Trump bought Nvidia, Google among 327 stocks before tariff U-turn rally

US President Donald Trump’s investment accounts bought hundreds of stocks on April 8, 2025, one day before he paused part of his “Liberation Day” tariff plan and triggered one of Wall Street’s biggest rallies in years.

The sequence, revealed in newly released financial disclosures analyzed by CNBC, has drawn fresh scrutiny because the trades came near the bottom of a tariff-driven sell-off.

The White House and Trump’s representatives say the president does not direct individual investment decisions.

Trump's buying spree at the bottom of the crash

The timing looks striking as Trump announced sweeping tariffs on April 2, 2025, sending markets into a rapid four-day slide.

The S&P 500 lost more than 12% after the announcement and closed below 5,000 on April 8, its lowest close in nearly a year.

That same day, Trump’s investment accounts made 327 individual stock purchases, according to the newly filed disclosure.

As per CNBC analysis, April 8 was Trump’s 11th-busiest buying day of 2025 and more than five times his daily average of about 62 trades.

The purchases included some of the biggest US technology names like Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon and Alphabet, with each of those purchases listed at as much as $250,000.

The disclosures do not show exact prices, profits, or whether the trades were executed directly as common stock or through managed account structures.

That is important because the filings show timing and broad value bands, not intent.

Then came the reversal, and the rally

The next morning, Trump posted on Truth Social at 9:37 AM ET:

“THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT.”

Shortly after 1:00 PM, he announced a 90-day pause on many of the tariffs that had rattled markets, while raising tariffs on China.

The market reaction was immediate as the S&P 500 surged 9.52% on April 9, its biggest one-day gain since October 2008, while the Nasdaq jumped 12.16% and the Dow rose nearly 8%.

Apple rose 15.3% and Nvidia added 18.7%, two of the strongest moves among large technology stocks.

Market strategists framed the rally as a response to sudden relief after several days of forced selling.

Gina Bolvin, president of Bolvin Wealth Management Group, told Reuters that investors saw the pause as a step toward clarity, though she warned uncertainty remained after the 90-day window.

Charles Schwab’s Kevin Gordon said that the bounce from oversold levels made sense, but said policy was changing so quickly that high-conviction calls were difficult.

Critics remained focused on the timing.

Democratic senators Ruben Gallego and Adam Schiff asked the Office of Government Ethics to examine whether White House officials or Trump family members had advance knowledge of the pause and traded on it, according to The Washington Post.

Disclosure delays and the White House’s defence

The transparency issue is now part of the story.

Federal ethics rules require periodic transaction reports to be filed within 30 days of receiving notice of a covered transaction, and no later than 45 days after the transaction.

Trump did not file 278-T transaction reports covering the April trades, and an Office of Government Ethics reviewer later noted possible late filing fees for transactions that had not previously been reported on those forms.

The annual filing itself ran 927 pages and was released by the US government this week.

The White House has rejected the conflict-of-interest criticism.

Spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Reuters that neither the president nor his family has engaged, or will engage, in conflicts of interest, and that Trump’s actions are taken in the best interest of Americans.