But Loeffler and Newsmax weren’t telling viewers the whole story about her relationship with the conservative cable TV news network.
Loeffler, who served as a U.S. senator from Georgia between 2000 to 2021, owns 136,555 shares worth of stock in the parent company of Newsmax, according to federal financial disclosures reviewed by Fortune.
She’s one of several top Trump appointees — including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and U.S. Agency for Global Media senior adviser Kari Lake — who Fortune identified as having potential financial conflicts of interest between their personal finances and public service.
Loeffler appeared on Newsmax at least five times in a two-month span, between March and May this year—but at no time in these interviews did Newsmax or Loeffler discuss or disclose a matter effectively unknown to the public: Loeffler has a large, personal investment in the network.
In a statement to Fortune, Small Business Administration spokesperson Caitlin O’Dea said: “Administrator Loeffler maintains full compliance with the ethics agreement executed prior to her confirmation and fully complies with every request from the SBA Office of Ethics and the U.S. Office of Government Ethics—who reviewed all of her financial holdings, including Newsmax, prior to finalizing the ethics agreement. She will proudly continue to exercise her First Amendment right as the Cabinet-level voice for America’s 34 million small businesses, while upholding all ethics rules and requirements.”
Newsmax did not respond to inquiries.
“You have a responsibility to both be ethical and to appear to be ethical,” said Peter Loge, Director of the Project on Ethics in Political Communication at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. “Newsmax, Loeffler — they should just disclose it. There should be a note somewhere” during the interviews.
Loeffler is not alone among notable Trump administration officials in maintaining financial investments that could pose conflicts of interest with their official duties, according to a Fortune review of government documents.
But following her husband’s January 24 nomination, Jennifer Hegseth maintained personal stock investments in more than a dozen companies with current or recent federal contracts with the Department of Defense. While she may have only held onto the stocks for a period of two weeks to two months after her husband’s confirmation, the contracts held by companies in which Jennifer Hegseth invested are collectively worth billions of dollars, a Fortune review of government documents indicates.
In an ethics agreement he signed in January, Pete Hegseth did not list Jennifer Hegseth’s defense-contractor stocks among personal assets the couple agreed to divest in order to avoid conflicts of interest.
The Hegseths first disclosed the existence of the defense-contractor investments to the White House in January and December. The Office of Government Ethics did not officially certify the sales were “in compliance with applicable laws and regulations” until June 6. Fortune first inquired about the status of the Hegseths’ personal finances in March and made repeated inquiries in recent weeks.
Had Jennifer Hegseth continued holding her defense-contractor investments, they would have posed a significant conflict of interest for Pete Hegseth, particularly given her apparent hands-on involvement with Pentagon matters, ethics watchdogs told Fortune.
Taken together, Jennifer Hegseth’s defense-contractor stock investments were worth between $71,015 and $365,000 as of January, documents filed with the federal Office of Government Ethics indicate. (Appointees are only required by law to disclose their family assets in broad ranges.)
The sales come at a time when Trump himself has personally set a laissez-faire standard for financial conflicts, with neither he nor his appointees in acute fear of scrutiny from federal authorities or ethics regulators. Several other high-profile Trump appointees actively hold personal investments that could pose conflicts of interest with their public service.
The disclosure of Jennifer Hegseth’s defense-contractor stocks also represents a reversal of what the Hegseths had previously indicated about their investments.
“It is my responsibility to understand and comply with commitments outlined in this agreement,” Pete Hegseth stated.
But Hegseth’s ethics agreement did not indicate his wife, Jennifer, would sell or otherwise alter the status of her defense-contractor stocks.
Jennifer Hegseth could not be reached for comment. Prior to confirmation Monday of Jennifer Hegseth’s stock sales, two Pentagon spokespeople declined to answer a series of specific questions posed by Fortune about Pete Hegseth’s ethics agreement, Jennifer Hegseth’s stock investments, and the couple’s future financial plans. They likewise declined to answer questions about Jennifer Hegseth’s role advising her husband in his work as defense secretary.
“Secretary Hegseth’s wife is an incredibly accomplished woman and leader. She is an asset to her husband and an advocate for military families,” Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson told Fortune in a written statement.
“The secretary fully complies with all financial disclosure requirements and ethics regulations,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell also said in a statement.
Legal or not, the Hegseths’ ownership of defense-contractor stocks would have been ethically problematic, said Scott Amey, general counsel for the nonpartisan watchdog organization Project on Government Oversight.
“Public service is public trust, and it’s important that anyone going into government service is representing the interest of the public and not their own personal and financial interests or the interests of former or future employers or clients,” Amey said. “The public deserves to have trust in their government leaders that they’re there for the right purposes and not there to line their own pockets.”
He added: “There’s a simple way to handle this: Sell these interests and remove any questioning of the government service you’re providing.”
“I have failed in things in my life, and thankfully, I’m redeemed by my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” Hegseth said at his hearing.
“It’s an egregious and unethical conflict of interest for Defense Secretary Hegseth’s wife to own defense industry stocks while participating in Pentagon meetings and Signal war chats. The Hegseth family must divest,” Warren said in an email to Fortune immediately prior to confirmation of Jennifer Hegseth’s stock sale. “No one should have to wonder whether military decisions are made based on the national interest or boosting their own stock portfolio.”
The Hegseths’ personal finances illustrate differences in how Trump and President Joe Biden grappled with ethical standards affecting their key administration appointees.
Subsequent ethics disclosures indicate Austin and his wife only invested in broad-based mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), not individual stocks.
And while presidents, including Trump, are required by law to file an annual disclosure detailing aspects of their personal finances, such as assets and liabilities, Trump is unlike any previous president for obliterating lines between his presidential public service and personal business interests.
Trump has issued no Biden-esque “ethics pledge” executive order during his second term.
Kari Lake, U.S. Agency for Global Media senior adviser
She also disclosed investments in about two dozen different cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Etherium, Stellar, Hedera, and Dogecoin.
Lake has not signed an ethics agreement with the government, or otherwise indicated she has sold, or plans to sell, these financial interests.
There is no evidence of Lake receiving such a waiver.
“We can confirm that no additional documents exist at this time,” the U.S. Agency for Global Media’s Ethics Office wrote in an email to Fortune on May 30.
Lake’s crypto and Trump Media holdings underscore an inconsistent approach among Trump officials to avoid real or perceived financial conflicts.
And unlike Lake, one top Trump official sold off a Trump-related investment in the name of avoiding conflicts.
But Secretary of Education Linda McMahon’s investment in Trump Media & Technology Group—she is a former member of the company’s board of directors—is less straightforward.
McMahon also states she “will divest the resulting stock from my vested RSUs as soon as practicable but not later than 90 days after my confirmation.”
The Department of Education did not respond to Fortune questions about this arrangement, including whether McMahon will receive vested stock in Trump Media & Technology Group at various times through 2027, then proceed to sell it as she receives it.
