Author: Claude, Deep Tide TechFlow

Deep Tide Introduction: Trump's latest disclosure of the OGE 278-T form shows that he executed 3,642 stock trades in the first quarter of 2026, averaging about 60 trades per day, breaking the tradition of previous presidents using "blind trusts" since Johnson.

The disclosure documents reveal that after Trump bought between $1 million and $5 million in Dell stock on February 10, he publicly urged "to buy Dell" at the White House on May 8, and the stock subsequently rose by a cumulative 96%. Several trades in Nvidia, Intel, and others occurred prior to related policy actions, and the controversy over conflicts of interest quickly escalated.

Trump's personal stock trading accounts are becoming one of the most controversial documents in Washington.

According to Benzinga, documents released this week by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) show that Trump executed 3,642 securities trades in the first quarter of 2026, averaging about 58 trades per day. This 113-page OGE 278-T form was certified by Trump on May 8 and delivered to OGE on May 12, with the cover page handwritten to note "the declarant has paid overdue fees," indicating that he surpassed the federal regulatory reporting window of 30 to 45 days.

This trading frequency breaks the nearly continuous blind trust arrangement tradition since Lyndon Johnson. Most previous U.S. presidents placed their personal assets into qualified blind trusts to limit conflicts of interest; Carter even liquidated his peanut farm, Obama held U.S. Treasury bonds and index funds, and Biden also adopted a blind trust arrangement during his term.

Massive sell-off of tech giants, heavy betting on the AI chip industry chain

The disclosure documents show that Trump significantly reduced his holdings in Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft in the first quarter, with all three recorded in the highest valuation range of $5 million to $25 million. However, amid major sell-offs, Trump still maintained exposure to these three companies through smaller purchases.

Even more notable is the direction of new positions. Trump established new positions in Nvidia (NVDA), Broadcom (AVGO), Synopsys (SNPS), Cadence Design Systems (CDNS), and Texas Instruments (TXN) in the $1 million to $5 million range, covering almost the core sections of the U.S. AI chip industry chain. Also, there were significant purchases of Apple, Oracle, ServiceNow, Adobe, and Workday within the same range.

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The semiconductor holdings highly overlap with the White House's policy direction to promote domestic chip manufacturing capacity. According to Quiver Quantitative analysis, the purchase of Nvidia occurred before CEO Jensen Huang accompanied Trump on a trip to China, which was expected to involve discussions on AI chip exports and semiconductor policies.

Three months after buying Dell, White House "calls out," stock price has risen 96%

The center of the conflict of interest controversy focuses on Dell.

Documents show that on February 10, 2026, Trump bought between $1 million and $5 million of Class C stock in Dell Technologies. Three months later, at the Mother's Day event on May 8, Trump publicly thanked Michael Dell and Susan Dell at the White House and made the statement that sparked a huge uproar—telling Americans to "go buy Dell."

On that day, Dell's stock soared by as much as 14.6%, reaching a historic high of $263.99. Since Trump's purchase, Dell's stock has increased cumulatively by 96%.

Another detail in the timeline escalates the controversy. On December 2, 2025, Michael Dell and Susan Dell pledged $6.25 billion to the "Trump Accounts," one of the largest private donations to a sitting president's signature project in recent years. The White House did not respond to whether there was coordination between the President's public endorsement and the Dell family's donation.

Intel purchase leads to stock price surge of 150%, government holds 9.9%

The transaction involving Intel is also worth examining.

Beginning in early March 2026, Trump gradually increased his holdings in Intel, with multiple trades marked as "unsolicited," meaning they were not broker-recommended. Since purchasing on March 2, Intel's stock price has risen by 150%.

Previously, in August 2025, the U.S. government purchased 433.3 million shares of Intel at $20.47 per share, holding a 9.9% stake. In other words, Trump is promoting government ownership in Intel in his presidential capacity while also buying Intel stock in the open market as an individual.

In addition, purchases of Coinbase, Robinhood, and SoFi occurred during a window when the government was actively promoting crypto-friendly policies, including executive orders, federal Bitcoin reserves, and the "Trump Accounts" retirement plan. Robinhood is the initial trustee of that plan.

Non-blind trust raises constitutional controversy, White House claims compliance

Critics view the overlaps in the transaction timeline as a risk of conflict of interest. The White House argues that the disclosures fully comply with the requirements of the STOCK Act.

Trump's assets are held by a trust controlled by his children, but recent documents show that many transactions were executed by brokers as agents. The documents do not specify which accounts hold the trading positions nor who gave the trading instructions.

OGE spokespersons declined to comment on whether the transactions reflect Trump's direct trading activity or operations conducted through managed accounts, only stating "OGE is committed to transparency and citizen oversight of the government."

According to Quiver Quantitative analysis, this is the first time Trump has been actively trading individual stocks during his presidency. The previous conservative asset allocation, mainly in bonds, has been completely overturned.