Following today's tweet and follow up suggesting that Trump is now targeting Boeing's contract pricing practices, questions emerged whether the President-elect wasn't engaging in a conflict of interest due to his numerous, existing shareholdings. However, according to Trump spokesman Jason Miller, Donald Trump sold all of his stockholdings in June, removing himself from positions in numerous U.S. companies.
Miller made the revelation during a phone call with reporters on Tuesday morning. He was asked about Mr. Trump’s past holdings in Boeing Co., a company the president-elect had criticized earlier in the day for what he alleged were high costs for the next Air Force One, the WSJ reported.
“The President-elect sold all of his stock back in June,” Miller said. He subsequently clarified he was referring broadly to all of Mr. Trump’s stock, not Boeing specifically.
As his publicly disclosed asset list reveals, Trump had at least two brokerage accounts that held roughly 150 separate corporate stock and bond investments, according to a filing he submitted to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics in May. These included investments in a wide range of well-known companies, including Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc., Boeing and Visa Inc. Trump's stock portfolio was worth roughly $40 million as of December 2015. The President-elect had between $50,000 to $100,000 of Boeing Co. stock when he filed his personal financial disclosure on May 15.
As a reminder, two months later, in early August, Trump said "it's time to sell stocks" and warned of "very scary scenarios" for investors. We now know that at least he had followed his advice. As to whether it is a very scary time for investors, we look forward to an upcoming tweet, warning that the market is "yuugely overvalued."
Trump has a number of investments, including real estate properties, around the world. Some critics have alleged that parts of his portfolio could pose conflicts of interest, based on policies pursued once in the White House or moves by companies or foreign governments to try to curry favor. Liquidating his stock portfolio could alleviate some of those concerns, but House Democrats have pressed for more information about how he will manage his real estate holdings.
As the WSJ notes, Trump is expected to talk more about his business investments at a Dec. 15 press conference. He has said he would be turning over the operations of the Trump Organization to his adult children, though he hasn’t provided more details about how this will work.
Trump's holdings as of May are listed below.
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