shares.
Trump also traded defense stocks around June 17, when he signed a memorandum of understanding with Iran to end the war. Between June 12 and 24, he traded shares of Lockheed Martin Corporation, Northrop Grumman Corporation, General Dynamics, and RTX Corporation. Some stocks were bought and then sold again the next day.
He also traded stocks tied to his policy agenda, including pharmaceuticals and artificial intelligence (AI). The list included U.S. drugmakers Eli Lilly and Company and Merck & Co., Inc., as well as AI chipmaker NVIDIA Corporation. In addition, Trump bought $15,001 to $50,000 worth of SpaceX shares on June 23, the day the U.S. space company completed its initial public offering (IPO).
In stock-trading disclosures for the first quarter of this year, released in May, Trump also drew conflict-of-interest criticism after reporting more than 3,700 trades in securities of major companies with various government-related interests. White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said of the stocks mentioned in the report that "a third-party financial institution independently manages the investment accounts." He added, "The president and his family cannot influence which securities are traded or when they are bought and sold."
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