Top Trump official invests over $15,000 in ETF that tracks Democratic lawmaker trading

A top official at President Trump's Department of Homeland Security recently put some of his money in an exchange-traded fund (ETF) built to mimic the portfolios of congressional Democrats, according to a financial disclosure.

Under Secretary for Science and Technology Pedro Allende purchased between $15,000 and $50,000 in shares of a Subversive ETFs product called NANC ( NANC ) (named after Nancy Pelosi) that tracks the trading of Democratic lawmakers and invites traders to "invest like the oligarchy."

The disclosure from Allende appears to be the first trade of this type by a top government official and was first noticed by the NOTUS news outlet , which posted the filing with the US Office of Government Ethics online , showing a series of other purchases from Allende that same day of more standard investment vehicles like a Vanguard ETF that tracks the S&P 500 ( ^GSPC ) and the Invesco QQQ Trust that tracks the Nasdaq-100 ( NQ=F ).

"It's a validation of what we're doing," said Dan Weiskopf, co-portfolio manager of the NANC fund and another ETF that mirrors Republican portfolios.

"When I see somebody in the government using the product to reflect how they want to be invested," he added, it's a demonstration that they "also believe that members of Congress have insightful information."

The trade is notable also because Allende is a longtime Republican official who chose to invest in the opposition party's trading patterns.

Allende worked at the Departments of Homeland Security, Energy, and Labor during Trump's first term and spent the Biden years in Florida at the Florida Department of Management Services, where he was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said that Allende's "transaction is consistent with rules allowing government officials to invest in diversified and widely held ETFs such as this one, and it was reviewed and cleared by DHS ethics officials as part of their regular review of periodic transaction reports."

The spokesperson didn't respond to additional questions from Yahoo Finance, such as whether Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin was comfortable with the purchase and how long Allende would keep the holdings.

The purchase from Allende was made on May 15, and the ETF's price has increased about 2% since then, according to Yahoo Finance data.

The fund mirrors trades by Democratic lawmakers and is heavily focused on technology stocks. The top three holdings in the fund are currently Nvidia ( NVDA ), Google ( GOOG , GOOGL ), and MSFT ( MSFT ), according to the fund's information page .

Subversive ETFs also has a Republican-focused ETF that trades under the ticker GOP ( GOP ) and has outperformed the broader market in 2026. The GOP fund is up 17% year to date, while the Democratic fund has closely tracked the S&P 500's performance in 2026.

Republicans have also become increasingly tech-focused in their investments in recent years, but a different mix of companies and things like cryptocurrency are much more popular.

Trump has also waded into the tech sector, making millions of dollars' worth of trades in "Magnificent Seven" stocks earlier this year, according to his own financial disclosures.

Yet NANC remains a significantly more popular investment destination for Subversive ETFs' users, with over three times GOP's net assets.

Weiskopf attributes the fund's popularity to its focus on Nancy Pelosi herself, who has maintained for years that it's her husband, Paul, who executes the trades without her involvement. Weiskopf said these trades nonetheless "give people more conviction, and it's catchy."

Pelosi's trades received renewed attention earlier this month with significant new purchases of up to $6 million in call options on Intel ( INTC ) and Uber ( UBER ).