Donald Trump bought up to $50,000 worth of SpaceX stock in July, then sold some of it a week later, all while his administration holds enormous power over the fate of the company that just completed the biggest IPO in American history. The president's financial disclosure form, signed September 8 and posted publicly by the Office of Government Ethics this week, shows the trades happened on July 10 and July 17. SpaceX is a U.S. military contractor that regularly seeks federal approvals. But sure, no conflict here.
The Timeline Is Not Subtle
Reuters reports that Trump signed off on his SpaceX purchase less than a month after the company priced its IPO on June 12, an offering that valued the space, satellite, and AI company at $1.77 trillion. That was, per Reuters, the biggest IPO in American history. Trump had already bought SpaceX shares in June, Reuters previously reported. July was apparently round two.
The July 10 buy was somewhere between $15,001 and $50,000. The July 17 sale was somewhere between $1,001 and $15,000. Federal disclosure forms use ranges instead of exact figures, so we can't tell you the precise dollar amounts. What we can tell you is that the man who controls the federal agencies SpaceX needs approvals from was actively trading SpaceX stock across a two-week window. Write that sentence down and sit with it for a moment.
The White House Excuse Is Doing a Lot of Heavy Lifting
When Reuters first reported Trump's June SpaceX purchases, White House spokesman Davis Ingle had a ready answer: third-party financial institutions independently manage the president's portfolio, replicating "recognized indexes, such as the Schwab 1000." Trump's spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment about the July trades specifically, according to NBC News.
The "it's all managed independently" defense is the same one the White House has been running since Trump returned to office. The problem is that SpaceX is not some passive index holding. It is a government contractor. It seeks federal agency approvals. The administration sets military spending priorities that directly affect SpaceX's revenue. Saying a blind trust-adjacent arrangement makes this fine is a bit like saying you have no influence over your own house because your spouse pays the mortgage.
SpaceX Is Not Just Some Tech Company
Let's be specific about what SpaceX actually is, because the word "contractor" can sound mundane. SpaceX launches military satellites. It provides launch services for NASA. Its Starlink network has been used in active war zones, and the U.S. government is one of its biggest customers. The decisions Trump's Defense Department, State Department, and regulatory agencies make can directly add or subtract billions from SpaceX's bottom line.
Elon Musk, who founded SpaceX and remains its controlling figure, spent much of 2025 embedded in the executive branch as the head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. That arrangement dissolved, but the financial entanglement between Trump world and Musk's companies has not. Trump trading SpaceX shares during this period is not the background noise of a busy portfolio. It is the sound of a very loud alarm.
Over 1,000 Trades in a Single Month
The SpaceX transactions were among more than 1,000 trades Trump made in July alone, according to the disclosure Reuters reviewed. One thousand trades in one month. For a sitting president who is simultaneously running the federal government, that is a staggering volume of financial activity.
The Office of Government Ethics, which collects ethics disclosures from federal officials, posted the form on its website on Tuesday. It is publicly available. Reuters combed through it. Nobody in the administration appears particularly worried that anyone would. That level of confidence, that the sheer volume of transactions would make the SpaceX trades easy to miss, is either very stupid or very calculated. Neither option is reassuring.
The Dingo Take
You are supposed to believe that the president of the United States can trade shares in a military contractor, while that contractor needs federal approvals to operate, while the president controls the agencies granting those approvals, and that none of this is a problem because some third-party money manager pushed a button. That is the argument. That is what they are going with.
The ethics framework around presidential finances exists precisely to prevent this. Presidents have historically divested from holdings that created even the appearance of a conflict of interest. Trump has made no secret of the fact that he thinks those norms are for other people. He disclosed these trades because the law requires it, not because his administration thought it was anything worth flagging. His spokesperson didn't even bother responding to questions about the July trades. They are not embarrassed. That is the part that should scare you.
Elon Musk built SpaceX into a $1.77 trillion company that depends heavily on U.S. government contracts and approvals. Trump is trading that company's stock in the same month his administration is making decisions that affect its future. If a mid-level Pentagon procurement officer did something a tenth this brazen, they would be facing federal charges. The president of the United States gets a shrug and a press inquiry that goes unreturned.
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