Beset by short sellers, Truth Social’s ‘patriots’ push for supporters to buy the Trump Media dip
Trump Media stock was all over the place the past week, plunging on Monday and Tuesday to as low as $22.60 a share before recovering on Wednesday and Thursday to around $30.
The slight surge in the stock could be attributed to “patriots,” who on social media have been saying they’ve been buying the dip to support former President Donald Trump.
The company, whose main business is former President Donald Trump’s social media platform Truth Social, had been pumped by his supporters who view the stock as a way to invest in him.
“This isn’t just another stock to me. … I feel like it was God Almighty that put it in my lap,” Jerry Dean Mclain, a Trump supporter, told the Washington Post. “I’ve just got to hold on and let them do their job. If you go on emotion, you’ll get out of this thing the first time it goes down.”
That means that despite a meager $4.1 million of revenue in 2023—against $58 million in losses—the valuation of the company has stayed high since going public at the end of March.
For Donald Trump, who owns over 60% of the company, the upshot of the stock being pumped meant his net worth soared billions of dollars when it debuted on the Nasdaq.
But the stock’s initial successes, shooting above $60 a share, have been halted, with it hovering now around half that.
According to a report from the New York Times, non-patriot investors have been expecting the stock to fall since it went public. So-called short-sellers, who essentially bet that a stock will tumble by borrowing the stocks from brokerages in a complicated investment bid, had put big money down hoping that the stock would tank.
Now, they’re cashing in with big drops most days.
Trump Media even filed a document with the SEC today telling investors how they can avoid their shares in the company from being loaned to short sellers, including a sample letter to send to their brokerage firm.
But the shorting and the stock’s tanking price failed to dampen most Trump supporters’ enthusiasm, who say that the drop only means it is a better time than ever to buy the dip and cash in big when the stock inevitably (in their minds) jumps back up.
“I added 27 more shares this morning during the dip! Let’s go Patriots and support DJT and The real President of the United States Donald J. Trump!!!” posted @shanesharkey317 Monday on Truth Social when the stock slumped 18% following news that the company was going to issue more stock.
“Added 50 more shares!” noted @WilliamJamesLMT. “It’s going to nose dive today grab it while you can! It will return to a better place! It’s the cold tiling that makes the Hedge funds $$$.”
“Have 435 shares,” said @kellymorra. “100 at $41. 100 at $37. So lost $4000. And then bought 200 at $22….. I believe Truth is blessed and going to be [HUGE].”
Trump’s Truth Social was filed with exhortations to be patriotic and buy the dip.
“Buy the dip patriots buy the fear and be fearless,” wrote one.
“Right, so all REAL patriots should be buying the dip and helping to fund our great leader's comeback tour. It's a bargain at twice the price!!” said another.
However, some posters started losing faith in the stock based on all the bad news
“If we keep losing 10% a day we will be at $17 by the end of this week and $10 by the end of next week,” wrote @Headzapoppin gloomily. “Every day we buy the dip only for it to be lower the next day. Even on the news of streaming products we manage to dip 12%. Something has to change.”
“I know it doesn’t sound like much but ‘17’ is a good number,” replied @Kelly_telly reassuringly, referencing the number’s ties to the QAnon movement that uncritically supports Trump.
Not everybody was convinced though.
‘I tried averaging down Webvan. It went all the way down to zero,” said @anubis_72, referencing an early online grocery business that went bust after just three years.
“I had to google it,” replied @Headzapoppin. “Eventually went bankrupt tith $800M in debt. At least TMTG has $200M to keep it going for a while.”
For most Trump supporters, though, nothing could blunt their hopes.
“Now is a good time to buy. This dip shouldn't last. They issued the normal forward thinking warning that any new company had to. Really nothing to see, but hopefully this allows [more] patriots to buy the dip," wrote @risitodeplata.
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