Trump Promoted 20+ Companies on Truth Social After Buying Their Stock: CNN

A CNN investigation says President Donald Trump promoted more than 20 companies on Truth Social within days of buying their stock, at times pairing the posts with government actions that could benefit those same firms. The investigation found Trump has promoted more than 20 companies on his Truth Social account days after buying stock in those firms, at times announcing government actions that could benefit the companies he just invested in.

What CNN actually found

Trump bought stock in 21 companies within a week before posting favorable Truth Social messages about them, with at least 44 purchases across those names. The methodology: CNN used artificial intelligence to compare a database of Trump’s Truth Social posts with a full list of stock trades released in his annual financial disclosure, looking for cases when the posts mentioned firms in which he’d recently bought or sold stock.

Trump sent more than 6,000 Truth Social posts last year and his managers made more than 20,000 stock purchases or sales in that same time frame. There’s no evidence that Trump has posted about specific companies to boost his portfolio, and the vast majority of his trades were not followed by relevant Truth Social posts.

The Nvidia example

Trump bought between $200,000 and $500,000 in Nvidia stock in April. Days later, he promoted the chipmaker’s plans to build artificial intelligence supercomputers in the United States. In the April 15 post, he also vowed to expedite all necessary permits for Nvidia and similar firms.

The Nvidia issue was raised in a Senate Finance Committee hearing on June 3 by Senator Elizabeth Warren, who pressed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, stating that Trump bought up to $1 million of Nvidia stock on January 6 and then loosened export controls one week later, allowing the company to sell chips to China.

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Tesla, American Eagle, and the negative posts

Several Tesla purchases totaling at least $17,000 were made days before Trump posted videos of himself and Elon Musk admiring Tesla vehicles at the White House in March, promoting the company’s plans to increase production in the US. On July 23, Trump made one of his largest individual Tesla purchases of the year, buying between $500,000 and $1 million in the company’s stock, and the following day sent a Truth Social post deescalating the feud with his former ally.

On July 31, 2025, he bought between $15,000 and $50,000 in American Eagle Outfitters stock, then four days later posted compliments about the retailer’s advertisement featuring actress Sydney Sweeney, writing that the jeans were “flying off the shelves.”

It cuts both ways. Trump made 17 purchases of eight companies before criticizing them, including Comcast and Microsoft.

Blind trust, Truth API, and the ethics angle

Unlike every other president in the last 50 years who has owned individual stocks or businesses, Trump has refused to place his assets in a blind trust, which means he has access to stock purchase information even if he cannot direct trades. “President Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public. There are no conflicts of interest,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said.

The scrutiny lands as Trump Media prepares to sell Wall Street faster access to Truth Social posts. Its Truth API launches August 1, delivering top accounts’ posts at a significantly faster pace. That product would let paying firms react to the posts faster than the public, letting Trump Media, where his family is the largest shareholder, benefit from his posts.

Options market and stocks to watch

Watch for headline-driven volatility across the names most frequently tied to Trump posts:

NVDA: watch flow around any renewed export-control chatter or White House commentary, given the Senate hearing focus on Trump’s prior Nvidia purchases and China chip policy.

TSLA: watch for reaction to any softening or hardening of the Trump-Musk relationship, which has already coincided with sizable position moves.

AEO: watch retail-tied social volatility, given the Sydney Sweeney campaign post was one of the flagged examples.

PLTR: watch defense and government-contract flow, with Palantir cited among the disclosed purchases tied to complimentary posts.

DJT: watch Trump Media itself as the Truth API launch approaches on August 1, given the direct read-through to the same conflict-of-interest debate. See other news for more.

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