Being shot in the Pennsylvania countryside this weekend turned out to be a very profitable experience for former President Donald Trump.
He personally made $2 billion as shares of Trump Media & Technology Group surged 55% early Monday morning. At one point, in pre-market trading (the period of buying and selling before stock markets officially open), they were up as much as 71% before settling at the opening of the market. The company operates Trump’s propaganda social media platform, Truth Social.
The Wall Street crowd convinced that the attempt on Trump’s life has boosted his election chances in November, is pouring cash into the Republican nominee’s money-losing company and other firms seen as benefiting from another MAGA administration. The crypto bookies in the presidential prediction markets peg Trump’s odds of winning at 72% as of Monday morning; Biden’s chances stand at 18%.
“The events on Saturday, if they do anything, they strengthen the case for President Donald Trump to win the election in November. I think that’s what the markets have reacted to,” stock analyst Rob Casey of Signum Global told CNBC Sunday night. Another investment advisor, Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge, told clients, “Trump was already the clear frontrunner, and the shooting will only cement that status.”
Matthew Tuttle, CEO of Tuttle Capital Management, was even more direct: “You are seeing the Trump trade on steroids here. DJT is the go-to!”
Trump launched Truth Social after the Jan. 6, 2021, coup attempt got him temporarily banned from most of the mainstream apps like Twitter (X) and Facebook. The alternative social media platform is an insulated online world where users only see pro-Trump “news” and cultural content that reinforces or supports Republican policies.
Trump himself is the majority shareholder, owning 114.75 million shares, or 60% of the company. As of this writing, those shares are worth approximately $5.6 billion, up from $3.5 billion at the market’s Friday close. That means the former president saw his personal wealth grow nearly $2 billion since a bullet grazed his ear Saturday evening.
The company, which uses Trump’s initials as its stock code, DJT, has seen volatile trading all year long, with its fortunes moving in tune with the GOP leader’s legal and political ups and downs.
It hit $79 per share when it debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in March but sunk in April when Trump’s porn star hush-money trial started. It plummeted again, nearly 50%, in the weeks after his felony conviction.
Truth Social has been persistently plagued in the eyes of investors due to its small user base, which is still dwarfed by those of the corporate social media giants. It also appears to struggle to secure ads from all but a handful of openly pro-Trump firms and clickbait dating websites. Promos for MyPillow, for instance, are ubiquitous in users’ feeds.
DJT’s CEO is former Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., who played a key role in Congress trying to derail the first Trump impeachment. Under his leadership, the company has rarely made money, and it’s also been investigated for possible money laundering.
In its most recent quarterly earnings report, the company said it generated only $770,500 of revenue in the first part of the year and lost $327.6 million. But after the failed assassination, many Wall Street watchers are gambling that Truth Social is about to see a major turnaround.
Neil Wilson, the chief analyst at the Finalto brokerage firm, called the huge jump in share price “a bet on Trump.” But it’s also a sign, he argued, that investors believe “more people will be drawn to the platform to access a re-elected Trump.”
It’s not only Truth Social that’s attracting fresh investments in the wake of the Pennsylvania terror. Capitalism always finds profit opportunities in every situation, and the perception that another Trump presidency has become more likely is brightening the prospects for many industries.
Shares of gun and ammunition manufacturers all jumped, some as high as 14% – a common occurrence after mass shootings and terror attacks, which prompt calls for gun control and in turn elevate gun sales. Smith & Wesson, Sturm Ruger, and Ammo all saw their stock prices climb Monday morning. Similarly, Geo Group and CoreCivic, operators of private prisons, rose 9.4% and 5.6%, respectively. They are seen as likely beneficiaries of Trump’s promise of mass immigrant arrests.
Bitcoin, the biggest player in the shadowy cryptocurrency market, was up almost 10% Monday, hitting $63,000 per coin. A Trump-inspired crypto token, MAGA, went vertical on Saturday. The coin has a market capitalization of nearly $400 million, up 40% since Friday.
According to one analyst, crypto investors believe Trump would free them of government oversight. Rania Gule of XS.com, told the press, “If re-elected, Trump may seek less stringent regulatory policies towards cryptocurrencies, potentially improving regulatory conditions and encouraging more investments.”
Health insurance giants Humana and UnitedHealth Group are also seen as big winners in a second Trump term, with investors believing less regulation and the dropping of some of Biden’s pharmaceutical price controls will boost their bottom line. Both companies added to their share prices on Monday.
On the opposite side of the ledger, the shares of clean energy companies slid, a reflection of Trump’s promise to reverse the climate change mitigation policies of the Biden administration. Invesco Solar ETF fell 5.7%, and iShares Global Clean Energy ETF shed 3.6%.
Emboldened by the fist-pumping and bloody-faced Trump, a growing number of billionaires have made official what most observers already knew: They’re backing the MAGA campaign. Within hours of the shooting, Elon Musk and Bill Ackman both tweeted out their support.
While the bookies, betters, and gamblers among the capitalist class are all putting their cards on the table and showing their hands for Trump, there is one thing that none of their markets, models, or media are measuring: The determination of millions of people in the U.S. to march to the ballot box in November and block fascism and reactionary corporate rule.
As with all op-ed and news analysis articles published by People’s World, this article reflects the views of its author.
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