President Donald Trump spent much of 2025 buying securities issued by major banks and financial corporations—more than 170 investments in total—without the public knowing about them for months, according to a new federal ethics filing.
The transactions were not reported by Trump until late February 2026 and they were not publicly disclosed until this morning, long after many of them occurred, even as Trump was shaping policies affecting the financial sector firms tied to the investments. The filing notes that all of the transaction notifications were received “over 30 days ago” and indicates that Trump paid late filing fees.
The filing, submitted to the Office of Government Ethics, lists more than 170 separate purchases made between May and November 2025. The individual trades are reported only in broad value ranges, from $1,001 to as much as $500,000, but adding together the upper end of the disclosure ranges suggests the transactions could total more than $20 million.
Many of the investments involve income-producing securities issued by major financial institutions, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, PNC Financial Services, Truist Financial, Citizens Financial Group, Huntington Bancshares, U.S. Bancorp, and KeyCorp.
Nearly all of the securities listed appear to be preferred shares or similar bank capital instruments, which typically pay fixed dividends rather than fluctuating with the stock market like ordinary shares. Banks frequently issue these securities to raise capital and meet regulatory requirements, and they often offer yields ranging from 3 percent to more than 8 percent annually.
