Trump municipal bond portfolio worth up to $1 billion

President Donald Trump is a creditor to hundreds of cities, hospitals, schools, utilities and other public institutions across the country, many of which are directly affected by decisions by his own administration.

And their financial exposure is increasing.

Trump ended 2025 with 807 municipal bond positions worth between $240.7 million and $797.6 million, according to a CNBC analysis of Trump’s financial disclosures filed since returning to the White House. He has since disclosed at least 243 purchases worth between $68.2 million and $233.8 million in 2026. That includes 48 new purchases President Trump disclosed on Sept. 22, the day his July financial report was released. Unlike his stock holdings, which have been actively traded during this presidential term, Trump has reported buying bonds but not selling them.

These holdings total more than 1,000 and are worth between $300 million and $1 billion, according to CNBC calculations. The exact current value is unclear because federal filings use wide ranges and exclude subsequent market movements.

“The scale of (Trump’s) municipal bond exposure is unprecedented as far as I can tell,” said Justin Marlowe, director of the Center on Local Finance at the University of Chicago. “For an individual investor, even $100 million is a lot of money, and a portfolio close to $1 billion functions more like an institutional investor.”

In some cases, they held bonds tied to issuers or facilities before the Trump administration took steps to affect them. In other cases, his account purchased debt after the federal government implemented regulatory and funding actions involving the very same borrowers and projects.

It’s the latest example of the blending of executive power and personal wealth that has characterized Trump’s presidency. Federal aid, regulation and health care funding decisions could impact the finances of issuers with debt in President Trump’s portfolio, ethics and financial experts told CNBC.

CNBC found no evidence that Trump or his investment managers traded with advance knowledge of administration decisions, that Trump’s economic interests explicitly shaped those policies, or that Trump directed individual trades.

The White House and Trump Organization said Mr. Trump’s investments are held in discretionary accounts managed by independent financial institutions.

White House Press Secretary Davis Engle said that neither President Trump nor his family has the “ability to direct, influence or provide input” on how his portfolio is invested or when to buy or sell securities.

A Trump Organization spokesperson similarly said the outside managers have “sole and exclusive authority” over investment decisions, including asset allocation and trading.

However, Marlowe said this does not inherently eliminate the problems that arise when outside managers take on debt from particular municipalities or projects. Investors seeking exposure to municipal bonds routinely use exchange-traded funds and other index products to avoid selecting individual bonds.

“There are a lot of different ways you can get into the market without having to pick and choose individual bonds,” Marlowe told CNBC, so you can avoid the question of “how federal policy will affect specific holdings in your portfolio.”

It’s unclear why Mr. Trump’s account bought so many municipal bonds or what role the individual issuers play in a broader investment strategy. Neither the White House nor the Trump Organization provided an explanation in response to CNBC’s detailed questions about the bond purchases.

Wealthy investors often use municipal bonds to diversify their portfolios and generate interest income that is exempt from federal income taxes.

Mr. Trump’s holdings include bonds tied to three coal-fired power plants that have received less stringent federal pollution regulations.

In February 2025, the President’s account purchased $50,010 to $100,000 in pollution control bonds related to Georgia Power’s Bowen plant. Fifty-seven days later, President Trump signed a proclamation exempting dozens of coal-fired power plants, including all four Bowen plants, from the Environmental Protection Agency’s strict limits on toxic air pollution for two years.

With the exemption, Mr. Trump’s account purchased up to an additional $200,000 in debt related to two other eligible facilities: Georgia Power’s Scherer Power Plant and Alabama Power’s James M. Barry Power Plant.

“The credibility behind pollution-control bonds is often dependent on the regulations governing that power plant,” said Richard Painter, former chief ethics lawyer to President George W. Bush and now a professor of corporate law at the University of Minnesota. “As we see here, when federal policy delays compliance, it can jeopardize the economics of a facility.”

President Trump’s proclamation would have delayed compliance with the stricter standards from 2027 to 2029, but the EPA ultimately repealed those standards in February.

“In my opinion, President Trump’s energy secretary should not be allowed to hold these types of bonds, but (Trump) does because the president is exempt from typical conflict of interest laws,” Painter told CNBC.

President Trump’s energy bond holdings extend beyond coal.

In July 2025, President Trump signed an executive order expediting the construction and permitting of data centers and the infrastructure needed to power them. Four months later, his account began purchasing Omaha Public Power District power revenue bonds, purchasing between $750,002 and $1.5 million in November and December.

