On March 23, the U.S. issued an ultimatum to Iran to reach a deal within 48 hours or face strikes on power plants and energy infrastructure. Trump later reversed course, extending the deadline after announcing productive conversations, which helped lift stocks and sharply reduce Brent crude. During that same day, Trump’s brokerage account bought petroleum and gas stocks such as Phillips 66, Exxon Mobil, and Chevron, along with defense and aerospace companies including Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics. A government transaction report covering January through March shows a consistent pattern during the Iran conflict, with the account also buying gold, Treasuries, and cash as the war continued. A spokesperson said third-party institutions made investment decisions through automated processes.
"On the morning of Monday, March 23, President Trump pulled his first “TACO” of the Iran war. After four weeks of fighting, with oil prices already up 55%, Trump had given Iran an ultimatum on Friday: make a deal within 48 hours, or the U.S. would strike its power plants and energy infrastructure. But on Monday morning, Trump reversed course. In an all-caps Truth Social post, he announced the U.S. and Iran had been having “very good and productive conversations” and that he would extend the deadline for a deal by five days."
"Wall Street, for the first time since the war began, exhaled. Stocks rose. Brent crude plunged nearly 11%. Energy stocks - one of the few reliable winners of the conflict - sold off with oil. The brokerage account in Trump's name spent the day buying them. According to the 113-page periodic transaction report released by the Office of Government Ethics on May 14, Trump's brokerage account spent that same day buying a sweep of petroleum and gas stocks, including Phillips 66, Exxon Mobil, and Chevron, along with defense and aerospace names like Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics."
"The day wasn't an outlier. The filing, which covers January through March, shows a consistent posture through the Iran conflict: as Trump prosecuted the war and told Americans it would end “soon,” the account in his name was hedging it, buying gold, Treasuries, and cash. A spokesperson for the Trump Organization, the family's privately held conglomerate, told Fortune the brokerage accounts are operated by third-party financial institutions that have “sole and exclusive authority over all investment decisions.”"
"Trades, the spokesperson wrote in a statement, are executed through “automated investment processes and systems administered by those institutions,” and neither Trump, his family, nor the Trump Organization “plays any role in the selection of investments or the timing of trades.”"
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