Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on March 5, 2025.
Spencer Pratt | Getty Images
While investors and businesses spent the first few days of April 2025 worrying about the future of global trade and the economy, President Donald Trump was busy buying into a self-induced stock market decline.
President Trump bought 327 stocks on April 8, 2025, according to a CNBC analysis of the president’s 2025 annual financial disclosures, including trade, income and debt, released Tuesday. April 8 was the 11th busiest day for stock purchases last year, more than five times the daily average of about 62 in the calendar year, according to a CNBC analysis.
His panic buying came at the tail end of a four-day rally sparked by the announcement of plans for broad, high tariffs. According to a CNBC analysis, President Trump’s purchases were focused on big-cap tech stocks, which have been hit hard since announcing his policies on April 2, which he called “Liberation Day.”
This episode captures a central theme running through President Trump’s second term. The president with enormous market-driving power is also the president with an enormous personal stake in the markets — more personal investments at stake than any of his predecessors.
April 8th, Broadband S&P500 The index closed below the 5,000 mark, within inches of the bear market threshold, a term that describes a 20% drawdown from a recent high. In just four days, the closely watched stock market benchmark fell more than 12%.
The next morning, minutes after the opening bell on April 9, President Trump contributed to the market’s sudden turnaround.
“Now is the perfect time to buy!!!,” President Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social. Later that day, President Trump announced he was rescinding some of the tariffs announced a week earlier that roiled markets.
The S&P 500 rose about 9.5% in the session, marking one of its best days in history. The benchmark has gained about 50% cumulatively since April 8, 2025.
The White House spoke more generally about the president’s assets when asked for comment on the timing of Trump’s April 8, 2025 transaction.
“As President Trump has said, he was a very successful businessman before he took office, and he has a lot of assets. That’s why he was elected president in the first place,” White House press secretary Anna Kelly told CNBC. “All of the President’s assets are held in fully discretionary accounts managed by independent third-party financial institutions. There are no conflicts of interest.”
President Trump told reporters Wednesday that his transactions are managed by outside parties.
President Trump told reporters: “I don’t get involved in anything personal. We have a fund that manages my money.”
Big tech acquisitions
President Trump’s buying spree on April 8 focused on some of the world’s largest listed companies.
He purchased between $100,001 and $250,000 of stock. apple, alphabet, Amazon, microsoft and Nvidia For each day, the disclosure information shows.
All five stocks are members of the Magnificent Seven, a group of supercap technology stocks that are credited with driving the market to record highs in recent years. Additionally, all five companies have rebounded sharply after President Trump’s tariff changes, with investors breathing a sigh of relief that their costs won’t immediately skyrocket.
For example, Apple’s stock fell 5% on April 8th, marking its fourth consecutive negative day. The iPhone maker soared more than 15% in next session, marking its best trading day since 1998.
Meanwhile, NVIDIA lost more than 1% of its value on April 8th. The chipmaker soared nearly 19% the next day. This means you earned almost a fifth of the market value in one trade.
move the market
The April stock trade is just part of a 927-page disclosure showing $2.24 billion in revenue for 2025, including hundreds of millions of dollars from cryptocurrencies, more than $290 million from major golf and club facilities, and more than $86 million in litigation settlements, according to a CNBC analysis. President Trump also continues to collect income from branded merchandise and has received numerous gifts, including sports tickets.
President Donald Trump speaks about new tariff plans at the White House in Washington, DC, on April 2, 2025.
Brendan Smialowski AFP | Getty Images
As for market volatility in early April 2025, daily investors were focused on how President Trump affected stock prices well before this week’s announcement.
On forums such as Reddit’s WallStreetBets page, some users praised President Trump’s decision at the time to buy before recommending it to investors. But some others took a more critical stance, instead likening his actions to market manipulation.
One user wrote: “Can you imagine insider trading?” “Brazilians who are in the White House and won’t come out are literally the stupidest people on the planet.”
—CNBC’s Nick Wells and Deena Zaidi contributed to this report.