Data centers are expected to drive the majority of electricity demand growth over the next three years, S&P Global Ratings said in a November report. S&P also said continued data center expansion is essential to utilities’ strategies to address increasing debt service obligations.

“Data centers have a lot of power demand, and many local utilities are having to make significant investments in additional generating capacity for these data centers,” said Nora Wittstruck, managing director and chief government analysis officer at S&P Global Ratings.

CNBC found no evidence that President Trump’s executive order targeted utility companies or specific projects within their service areas. Still, federal policy can shape the broader landscape that affects municipal borrowers, Marlowe said.

One example is President Trump’s health care bonds. His account will hold 72 municipal bond positions related to hospitals and health systems, valued at approximately $24.2 million to $76.3 million, as of the end of 2025, according to a CNBC analysis.

Many of these providers rely on Medicaid spending, and the 2025 tax cuts and spending package, known as “The Big and Beautiful,” is expected to cut Medicaid by about $900 billion over 10 years, according to KFF, a nonpartisan nonprofit health policy group.

S&P warned that declining Medicaid enrollment and payment limits to providers could put pressure on the credit of some hospitals through reduced reimbursements and increased uncompensated care, especially among financially vulnerable institutions.

Nevertheless, Mr. Trump’s account continued to buy hospital-related bonds after the law was enacted, including bonds associated with UPMC, a nonprofit health system based in Pittsburgh, and Memorial Hermann, a nonprofit health system serving the Houston area.

The president’s financial disclosure for July includes five additional purchases related to health care facilities and systems.

Ethics experts say municipal bonds generally have fewer conflicts of interest than corporate stocks, but concerns are heightened when federal action directly targets issuers.

“When the publisher is the direct beneficiary as a specific party, that’s the most direct conflict of interest,” said Virginia Canter, chief counsel at Democracy Defenders Action, a left-wing nonpartisan nonprofit focused on government ethics and combating corruption.

Some of Trump’s bond holdings aren’t necessarily economically advantageous. His account buys debt from governments facing federal funding limits and adds to expenses related to his administration.

On March 12, Mr. Trump’s account purchased between $250,001 and $500,000 in Minnesota state bonds. Fifteen days earlier, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services deferred disbursing $259.5 million in quarterly federal Medicaid funds to states, citing a review of unsubstantiated or potentially fraudulent claims. The state of Minnesota has filed a lawsuit over most of the funds that remain pending.

The state’s purchase followed another in Minneapolis. On Dec. 11, 10 days after the start of a major months-long immigration crackdown in Minnesota that left two protesters dead, Trump’s account purchased between $501,001 and $1 million in Minneapolis Public Schools debt. Minneapolis authorities estimate the economic loss from the crackdown at nearly $700 million.

The district then reported serving nearly 441,000 fewer meals and snacks between January and March and spending $253,000 on technology for temporary online learning during surgeries as students and parents feared leaving their homes.

Less than two weeks after purchasing the Minnesota bonds, the president’s account acquired two Illinois bonds worth between $1 million and $5 million each.

Earlier that year, the Department of Health and Human Services sought to freeze some child care and family assistance funds for Illinois and four other states over fraud allegations. A federal judge blocked the freeze within days and issued a preliminary injunction in February.

President Trump’s bond purchases coincide with a historic boom in the municipal bond market, as states, cities and public authorities borrow heavily to fund airports, schools, hospitals, public works and other infrastructure.

Municipal issuers sold a record $580 billion in bonds in 2025, up 13% from 2024, but the increase was driven primarily by new borrowing and tax-free issuance rather than refinancing old bonds, according to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Commission.

The intrusions have continued this year as well. Municipal issuers sold $408.5 billion through August, up 4% from a year ago, and municipal bond outstanding in the first quarter reached about $4.5 trillion, up 4.8% from a year ago, according to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

“Given the uncertainty around Iran and AI, investors are looking for ways to reduce risk, and municipalities offer some certainty,” said Tom Kozlyk, head of public policy and municipal strategy at Hilltop Securities.

Kozlyk told CNBC that rising interest rates are making bonds more attractive, especially to wealthy investors, because interest on most municipal bonds is exempt from federal income taxes.

JPMorgan Private Bank estimates that for investors in the highest tax brackets, a tax-free municipal yield of 4% would provide about the same after-tax income as a taxable bond yielding 6.75%. Both corporate bonds and U.S. Treasuries are taxable.

This benefit remained in place under President Trump’s own tax law. The Tax Cuts and Spending Act of 2025 maintained the federal tax exemption for municipal bonds, including qualified private activity bonds, a type of municipal bond used to finance private or nonprofit projects with a public benefit.