Donald Trump‘s recent financial disclosure revealed his stock-trading spree, which caused public concern, but JD Vance seems to have cleared the air. The president’s recent financial disclosure revealed that Trump engaged in numerous stock trades while in office. According to Reuters, the total value of the trades ranged from $220 million to $750 million.

The trades involved companies such as Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, Broadcom, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, Boeing, and Apple. The controversy arose because, in the past,  American presidents have typically avoided active stock trading because government policies and presidential decisions can directly influence a company’s market value, creating potential conflicts of interest.

While Trump broke from that norm, the Trump administration commented on the matter, stating that the president is not directly involved in any of the trading.

“President Trump’s investment holdings are maintained exclusively through fully discretionary accounts independently managed by third-party financial ​institutions with sole and exclusive authority over all investment decisions,” a Trump administration spokesperson revealed.

That said, a journalist grilled the Vice President on the matter at a White House briefing. JD Vance reiterated the spokesperson’s claims, stating that Donald Trump doesn’t handle any of the accounts himself. “The president doesn’t sit at the Oval Office on his computer on his, like, Robinhood account, buying and selling stocks,” Vance began. “That’s absurd. He has independent wealth advisors who manage his money. He is a wealthy person. He has had success in business.”

The reporter specifically mentioned that the securities seen in the disclosure have been “talked up at events” by Donald Trump. The reporter then said that recent polling has shown that an increasing number of Americans consider the “president as corrupt.” A YouGov survey conducted this month revealed that nearly 60 per cent of Americans believe that Donald Trump is arrogant, opportunistic, reckless, dishonest and corrupt.

JD Vance didn’t react to the “corrupt” statement and simply said: “This is a hell of a question.” The reporter then brought to light Vance’s earlier support for banning public officials from trading stocks. Vance got riled up and said, “OK, what’s the question?” He then went on to reiterate that he still wishes to ban stock trading by members of Congress, and so does the “president of the United States.”

“All of us believe that nobody should be taking proprietary information gained from public service and buying and selling stocks,” Vance continued in a statement. “We want to ban that process. And I think the way to lead by example is banning that process, banning that approach, and making it illegal, which is exactly what the president has proposed doing,”