Trump Media and Technology Group, the company that handles the former president's Truth Social platform , went public this month, after a long-sought merger that creates billions in market cap. But already, the newly created stock is proving to be volatile. According to
USA TODAY, "Donald Trump’s namesake
Social Media company burst out of the gate on its first day of trading Tuesday, opening at $70.90 and soaring as high as $79.38 as Trump fans and opportunistic traders bought up shares. But the price faded late in the session and has bounced along at lower levels ever since, ending Thursday down $4.26 at $61.96. Its market valuation, just over $8 billion, is still stunning for a social media fledgling with an unproven business model that has struggled to attract users and advertisers, burned through cash and wracked up losses." All of this has come as many of the founding figures at Trump's company are in active civil war, with a flurry of lawsuits surrounding the merger that made it all possible. ALSO READ: A neuroscientist reveals how Trump and Biden's cognitive impairments are different "Thursday’s slide into the red could be just the beginning, market observers say," the report continued, with University of
Florida professor Jay Ritter expecting the stock could slide all the way to $2 a share. “The stock will continue to be very volatile, with sharp moves up and down. But the long-term trend will be down,” he continued. “The company has about $2 in cash per share, but it will probably burn through that money and the most likely outcome is eventual bankruptcy.” "Trump Media’s trading has mimicked meme stocks like GameStop and AMC Entertainment, which rose to improbable heights in 2021 after individual investors organized on social media platform Reddit to drive up the stock price. Those investors aimed to strike back against hedge funds that had bet against the company and shorted the stock," the report noted. "What’s tricky is predicting when a meme stock will collapse, said Derek Horstmeyer, a finance professor at George Mason University in
Virginia, who specializes in corporate finance. The only hard-and-fast rule? 'Eventually, it does,' Horstmeyer said." Some commentators speculated that even if it does collapse, the short-term value created as much as $4 billion in wealth for the former president. However, others have noted it's not so simple for him to use that wealth to dig his way out of his expensive legal judgments and other serious problems. Former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann took his time on MSNBC Wednesday to lay into former President
Donald Trump for his mounting personal attacks on the family of Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing Trump's
New York hush money trial — including unsubstantiated allegations about his daughter . "Andrew, I cease to be able to be surprised, except that Donald Trump is now literally making up a story about Judge Merchan's daughter, posting about it, railing about it, naming her by name," said anchor Joy Reid. "And there's still nothing anyone can do to stop it?" "It actually is something that could be stopped," said Weissmann. "There could be the gag order could apply to both the judge and the judge's family. And this is one where as a matter of grace, the judges have not imposed the gag order as to themselves. It reminds me when Amy Berman Jackson — Roger Stone had posted a picture with crosshairs next to her , and she said, you couldn't find another photo that didn't have that there? And judges, I think, bend over backwards, but it will be interesting to see whether Judge Merchan does expand it." ALSO READ: A neuroscientist reveals how Trump and Biden's cognitive impairments are different "But I would just like to step back to, it is true that you see this and you think, it's just Donald Trump. It's just Donald Trump. More of the same," Weissmann continued. "It is really important not to just normalize this. I mean, so many people talk about sort of predicting what would a Trump 2.0 administration be, and should we really think he's going to be a dictator and what will happen. And my response to that is, you can look right now at what he's doing and saying, and for people who are fair-minded, I would say, what do you say about somebody who attacks the daughter of a judge?" "That's right," said Reid. "I mean, is there no depth to which he will not descend?" Weissmann added. "It's so important to not get inured to what this is." "Yeah, and I mean the bottom line is the reason he's attacking Judge Merchan and his family is the same reason he attacks [special counsel] Jack Smith," said Reid. "They won't stop prosecuting him and he can't delay the trials anymore. He's found a way to even the delay the Georgia trial. They literally went after Fani Willis' relationship, that had nothing to do with the case. That did delay it. This is the one case he can't stop. He knows it's coming and therefore he's trying to personally destroy this man's family." Watch the video below or at the link. Andrew Weissman slams Trump for attacking judge's daughter www.youtube.com CONTINUE READING Show less Donald Trump's campaign is in chaos, and his niece says she's energized. Mary Trump , the niece of the former president and a psychologist by trade, has previously been critical of her uncle. On Thursday, she said her uncle's failures are adding up. ALSO READ: A neuroscientist reveals how Trump and Biden's cognitive impairments are different "As the RNC’s fundraising falters and Donald’s campaign spirals into chaos, I am energized!" she said in a Substack post. She then continued: "When Donald dominates the news cycle, it’s hard not to feel overwhelmed. Every bad headline has a negative impact. But then I remember something crucial: There’s usually more to the story than meets the eye. I’m determined to cut through the media noise and share with you all the good that happened this week. These are the headlines we need to remain energized and hopeful that the media largely ignored." Mary Trump goes on to highlight President Joe Biden's recent fundraising hauls. "President Biden’s $155 million+ war chest has just received another turbo boost, bringing the total of cash on hand to at least $180 million. (By comparison , between his campaign and the RNC, Donald barely has over $50 million — and continues to drain the accounts to cover his absolutely staggering legal expenses )," she wrote. "This is a development that could significantly increase Biden’s ability to influence the narrative in crucial swing states." This, she says, also tells us a lot about voter excitement for Biden. "While critics have expressed doubts about the degree to which the
Democratic base is fired up as compared to 2020, today’s $25 million fundraiser, raised with donations ranging from $250 to $500,000, should put any doubts to rest — yes, we are absolutely behind President Biden and Vice President Harris and we’re in this fight until the end," she wrote. Read the full post here. CONTINUE READING Show less Unexplained filings are piling up in Judge Aileen Cannon's courtroom — and no one seems to know exactly what's going on. The strange "secret docket" measures, relating to former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, were flagged on Thursday by Lawfare's Roger Parloff. "Undocketed filings in US v Trump (M-a-L) are stacking up. Yesterday the govt sought permission to file a surreply relating to a reply that isn't docketed yet, which related to a response that isn't docketed yet, which related to a motion that isn't docketed yet," wrote Parloff. ALSO READ: A neuroscientist reveals how Trump and Biden's cognitive impairments are different This situation was first flagged earlier this year — and Parloff suspects the issue is that Cannon simply doesn't understand how the judicial filing system works. "On 2/6, departing from Local Rules, she forbade parties from filing sealed or redacted docs without 1st getting her permission. That evolved into attys emailing undocketed docs to each other & the judge while waiting for Cannon to make redaction decisions. So here we are," he wrote. "Why'd she do that? I think because she had a mistaken view that anything filed with the court becomes presumptively public. I discuss that mistaken view." Cannon, a judge appointed by former President Donald Trump himself, has come under
fire for a series of strange decisions that appear calculated to benefit the former president in ways normal criminal defendants don't enjoy. For example, she previously tried to order classified documents the
FBI was investigating for national security purposes after their seizure from Mar-a-Lago turned over to a special master to review if they were privileged. She is also trying to order witness information handed over to Trump, even as special counsel Jack Smith has warned it could lead to witness tampering. CONTINUE READING Show less