Trump's investments

In a strange video message in which it looks like Trump's discovered a new shade of makeup, he says that everyone should use the same drugs he is on ... Regeneron and Remdesivir ... to "cure" the virus. Maybe we could if only he wasn't going to destroy Obamacare. Oh, and he complements his doctors - is the reason they've been so weasley because they signed non-disclosure agreements too?

I'm sure it's just a coincidence that Trump owns stock in Gilead Sciences, the company that makes Regeneron, and that he's pals with the guy who owns Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. And, oh look, Regeneron and Gilead Stock Jump as President Trump’s Health Remains in Focus. I'm sure that's just an unforseen consequence of Trump's drug promotion video.

[...] Trump's team revealed Friday that the president received the drug, called REGN-COV2, which is being used to alleviate symptoms and reduce viral load. Shares of Regeneron surged 7% Monday, bringing the stock's year-to-date gain to more than 60%. The stock reached its highs of the day after Trump tweeted that he will be leaving the hospital Monday evening.

Regeneron CEO Dr. Leonard Schleifer and President Trump are acquainted: The CEO has been a member at Trump's golf club in Westchester, New York, and his company also received $450 million in government funding in July as part of the president's Operation Warp Speed plan to quickly develop a vaccine and other treatments for Covid-19.

Meanwhile, Trump also recently owned shares of Regeneron (REGN) -- as well as Gilead Sciences (GILD), maker of the antiviral drug remdesivir that the president is also taking. Both stocks were listed as assets on Trump's 2017 filing with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, though neither were holdings on the president's most recent filing for 2020 ...

While I was looking for this stuff, I was distracted by the stories from the beginning of Trump's presidency about his investments - he had to file Federal Election Commission (FEC) financial disclosure forms in 2016. Part of that showed stocks that he owns, and some of them, like Gilead Sciences, seem to be a conflict of interest.

From Forbes: Trump's Stock Portfolio: Big Oil, Big Banks And More Foreign Connections ...

[...] The Donald owns anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million worth of shares each in Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase , Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs -- in other words, five of the famous “big six” banks ....

Despite campaigning on the pledge of “taking on big businesses,” Trump own shares in big pharma companies including Pfizer, Merck, Celgene and GlaxoSmithKline; retailer Walmart, and consumer goods firms Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson. He also hold stakes in a variety of multinational oil companies like Shell, Chevron and Exxon Mobil.

The connections to the energy industry doesn't stop there. The climate-change skeptic owns shares in Phillips 66 - a joint venture partner in the controversial Dakota Access pipeline, where demonstrations are ongoing, and in Kinder Morgan, another pipeline giant facing resistance for its plans to connect the Canadian oil sands to Vancouver, British Columbia. Trump also has a small investment in Canadian energy company TransCanada, the developer of Keystone XL pipeline, which was rejected by President Barack Obama last year but supported by Trump.

The populist billionaire has other Canadian holdings, including $500,000 to $1 million investments in the Bank of Nova Scotia and the Toronto Dominion Bank, and $1 million to $5 million worth of shares in the Royal Bank of Canada. Such investments add to the array of connections Trump already has with foreign entities - including nine figure debts owed to German lender Deutsche Bank and China’s state-controlled Bank of China ....

A reaal man of the people.