
Donald Trump's $100M bond spree: Meta, Citigroup, Home Depot among investments
While the disclosures do not specify the exact value of each purchase, they reveal investments in corporate bonds issued by major firms such as Meta, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, Qualcomm, The Home Depot, T-Mobile USA and UnitedHealth Group. The president has also acquired debt issued by US states, counties, school districts and utilities, raising fresh questions about the overlap between his financial portfolio and government policy decisions.
Unlike equity holdings, bond investments often benefit directly from interest-rate policy and fiscal measures. Trump's wide-ranging acquisitions therefore cover sectors and issuers that could gain from shifts in US economic direction under his own administration.
The revelations have reignited concerns about conflicts of interest, especially given that Trump has repeatedly claimed his businesses are held in trust by his children, while continuing to derive income from them.
Donald Trump's financial empire has grown during and after his presidency. According to Forbes' real-time net worth tracker (as of 20 August 2025), Trump is valued at $5.5 billion, ranking him 703rd richest in the world.
His portfolio spans commercial real estate, luxury golf courses, a winery, and his private jet, the Boeing 757 dubbed Trump Force One.
Donald Trump has also tapped into his political brand, selling NFTs, coffee-table books, and stock in his money-losing social media venture. Much of his fortune, however, remains tied to real estate – a sector hit by rising interest rates, the decline of brick-and-mortar retail, and the remote working shift.
Donald Trump's growing wealth is tempered by mounting legal troubles.
Earlier this year, a New York judge ordered him to pay $454 million after the attorney general ruled he had exaggerated his net worth to secure favourable loans.
The ruling has intensified scrutiny of his finances at a time when his bond purchases are under the spotlight.
Trump's latest disclosures highlight the enduring tension between his role as a policymaker and his standing as a billionaire investor. With much of his bond buying tied to institutions and local governments, critics argue that his private financial interests could be influenced by the very policy decisions he makes in office. The White House has not yet commented on the revelations.
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Economic Times
23 minutes ago
- Economic Times
How US alcohol tariffs may hurt some businesses, hike prices for Americans
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Hindustan Times
24 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Behind Trump's pursuit of ending Ukraine war
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The aftermath of the high-profile Trump-Putin summit in Alaska and the subsequent US-Ukraine-Europe gathering in Washington proves that wars reflect competing structural interests and these interests prevent easy and instantaneous fairytale endings. Readers may recall the three unprecedented meetings between Trump and the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in 2018 and 2019, which eventually yielded no deal on denuclearisation due to dissonance of interests. Both at the Alaska summit, and subsequently the large group meetings in Washington among the US, Ukraine and the Europeans, effusive praise, positive body language and expressions of sincere intent to turn a page could not mask the underlying mismatch in the goals of the principal parties. For Trump, apart from self-glorification and an obsessive claim to the Nobel Peace Prize, the main motivations for a direct one-on-one with Putin and the consensus-building exercises with allies of the US are to reset Russia-US relations after decades of hostility, offload the burden of the US having to primarily aid Ukraine's resistance, and potentially script a 'reverse Nixon' manoeuvre of befriending Russia to counterbalance China. For Putin, the objectives of entering into talks are to dangle economic opportunities and 'pragmatic relations' with the US in return for recognition of Russia's permanent takeover of occupied Ukrainian territory, and to dispel the shadow of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) on Ukraine and other former Soviet spaces. The fact that Trump and Putin used identical language and called for a 'peace agreement' or a 'lasting long-term settlement' rather than just a ceasefire, which Ukraine and the Europeans have been demanding, has been interpreted by critics as American appeasement of Russia as the latter keeps attacking and swallowing more Ukrainian territory. But there are contradictory moves too and the devil lies in the details. The diplomatic pow-wows among the trans-Atlantic allies demonstrated that Trump is not fully deferring to Putin. Despite his personal preference to transfer responsibilities for Ukraine's security to the Europeans, Trump has come around to accept that the US cannot wash its hands off the business of sustaining the independence of Ukraine. His assurance to European counterparts that the US will commit to 'coordination' of security guarantees for Ukraine so that it remains sovereign and free from future Russian expansionism is most consequential. 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By throwing the mainstream western liberal foreign policy playbook out of the window and directly engaging with Russia and even persuading the Europeans to soften their hardline positions, Trump is finally giving the respect that Putin craved for. Liberals have slammed Trump for rehabilitating Putin despite the latter's war crimes in Ukraine. But carrying on with the old ways was leading nowhere even as mass casualties and destruction of infrastructure kept mounting. The way forward is to stick to diplomacy and narrow the differences. If all relevant stakeholders, including the Europeans, are roped in to sort out the structural divergences and a grand bargain is struck, everyone will be better off. Trump's quest for a Nobel prize may sound quixotic, but the peace process he has initiated should be given a chance because there is no Plan B whatsoever. Sreeram Chaulia is professor and dean at the Jindal School of International Affairs. The views expressed are personal


Hindustan Times
26 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
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