US President Donald Trump increased his investment portfolio by about $100 million from mid-November to late December, financial disclosure documents released late this week show.
As the filings make clear, the bulk of these purchases were in municipal bonds, with some smaller money going to corporate debt issued by major U.S. companies.
Most of these newly acquired assets are municipal bonds issued by cities, school districts, utilities and hospitals, or instruments commonly regarded as more stable and lower risk.
However, the disclosures also reveal limited exposure to corporate bonds including holdings valued at up to $2 million linked to Netflix and Warner Bros Discovery.
These investments came weeks after the two media companies made their plans to merge public, a deal that has since been the subject of much attention from both regulators and political quarters.
Additional corporate bond holdings disclosed in the filings are linked to companies such as Boeing, Occidental Petroleum and General Motors, a sign of a diversified approach to debt-based investments in a broad range of U.S. economy sectors.
The timing and the scale of the purchases have revived the criticism of possible conflicts of interests, especially as Trump remains in office.
Concerns have been expressed over potential cases where policy decisions of the president and/or regulatory powers could impact assets held in his investment portfolio.
In December, Trump said publicly that he would be involved in deciding whether or not Netflix can go forward with its proposed $83 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery.
The transaction is subject to approval from the regulators; it is also facing a rival bid from Paramount Skydance which is adding to the complexity of the regulatory approval process.
A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Trump’s stock investments and bond investment are run independently by third-party institutions.
According to the officials, neither the president nor his family have the capacity to direct or influence particular decisions on investment.
The most recent disclosures do not differ from Trump’s history of investment. Earlier filings showed that he bought at least $82 million in bonds between late August and early October, reinforcing the point that bonds are a standard part of his wealth management strategy.
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