U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance speaks during a press conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on May 19, 2026 in Washington, DC.
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Vice President J.D. Vance on Tuesday defended President Donald Trump in response to questions about the large number of stock trades revealed in the president’s latest financial disclosures. The contents revealed that transactions totaling hundreds of millions of dollars were made in just three months.
“The president is not sitting in the Oval Office buying and selling stocks on a computer like a Robinhood account,” Vance said at a White House press briefing.
“That’s ridiculous. He has an independent financial adviser who manages his money. He’s a wealthy man. He’s a successful businessman,” Vance said.
“He’s not doing these stock trades himself,” the vice president said, accusing reporters of suggesting otherwise.
Filings released Thursday show there were more than 3,700 transactions in the first three months of 2026 alone. The reporter pointed out to Vance that these included securities of companies that Trump had talked about in “events” and social media posts, including stock ticker symbols.
For example, disclosures show acquisitions of an artificial intelligence software giant and a government contractor. Palantir In March. In April, when Palantir stock had its worst week in a year, President Trump praised the company on Truth Social, writing, “Palantir Technologies (PLTR) has proven itself to be superior in combat capabilities and equipment. Just ask our enemies!!! President DJT.”
White House Press Secretary Davis Engle told CNBC in a statement Friday that Trump’s assets “are in trusts controlled by his children,” adding that “there is no conflict of interest.”
A Trump Organization spokesperson later said the president’s investment holdings are “maintained exclusively through fully discretionary accounts independently managed by a third-party financial institution that has sole and exclusive authority over all investment decisions.”
“Transactions are executed through automated investment processes and systems managed by these institutions to ensure portfolio balance. Neither President Trump, his family, nor the Trump Organization plays any role in selecting, directing or approving any specific investments,” the spokesperson said. “They receive no advance notice of trading activity and do not provide input on investment decisions or portfolio management of any kind.”
The reporter who broached the topic with Vance on Tuesday said in a question that, “Recent polls show that more and more Americans describe the president as corrupt.”
“That’s a hell of a question,” Vance said jokingly as the reporter continued.
When a reporter compared Mr. Vance’s past support for banning individual stock trading by public officials to President Trump’s overt trading activity, Mr. Vance interrupted, saying, “Okay, what’s your question?”
Mr. Vance asserted that he is a “huge fan” of the Congressional Stock Trading Ban, and “so is the President of the United States.”
“Everyone believes that no one should take away confidential information obtained from public service or stock trading,” he said.
“We want to ban that process, and I think the way to set an example is to ban that process, ban that approach, make it illegal. That’s exactly what the president is proposing,” he said.
