{"id":1967,"date":"2026-05-28T23:09:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T23:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1967"},"modified":"2026-05-28T23:09:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T23:09:32","slug":"dell-inks-9-7-billion-pentagon-contract-after-trump-acquires-stock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1967","title":{"rendered":"Dell inks $9.7 billion Pentagon contract after Trump acquires stock"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ethics experts say Trump\u2019s recent investments in and public praise for the tech company create the appearance of a conflict of interest.<\/strong><\/p>

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\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
Dell CEO Michael Dell and President Donald Trump at a White House roundtable with business leaders in December. (Tom Brenner\/For The Washington Post)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Government ethics watchdogs are sounding the alarm after the Pentagon announced that the U.S. tech company Dell has been granted a $9.7 billion government contract, pointing to stock transactions that suggest President Donald Trump potentially stands to gain financially from the deal.<\/p>\n

Trump has repeatedly praised the company at public events, and government disclosure forms show<\/a> that on Feb. 10 Trump\u2019s portfolio acquired stock in Dell Technologies valued between $1 million and $5 million. Nine days later, at a rally in Georgia, the president encouraged supporters to \u201cgo out and buy a Dell computer.\u201d Three additional purchases of Dell stock, all valued at or below $50,000, followed in March.<\/p>\n

Over the spring, Trump continued to praise Dell at public events, most recently giving the company a shout-out during a White House Rose Garden luncheon.<\/p>\n

Less than three weeks later, Dell\u2019s stock surged in response to this week\u2019s announcement that the Defense Department has awarded the company\u2019s federal subsidiary a major contract to oversee the procurement of Microsoft software for the U.S. military.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon announcement<\/a> said Dell\u2019s work \u201cwill streamline and consolidate software acquisition across the [Defense Department], the Intelligence Community, and the Coast Guard.\u201d Dell has a long-standing partnership with Microsoft and is a major buyer of Microsoft Windows PC licenses.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s founder, Michael Dell, has appeared at White House events during Trump\u2019s second term and sits on the president\u2019s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Dell\u2019s family foundation pledged <\/a>more than $6 billion last year to help fund \u201cTrump accounts,\u201d which will seed investments for 25 million American children.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis absolutely does ring alarm bells with regard to conflicts of interest,\u201d said Greg Williams, director of the Center for Defense Information at the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight.<\/p>\n

When asked about the potential conflict of interest, the White House responded with a statement praising Michael Dell and his wife, Susan, for their contributions to the Trump accounts.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump\u2019s only interest is doing what\u2019s best for the American people, and his effusive praise for the Dells is rooted only in their patriotic contribution of over $6 billion to the Trump Accounts of 25 million working-class American children,\u201d White House spokesman Kush Desai wrote.<\/p>\n

The Trump Organization said earlier this month that the president\u2019s investment holdings are managed exclusively by independent third-party financial institutions.<\/p>

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Presidents are exempt<\/a> from a conflict-of-interest law that prohibits federal employees from taking action in their official roles that would benefit their personal finances. There is also no legal requirement requiring a sitting president to give up a financial benefit because of a potential conflict.<\/p>\n

Margaret Dylus-Yukins, senior legal counsel for ethics at the Campaign Legal Center and a former Office of Government Ethics lawyer, said in a statement that although the ethics rules do not apply to the president or vice president, \u201cthe ethics norm has been for presidents to historically avoid even the appearance of self-enrichment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that President Trump promoted a company owned by his friend that he also invests in does, indeed, create an appearance<\/i> of a conflict of interest, though it does not constitute an actual ethics violation under the current rules,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Williams said the federal government should \u201crevisit the arrangement whereby we rely on the president\u2019s own sense of integrity rather than law to avoid conflicts of interest\u201d; such a move would require an act of Congress.<\/p>\n

Independent watchdog groups have long charged that Trump, in his second term, has used his office for his personal gain and that of his family.<\/p>\n

Since his election, the Trump family has profited from<\/a> Trump-themed cryptocurrency and signed overseas deals<\/a> in countries that have reason to cozy up to the United States and its leader.<\/p>\n

More recently, Trump agreed to drop<\/a> a lawsuit against the IRS \u2014 which he oversees \u2014 as part of an agreement that established a nearly $1.8 billion Justice Department fund to compensate those who, like him, claim they have been targets of a \u201cweaponized\u201d justice system. As part of the agreement, the IRS is barred from pursuing any existing claims of unpaid taxes against Trump, members of his family or his businesses.<\/p>\n

Along with the Dell stock purchases, Trump\u2019s latest financial disclosure, released earlier this month, revealed<\/a> tens of millions of dollars in other trades. The form showed, for example, that Trump purchased stock in leading companies such as Microsoft and Amazon months before the Pentagon announced deals<\/a> to deploy their technology in classified computer networks.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s assets are held in a trust managed by his children. That differs from previous presidents\u2019 blind trusts, which were not managed by family members and were designed to prevent their owners from knowing how their investments were being handled.<\/p>\n

For his part, the president has criticized <\/a>congressional Democrats for years for making stock trades that he says are based on insider information. At his State of the Union address in February, Trump called for the passage of a bipartisan bill to ban congressional stock trading, but the measure has stalled<\/a>.<\/p>

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Emily Davies and Cat Zakrzewski contributed to this report. <\/i><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ethics experts say Trump\u2019s recent investments in and public praise for the tech company create the appearance of a conflict of interest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nDell inks $9.7 billion Pentagon contract after Trump acquires stock - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1967\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dell inks $9.7 billion Pentagon contract after Trump acquires stock - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ethics experts say Trump\u2019s recent investments in and public praise for the tech company create the appearance of a conflict of interest.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1967\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-28T23:09:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/68c7f7825519a130ee728b2e886042e1-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1706\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1967#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1967\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"headline\":\"Dell inks $9.7 billion Pentagon contract after Trump acquires stock\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-28T23:09:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1967\"},\"wordCount\":957,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1967#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/b6337d1f3c691f300884bd46dac3f4ab-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1967#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1967\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1967\",\"name\":\"Dell inks $9.7 billion Pentagon contract after Trump acquires stock - Moving Insider USA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1967#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1967#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/b6337d1f3c691f300884bd46dac3f4ab-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-28T23:09:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1967#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1967\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1967#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/b6337d1f3c691f300884bd46dac3f4ab-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/b6337d1f3c691f300884bd46dac3f4ab-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1706,\"caption\":\"WASHINGTON, DECEMBER 10: Dell CEO Michael Dell, left, listens to remarks by President Donald Trump during a roundtable event with business leaders inside the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, on December 10, 2025. 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