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Bondi sold millions in Trump media stock the day he imposed vast tariffs
May 15, 2025 at 7:37 pm
Attorney General Pam Bondi at the White House in Washington, on April 28, 2025. Bondi sold $1 million to $5 million worth of shares in President Donald Trump’s media company last month on the same day that he announced... (Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times)
By
Glenn Thrush
The New York Times
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Pam Bondi sold $1 million to $5 million worth of shares in President Donald Trump’s media company last month on the same day that he announced expansive tariffs that led to a stock market rout, according to disclosure filings.
Bondi, whose political and financial fortunes have been greatly enhanced by her association with Trump, authorized the transaction on April 2, the day the White House unveiled its shock-and-awe levies against American trading partners, according to a report she filed with the Office of Government Ethics last week.
The stock market plummeted on news of the announcement, depressing the share price of Trump Media.
The sale of the shares was expected, and the disclosure form did not include details of the transaction, including specific timing or the number of shares Bondi had traded, just broad ranges of their value. As part of an ethics agreement she signed before her confirmation, Bondi agreed to unload the stocks within 90 days of her swearing-in in early February, meaning she had until early May.
The trade had a negligible impact on her finances, whatever her reason for its timing.
The company’s stock price lost about 15% of its value in the days after the tariff announcement. But it bounced back after Trump retreated from his original plan in the face of a backlash that sent his approval ratings plummeting.
By law, federal officials are barred from using inside information about government or private-sector actions to enrich themselves. In practice, such cases are rare and difficult to prove and while Bondi’s timing was notable, Trump had made it clear he intended to impose strict tariffs to address the nation’s trade imbalances.
A spokesperson for Bondi did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The stock sale, posted on the ethics office website, was earlier reported by ProPublica.
This is not the first time that the finances of Bondi, a former two-term Florida attorney general, have been closely intertwined with Trump. She made at least $3 million from the merger that formed Trump Media, the parent company of the Truth Social platform, for consulting work, according to financial disclosures she filed during her confirmation hearings this year.
As part of the earlier filings, Bondi disclosed that she still held $2 million to $10 million in Trump Media stock, suggesting that her sale of shares in April could be on the higher end of the $1 million to $5 million range.
In addition, Bondi was paid a six-figure retainer by a legal policy nonprofit associated with Trump and received more than $1 million a year as a lobbyist with Ballard Partners, a firm with close ties to Trump and his allies.
seattletimes.com
This story was originally published at nytimes.com. Read it here. |
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