President Donald Trump reportedly bought up to $5 million worth of shares in Axon Enterprise (AXON) — the company that makes Tasers, body cameras, and policing software — just two weeks before U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement floated a major procurement plan that looks tailor-made for Axon's products, according to a CNBC report published Monday.
The report says Trump purchased between $1 million and $5 million of Axon stock on Feb. 10, based on federal financial disclosures filed in May. Two weeks later, on Feb. 24, ICE issued a procurement notice seeking about 17,800 new Tasers, along with unlimited cartridges and training. Axon makes nearly 90% of the Tasers sold in the U.S., according to investment firm Brown Advisory, and procurement experts and policing specialists told CNBC that the specifications in the notice appear to align exclusively with Axon products.
Notably, Trump's purchase came weeks after federal agents in Minneapolis fatally shot two U.S. citizens protesting an immigration crackdown in the city.
Before you start sharpening your pitchforks, there's no evidence that Trump was involved in or aware of the procurement process, that contracting officials knew about his stock purchase, or that Axon knew he was a shareholder. The ICE notice was part of the standard federal procurement process, and no contract has been awarded yet.
Axon and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
