By Chris Walker
This article was originally published by Truthout
Trump’s financial disclosures also show he bought millions in stock from Meta as the company ramps up its AI efforts.
President Donald Trump made over 500 stock trades in the month of August, recent filings show, including millions of dollars in bonds purchased for SpaceX, just days before the administration loosened regulations that would have affected the company.
According to the most recent disclosures from Trump, the president purchased bonds from the company worth at least $1 million and up to $5 million.
Those trades involving SpaceX occurred on August 18. Two days later, on August 20, Trump issued a memorandum announcing the purported launching of “the golden age of space transportation.” Among other items, the memo seeks to loosen regulations on potential companies that venture into commercial space travel, and directs federal agencies to “incentivize co-development of space transportation infrastructure with private sector partners.”
Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk have had a complicated but mostly friendly history. Musk infused hundreds of millions of dollars into the 2024 presidential election in support of Trump, and led the Trump administration’s “Department of Government Efficiency” initiative that gutted many federal agencies. The two had a brief falling out afterwards, but in recent months seem to have reconciled.
Indeed, Musk sat beside Trump at a recent White House summit on artificial intelligence (AI), and the president awarded him the National Medal of Science on Thursday.
Critics lambasted the trades and subsequent action by Trump to deregulate space travel as unscrupulous.
“There is a conflict of interest. I’m not saying he’s doing anything illegal, but this really gives the appearance of corruption,” said George W. Bush-era White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter.
“Rather than bringing down the cost of gas and groceries, President Trump is using his office to enrich himself,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) said. “That’s corruption, plain and simple.”
Trump also purchased up to $25 million in stock from Meta, Facebook’s parent company, which has been ramping up its AI efforts. During the past two months since those stock purchases, Trump has stated that he will reject any efforts to pass legislation that would regulate the AI industrydespite strong support from the public to do soand has even gone so far as to describe those who want more restrictions or a slowdown of AI development as treasonous.
More recently, Trump has sought to rebrand AI as “super intelligence,” or “SI,” and issued a threat to anyone who continues to use the older phrasing.
“The White House considers anyone that uses the term, ‘Artificial Intelligence,’ as opposed to the highly accepted new and more accurate term, ‘Super Intelligence,’ THE ENEMY!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social this week.
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Source: truthout.org
