SACRAMENTO, May 17, 2026 — California Governor Gavin Newsom called President Donald Trump’s stock trading activity “corruption at the highest level” Saturday, responding to new federal disclosures showing Trump made more than 3,600 trades — including in tech and defense companies his administration was simultaneously regulating and contracting with.
“Corruption at the highest level,” Newsom’s office wrote on X. “The same kind of corruption Trump said he’d fight against. Total betrayal.”
The statement came in response to reporting that Trump purchased and sold millions of dollars in stock in technology companies and government contractors during the first quarter of 2026 — transactions that in several cases coincided with regulatory decisions and government contracts that directly benefited those same companies, according to disclosures filed May 14 with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.
The Trades at Issue
Among the most scrutinized transactions: Trump purchased between $500,000 and $1 million in Nvidia stock on January 6 — one week before the Commerce Department approved the sale of Nvidia chips to China. He purchased an additional $1 million to $5 million in Nvidia shares on February 10 — one week before Nvidia announced a major processing deal with Meta.
Trump also purchased at least $260,000 in Palantir Technologies stock during the quarter. In February, Palantir struck a billion-dollar contract with the Department of Homeland Security to power the administration’s deportation surge — and holds a separate Pentagon contract surpassing a billion dollars to develop AI systems for military operations. Trump bought between $1 million and $5 million in Axon shares on February 10; on February 24, Immigration and Customs Enforcement outlined a plan to spend $220 million on Tasers over five years — a contract that would represent a major windfall for Axon.
In total the transactions were collectively worth between $211 million and $687 million, according to Financial Times analysis of the filings, which group trades by value ranges rather than exact figures.
The Corruption Charge in Context
Newsom’s use of the word “betrayal” targeted a specific contradiction: Trump built his political brand on anti-corruption messaging, repeatedly promising to “drain the swamp” and push back against the kind of insider dealing he accused Washington elites of engaging in. At his last State of the Union address, Trump called on Congress to ban members from trading on inside information. “Let’s also ensure that members of Congress cannot corruptly profit from using insider information,” Trump said. Democratic Rep. Mark Takano of California shouted back from the floor: “How about you first?”
The White House has denied any wrongdoing. “President Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement. “President Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children. There are no conflicts of interest.” The Trump Organization separately said the president “plays no role in selecting, directing, or approving specific investments” and that trades “are executed and portfolios are balanced through automated investment processes.”
Newsom as National Foil
Newsom has positioned himself as one of Trump’s most aggressive Democratic critics since Trump returned to office in January 2025 — sparring with the administration over immigration raids, National Guard deployments, wildfire relief funding, and redistricting. He has called Trump a “wrecking ball” and an “invasive species,” and confirmed in an interview with CBS News that he will give a 2028 presidential run “serious thought” after the midterm elections. “Yeah, I’d be lying otherwise,” Newsom told CBS. “I’d just be lying. And I can’t do that.”
His term as California’s governor ends in January 2027, when he will be term-limited out of office. Saturday’s statement on Trump’s stock trades — sharp, three sentences, delivered via his official press office account — fit the pattern of a politician building a national profile through rapid-response contrast with the sitting president.
A Growing Chorus
Newsom’s response came alongside a wave of Democratic criticism of the disclosures. Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., said the trades “look like potential insider trading” and vowed they “will be investigated.” Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., called Trump “the most corrupt president in our history,” writing that he has “raked in billions of dollars while Americans continue to struggle.”
The disclosures were first reported by investigative outlet Sludge after Trump filed them with the Office of Government Ethics on May 14. They show Trump made more than 3,600 individual trades in the first three months of 2026 — a dramatic shift from his first year back in office, when he largely avoided individual stocks and invested in bonds. The trades included positions in companies whose chief executives accompanied Trump on his state visit to Beijing this week, among them Apple, Meta, GE Aerospace, Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and BlackRock.
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