The account tracking Trump's stock trading was suspended by X one day after launch, then quietly reinstated a few days later
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The account tracking Trump's stock trading was suspended by X one day after launch, then quietly reinstated a few days later
Copying Trump's playbook, there's a new destination again.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Claude, TechFlow
TechFlow Editor's Note: An anonymous account that solely reposts public financial reports and records Trump's stock trades transaction by transaction was suspended by X less than 24 hours after launch, then reinstated a few days later, with followers surging to over 130,000. Similarly, an account tracking Pelosi's trades ran for three years without issue, but the one tracking Trump didn't last a day. This contrast brings a question to the forefront: who exactly does the "freedom of speech" spoken of by Musk apply to? The content uncovered by the account itself is even more worthy of concern; Trump's crypto income in 2025 exceeded $1 billion, and his holdings include sectors highly tied to government decisions such as rare earths, private prisons, and AI chips.
An anonymous account specifically tracking Trump's stock trading lived on X for less than a day before being banned, only to be released back a few days later.
This account, called "Donald Trump Portfolio Tracker" (@TrumpsPortfolio), launched on July 1 and quickly went viral by reposting public information on Trump's holdings transaction by transaction. According to reports from Washington Examiner and IBTimes UK, the account had nearly 77,000 followers when it was banned; the page subsequently displayed only a generic "violates rules" prompt, with X providing no specific reason. The operator said on his Substack that he posted only 25 tweets in total, and the only email he received categorized his account as an "inauthentic account," with no follow-up after appeal.
Around July 4, after a large number of users @Musk applied pressure, the account was restored. As of press time, followers had grown to approximately 150,000. The operator posted a thank you note, saying, "My account has been reinstated, now back to the regular program of tracking Trump's holdings."
The Account Scraped a 927-Page Public Financial Report
This account used no hacking methods and had no inside information. All its material came from Trump's 2025 financial report released by the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) on June 30, a Form 278e reaching 927 pages in length.
The numbers in the financial report itself were explosive enough. According to calculations by multiple media outlets including CNBC, NBC News, and Fortune, Trump's crypto-related income in 2025 exceeded $1 billion, with total annual income of approximately $2.2 billion; crypto surpassed real estate for the first time to become his largest single income source. Of this, approximately $515 million to $580 million came from token sales by the family crypto company World Liberty Financial, and another approximately $635 million came from royalties from the Trump meme coin business disclosed as "Celebration Coins." For reference, Obama's last similar disclosure during his term was only 8 pages, Biden's was 11 pages, and Vice President Vance's last year was 17 pages.
What truly sparked discussion about the account was that it pulled out individual stock holdings from the financial report one by one.
According to NBC News, Trump continuously bought Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia within a single day on August 18, 2025, with each transaction amount between $5 million and $25 million. The timing of the Nvidia purchase was exactly one week after he announced that Nvidia and AMD agreed to turn over 15% of H20 chip sales to China to the U.S. government in exchange for export licenses. The reopening of this export channel to China directly benefited Nvidia. The account also highlighted Trump's holdings in rare earth company MP Materials, as well as GEO and CXW, two listed private prison operators.
For those holding these same stocks, or considering copying the trades, the significance of this financial report lies not in "the president is very rich," but in that it lays out the timeline between policy decisions and personal holdings clearly.
Trump himself denied any conflict of interest, stating that his money is managed by an external institution, a "blind trust," and "I never speak to the people managing the money." This claim currently cannot be confirmed or refuted from the financial report itself.
Banned Less Than a Day After Launch, X Did Not Say Which Rule Was Violated
The way the account was banned is the most glaring part of the whole affair.
According to IBTimes UK, when the account was banned it was following only 15 users, yet had accumulated nearly 77,000 followers; the page was replaced with a standard "Account has been suspended, X suspends accounts that violate rules" message, with no specific clauses indicated. X did not explain whether human review was involved, and neither Musk nor the company publicly responded to the reason for the ban.
Critics' fire focused on the four words "freedom of speech." Musk repeatedly positions himself as a defender of freedom of speech, saying he wants to make X a place where legal, public information can circulate freely. An account that merely reposts government public documents being banned instantly made many users feel this narrative did not match actual operations.
There is also a less conspiratorial explanation. X has always required accounts using public figures' names and avatars to clearly label themselves as "parody" accounts. This Trump tracking account displayed the president's name and photo but did not add a parody label, which itself might have violated the rules. The operator also admitted that among the 25 tweets, there were indeed a few "joke" posts comparing Trump and Pelosi. Currently, there is no evidence showing Musk personally ordered the ban.
For ordinary users, the risk warning here is direct: when aggregating information related to political figures on X, the scale of rule enforcement is not transparent; an account purely reposting public data might disappear overnight, even if it is later released back.
The Account Tracking Pelosi Lived for Three Years, The One Tracking Trump Didn't Last a Day
What makes the ban appear suspicious is a ready-made control group.
The "Nancy Pelosi Stock Tracker" tracking Pelosi's trades is operated by the investment App Autopilot; it has been online since launching in June 2022 and has never been banned. This account consistently posts pointing out timing coincidences between legislator trades and government decisions, with gameplay almost identical to the Trump tracking account. One ran for three years safe and sound, one disappeared a day after launch; this contrast is the core of the whole affair continuing to unfold.
Changes in the relationship between Musk and Trump added another layer of speculation to this contrast. According to IBTimes UK, for most of 2025 the two were feuding; Musk harshly criticized Trump's signature spending bill, with both parties exchanging words from afar. By early 2026, the two had clearly reconciled, dining together at Mar-a-Lago; Musk posted saying "2026 will be great," and Trump later invited him to visit China together. It is precisely this warming of relations that made the ban look more like a "favor" to the president in the eyes of critics. X has still not clarified exactly which rule the account violated, so this question remains hanging.
After Reinstatement: The Account Became Even More Popular
The ban failed to suppress this account; instead, it gave it free publicity.
After reinstatement, the account's followers grew from 77,000 to approximately 137,000; the operator continued updating holdings while writing a long Substack article about the experience of "being banned for 24 hours," with a very straightforward title, "Insider Trading is Legal, Talking About It is Not."
Although this statement is emotional, it hits the spot that makes many people uncomfortable about this affair: the president can trade based on public or non-public information, yet a person talking about these trades online was banned first.
For readers holding relevant individual stocks or following the theme of political trading, the point of this affair lies not in who is right or wrong between Musk and Trump, but in that the holdings in Trump's financial report that coincide with policy decision timings are already publicly disclosed in black and white; anyone can go check the 927-page document themselves.
The author's Substack can be viewed by clicking here
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