There are plenty of ways to stake your money on President Donald Trump — just invest in an index fund if you trust he's afraid to disappoint Wall Street, use prediction markets to guess his latest moves, or maybe bet that he'll chicken out on whatever brinksmanship he's engaged in on any given day. Heck, you can even plow money into any one of his various crypto memecoins. But there is one Trump-related money maneuver that hasn't borne out: investing in his stock.
If you haven't thought of Trump Media and Technology Group in a while, you're not alone — neither have many investors. Since the company went public via a SPAC in the spring of 2024, shares are down nearly 90% from their highest highs and are currently bouncing around $9. TMTG's stock has fallen by 30% this year alone.
There's an argument to be made that with a $2.5 billion market cap, the company is still overvalued: It reported $3.7 million in revenue in 2025 and a net loss of $712.3 million. Back in 2021, the people pitching the company were saying they expected $3.7 billion in revenue in 2026.
"As far as a social media company goes, it's a bit of a swing and a miss," says Tyler Richey, the co-editor of the Sevens Report, a market analysis firm based in Florida.
That may be putting it lightly.
That Trump Media, which trades under the stock ticker DJT, wound up here isn't necessarily surprising. Its original proposal hasn't panned out, and it's shapeshifted into a motley assembly of business lines.
Truth Social, the company's conservative Twitter alternative, has never really taken hold or made a lot of money. Sure, the president posts on the site, but those posts land on X and elsewhere almost immediately. Truth Social doesn't say how many users it has, but outside estimates say it's a tiny fraction of Facebook or TikTok. It's not even the first lady's platform of choice. And Truth Social's original reason for existing — to be a space for "free speech" after the president was barred from multiple social media platforms in the wake of the January 6 riots — is moot these days. The bans have been lifted, and Elon Musk's ownership of X (neè Twitter) means the president can presumably post whatever he likes.
<es-blockquote data-quote="As far as a social media company goes, it's a bit of a swing and a miss." data-styles="pullquote-breakout" data-source="">
As far as a social media company goes, it's a bit of a swing and a miss.
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TMTG's attempts to find something else to do haven't been fruitful either. It announced plans to build up a bitcoin trust on the eve of a brutal sell-off. It also got into bed with the crypto platform Crypto.com and has plans to launch a new cryptocurrency token and prediction market. In December, TMTG launched five Truth Social ETFs, but the reception has been tepid.
"It's pretty underwhelming so far," says Eric Balchunas, an ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. The ETFs have about $34 million in total assets, but the break-even point for an issuer is usually $50-$100 million in assets, he adds, meaning that for now, TMTG is losing money on the products. "I wouldn't write them off," Balchunas adds, noting that sometimes, ETFs take time to catch on, but "especially considering the name" behind the funds, this is a tough start.
In yet another twist, TMTG announced plans to merge with nuclear fusion company TAE Technologies at the end of 2025 in a deal valued at $6 billion. While the stock briefly surged on the news, the deal isn't closed yet, and there is one important hiccup: the technology doesn't work at scale yet. In February, TMTG said it was considering spinning off Truth Social post-nuclear-energy-merger in order to "create shareholder value through the creation of pure play companies, each with distinct strategies."
Then, in April, Trump Media announced that its CEO — former California congressman Devin Nunes — was out and would be replaced by interim CEO Kevin McGurn. McGurn previously worked at Hulu and Vevo and is also the CEO of New America Acquisition Corp., a SPAC backed by the president's sons. (A SPAC, or special-purpose acquisition company, is a shell company that goes public with the intention of buying an actual company later. TMTG went public by merging with a shell company named Digital World Acquisition.)
It appears that TMTG's management team, "former and current, had basically given up on the prospects that this was going to be the next Twitter or potentially TikTok rival," Richey says.
Trump Media did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
What's supposed to make Trump Media special is the Trump of it all. Without the name, there's no real clamoring for another politically tilted social media platform (see: Bluesky), a bitcoin vehicle, or an ETF. But it seems even the Trump name isn't doing much for the company.
Many investors believed TMTG would be a meme stock, like GameStop or AMC, riding the internet hype wave regardless of any underlying business performance or fundamentals. That hasn't played out, says Matthew Tuttle, the CEO of Tuttle Capital Management. His firm launched a leveraged ETF tied to the stock, hoping the WallStreetBets crowd would take an interest. To date, the fund has only $10 million in assets, meaning it's not profitable. "We hope that it does become a meme stock again," he says.
The company may have Trump's name in it, but beyond that, "it's not really a Trump trade," Tuttle says. There are a "ton of trades" you can make off of Trump's policies beyond TMTG. "There's so many other areas he influences," Tuttle says.
<es-blockquote data-quote="There is one group of investors who have had an easier time making money off TMTG: short sellers." data-styles="pullquote-right" data-source="">
There is one group of investors who have had an easier time making money off TMTG: short sellers.
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Things could be worse for Trump Media shareholders: The president owns millions of the company's shares, and there was speculation he would sell them after a six-month lockup period following the 2024 SPAC deal. Had he done so, the stock could have plummeted further than it already has.
Todd Schlanger, a 64-year-old interior designer in West Palm Beach, has given multiple media interviews about his belief in the DJT stock over the years, including with me. He's a longtime Trump supporter and TMTG shareholder, and he's not throwing in the towel yet. "I'm down," he says of his stake in the company. He's been buying into it at lower prices in order to bring down the average cost he's paid for the stock overall. Schlanger notes that companies such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook took time to grow into juggernauts and says he sees "a lot of good progress" with TMTG, especially with the nuclear fusion merger. "I think that's going to be the key to taking the stock to another level," he says.
There is one group of investors who have had an easier time making money off TMTG: short sellers. Short interest in Trump Media, basically people betting that the stock will continue to go down, is at about 14.5 million shares, representing about 9% of the public float, according to data from technology and data analytics firm S3 Partners. (In general, 10% is considered a high range for a short float. TMTG's shot up to 31% in December after the TAE merger announcement.) TMTG has complained about short sellers in the past and accused them of suspicious activity, though nothing public has come of the accusations.
Brian Lukow, a 66-year-old filmmaker from New York, tells me he's been short Trump Media for the "better part of" three years. He's made money on the investment, though he declines to disclose how much. "It all comes down to valuation, and the valuation just made no sense," he says. "Had Trump lost the presidency, this stock would be a penny stock right now."
It's a reminder that not every Trump trade pays off.
Emily Stewart is a senior correspondent at Business Insider, writing about business and the economy.
The post The worst way to make money off Trump: invest in his company appeared first on Business Insider
