Trump purchased up to $5 million of SpaceX bonds days before major space order

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Just two days before launching an effort to slash red tape for commercial space transportation, President Donald Trump last month purchased up to $5 million of bonds issued by SpaceX, a major federal contractor run by Elon Musk, according to ethics filings made public on Thursday.

The SpaceX bond buy was among 517 trades Trump made in August, transactions that spotlight conflict of interest concerns that have hovered over his presidency.

Beyond SpaceX debt, Trump purchased up to $25 million of Meta shares, up to $6 million of Microsoft stock and a smaller amount of Oracle shares, filings show.

Those trades occurred weeks before Trump convened Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other AI leaders for a White House summit. Notably, Trump forcefully pushed back on calls for a regulatory crackdown to address safety fears, opting for a lighter touch instead.

“There is a conflict of interest. I’m not saying he’s doing anything illegal, but this really gives the appearance of corruption,” Richard Painter, the top ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, told CNN on Thursday.

Painter, now a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, noted that the president, vice president and members of Congress are not subject to federal conflict of interest laws.

The White House insists Trump was not personally involved in the latest flurry of trades.

“President Trump’s stock and bond portfolio is independently managed by third-party financial institutions,” Davis Ingle, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement to CNN. “All holdings are maintained in discretionary accounts and invested through computer-based model portfolios that automatically replicate recognized indexes, such as the Schwab 1000.”

Ingle added that neither Trump nor “any member of his family has any ability to direct, influence or provide input regarding how the portfolio is invested or when investments are bought or sold.”

“All investment decisions are made entirely by independent managers. There are no conflicts of interest,” the White House spokesperson said.

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However, the timing of the large-scale purchases of Meta and SpaceX securities are noteworthy.

The filings indicate that on August 18, Trump purchased between $1,000,001 and $5 million of senior unsecured SpaceX bonds due July 2031 paying a 5.35% interest rate.

Two days later, the White House announced Trump signed a national security presidential memorandum aimed at accelerating the “golden age” of America’s space transportation.

SpaceX stands to gain from the new policy, which aims to enable more than 1,000 launches and reentries on American soil annually by 2030 in part by expediting permitting and environmental review.

Asked how he would have advised Bush about making a similar purchase of securities in a federal contractor, Painter said: “No effing way. Don’t buy the bonds. Don’t do that.”

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren told CNN in a statement: “Rather than bringing down the cost of gas and groceries, President Trump is using his office to enrich himself. That’s corruption, plain and simple.”

“It’s long past time for Congress to act and ban stock ownership and trading by members of Congress and the president,” Warren said.

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就在唐纳德·特朗普总统上个月启动一项旨在削减商业太空运输繁文缛节的计划的两天前，根据周四公布的道德文件显示，特朗普购买了由埃隆·马斯克运营的联邦主要承包商 SpaceX 发行的价值高达 500 万美元的债券。

购买 SpaceX 债券是特朗普 8 月份进行的 517 笔交易之一，这些交易凸显了一直笼罩在他总统任期内的利益冲突问题。

文件显示，除了 SpaceX 的债务外，特朗普还购买了价值高达 2500 万美元的 Meta 股票、价值高达 600 万美元的微软股票以及少量 Oracle 股票。

这些交易发生在特朗普召集马斯克、Meta首席执行官马克·扎克伯格和其他人工智能领袖在白宫举行峰会的几周前。值得注意的是，特朗普强烈反对加强监管以消除安全隐患的呼吁，而是选择了较为宽松的监管方式。

“这存在利益冲突。我不是说他做了什么违法的事情，但这确实给人一种腐败的印象，”乔治·W·布什总统时期的首席道德律师理查德·佩恩特周四告诉CNN。

现任明尼苏达大学法学院教授的佩恩特指出，总统、副总统和国会议员不受联邦利益冲突法的约束。

白宫坚称，特朗普本人并未亲自参与最近的一系列交易。

白宫发言人戴维斯·英格尔在给CNN的一份声明中表示：“特朗普总统的股票和债券投资组合由第三方金融机构独立管理。所有持仓都存放在全权委托账户中，并通过计算机模型投资组合进行投资，这些模型会自动复制公认的指数，例如嘉信理财1000指数。”

英格尔补充说，特朗普及其“任何家庭成员都无权指导、影响或提供有关投资组合如何投资或何时买卖投资的意见”。

白宫发言人表示：“所有投资决策均由独立经理人做出，不存在任何利益冲突。”

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然而，大规模购买 Meta 和 SpaceX 证券的时机值得关注。

文件显示，8 月 18 日，特朗普购买了 1000001 美元至 500 万美元的 SpaceX 高级无担保债券，该债券将于 2031 年 7 月到期，年利率为 5.35%。

两天后，白宫宣布特朗普签署了一份国家安全总统备忘录，旨在加速美国太空运输的“黄金时代”。

SpaceX有望从这项新政策中获益，该政策旨在到2030年使美国本土每年进行1000多次发射和再入，部分措施包括加快许可和环境审查。

当被问及如果布什要购买联邦承包商的类似证券，他会如何建议他时，佩恩特说：“绝对不行。别买债券。千万别这么做。”

马萨诸塞州参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦在给CNN的一份声明中表示：“特朗普总统没有降低汽油和食品杂货的价格，反而利用职权中饱私囊。这就是腐败，明摆着。”

沃伦说：“国会早就应该采取行动，禁止国会议员和总统持有和交易股票了。”