Trump Buys, Sells Oil Stocks Amid US-Iran War
US President Donald Trump's investment accounts have continued to purchase and sell stock holdings in oil and natural gas companies while he oversees the US war with Iran, according to his financial disclosure filings through the second quarter of 2026.
The White House said that independent managers make the decisions about the president's stock portfolio, and Trump doesn't weigh in on the timing of selling or buying stock or securities. Trump has a vast portfolio with holdings in all 11 sectors, and a CBS News investigation showed that in the first three months of the year, his accounts executed about 3,600 stock or securities trades, worth a total that ranged between $212 million and $695 million.
Energy stocks surged during that period, which encompasses the US operation in Venezuela in early January and the war with Iran, which started at the end of February. Filers are only required to report ranges of transactions, not specific dollar amounts. The estimates were based on his stock holdings in 2025, and didn't take into account the trades that he's made since then.
One notable large transaction in CBS News' review of the president's oil trades was on April 7, the day the president declared a ceasefire in the war with Iran. His investment accounts sold between $500,000 and $1 million of ExxonMobil stock, according to one financial disclosure report Trump filed in late June.
Presidents, members of Congress, and other federal officials are legally allowed to trade individual stocks, though some members of both parties have proposed outlawing the practice. Donald Sherman, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, said the president shouldn't benefit financially from higher oil prices.