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A photo of Nancy Pelosi gettyimages / Benjamin Fanjoy

Nancy Pelosi caught heat for $59M in trades over 3 years. Trump just disclosed up to $750M in 3 months — and got fined $200

Nancy Pelosi's household disclosed roughly $59 million in trades over three years and inspired a Senate bill bearing her name (1, 2). President Donald Trump disclosed up to $750 million in 90 days, paid a $200 fine for filing late, and is exempt from the conflict-of-interest rules that govern other executive-branch employees (3, 4).

On May 14, the U.S. Office of Government Ethics released two Form 278-T filings covering Trump's personal financial activity from January through March 2026. The reports document more than 3,600 individual securities transactions in 90 days — roughly 40 to 60 trades per market day. Cumulative value: $220 million to $750 million (3).

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At the floor, Trump's quarter is 3.7x Pelosi's three-year volume. At the ceiling, 12x.

The disclosure was filed late. The Washington Post reported the penalty at $200 (4).

Where the law draws the line

Sen. Josh Hawley wrote the bill that bears Pelosi's name — the "Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments Act," or PELOSI Act — to bar lawmakers and their spouses from trading individual stocks while in office (2). The Senate version was renamed the HONEST Act last summer as part of negotiations with Democrats, though the original acronym still gets the headlines.

Congress is bound by the STOCK Act of 2012, which requires lawmakers to disclose trades within 45 days and prohibits trading on material non-public information obtained through official duties. The law also applies to the president.

Federal conflict-of-interest statutes do not. Those statutes bar other executive-branch employees from acting on matters where they hold a financial stake, but presidents are exempt (5).

Hawley's bill wouldn't touch the president's portfolio even if it passed tomorrow.

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What's in the portfolio

Notable Q1 positions in Trump's name included (3):

  • Between $1 million and $5 million each in NASDAQ:NVDA, NASDAQ:AAPL and an S&P 500 index fund
  • Multi-million-dollar purchases of NYSE:ORCL, made during a period when the Trump administration was working on a deal to let Oracle continue operating TikTok in the U.S.
  • Increased NASDAQ:INTC holdings following the U.S. government's August 2025 investment in the chipmaker
  • Sales of $5 million to $25 million each in NASDAQ:MSFT, NASDAQ:AMZN and NASDAQ:META on February 10
  • Hundreds of thousands in NYSE:DIS, NASDAQ:WBD and NASDAQ:PSKY during an active regulatory period for the Paramount-WBD deal

Palantir: Trump bought between $247,000 and $630,000 in NASDAQ:PLTR stock across Q1 2026, including at least seven separate purchases in March alone totaling as much as $530,000 (3).

Palantir's federal contracts have grown across administrations. From $4.4 million in 2009 to $541.2 million in FY2024. Then nearly doubled to $970.5 million in FY2025, according to USAspending.gov data (6). On April 10, Trump endorsed Palantir on Truth Social by ticker symbol, writing that the company had "proven to have great war fighting capabilities and equipment" (5).

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Dell: On February 10, Trump bought $1 million to $5 million of NYSE:DELL Class C shares (3). Three months earlier, in December 2025, Michael and Susan Dell had pledged $6.25 billion to fund "Trump Accounts" — a federal wealth-building program created under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (8).

On May 8, Trump praised Dell at a White House Mother's Day event and told Americans to "go out and buy a Dell." The stock jumped roughly 14% intraday to an all-time high (7).

CNBC's Jim Cramer goes silent on Intel

On May 18, CNBC co-host Carl Quintanilla interrupted a "Squawk on the Street" segment praising Intel's recent run to note that, "according to the filings, the president's been trading some Intel in the quarter." Jim Cramer stuttered for roughly 10 seconds and went quiet. Co-host David Faber filled the air: "Got nothing to say about that?" Then: "We're not having technical difficulties here, everybody, but we gotta go" (9).

The U.S. government holds a 9.9% stake in Intel, acquired in August 2025 (7). Trump was actively trading the stock. The full exchange ran on CNBC.

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What the White House says

The Trump Organization says the portfolio is held in a trust managed by Trump's children. Investment decisions are handled by third-party institutions through "fully discretionary accounts." Neither Trump nor his family directs trades or receives advance notice (5).

White House spokesman Davis Ingle told CNBC: "There are no conflicts of interest. President Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public" (5).

The filings themselves don't specify who directed individual trades, exact prices, intraday timing or profit-and-loss figures (3). Eric Trump has separately described the family's holdings as a "blind trust" invested in "broad market indexes" (5). The filings disclose more than 3,600 individual stock transactions across the quarter.

No federal investigation has been announced.

The bottom line

Pelosi's $59 million in disclosed family trades over three years got her a bill named after her. Trump traded somewhere between $220 million and $750 million in 90 days, paid $200 for filing late, and is legally exempt from the conflict-of-interest rules that govern every other executive-branch employee.

Article sources

We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.

CNN (1); Hawley.senate.gov (2); Capitol Trades (3); Washington Post (4); CNBC (5, 7); The Hill (6); ABC News (8); HuffPost (9)

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Rudro is an Editor with Moneywise. His work has appeared on Yahoo Finance, MSN, MSN Money, Apple News, Samsung News and the San Diego Union Tribune.

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