Trump Stock Jumps Following Assassination Attempt

As the fortunes of Donald Trump rise and fall, so too does the stock price of Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG). Following his survival of an assassination attempt over the weekend, Trump’s political and material fortune appear set to rise. DJT, the ticker symbol for TMTG, was trading at $50.13 at 4 a.m. ET in overnight trading, according to Newsweek.

As the market opened on Monday, DJT began to tick up and hit a high of $42.

TMTG has been a long-embattled stock heavily watched by investors, the media, and the curious. Founded in 2021, TMTG is a media company that’s majority-owned by Trump. Its best-known product is Truth Social, which it launched in 2022.

The company went public on March 26, 2024, and stormed out of the gate to trade at $66.22 during its second day on the market. It’s been mostly downhill since then.

On April 15, TMTG attempted to issue 21 million more shares of the DJT stock. The stock price fell 18%.  The next day, the company announced it would launch a live TV streaming service for Truth Social. The stock price slid another 10%. Trump, of course, did not blame himself or bad ideas for the declining fortunes of the stock. A few days later on April 19, Truth Social filed a complaint with Nasdaq and claimed market manipulation was to blame for the stock’s poor performance.

Things looked even worse for TMTG in May after a NYC court convicted Trump on 34 counts related to a felony fraud case. The market responded to the verdict by pushing DJT’s stock down another 14%. The volatile stock recovered quickly from the blow.

All these ups and downs aren’t good for the company’s long-term fortunes. TMTG posted a first-quarter loss of $327.6 million in May. The reasons why the stock fluctuates so much are simple. It’s a meme stock tied to the personality and fortunes of one man—Donald J. Trump.

Surviving an assassination attempt, so far, appears to be good for business. During a rally in Butler, PA on Saturday, a 20-year-old man opened fire with a rifle on Trump. The former president took a wound to the ear, survived, and pumped his fist to the crowd before the Secret Service ushered him off stage.

DJT closed at $30.89 on Friday and has been hovering around $10 over that since trading started on Monday morning. Historical events can only juice a company, even one backed by a former president, so much. The trading day is long and the road to re-election is even longer. Memories are short in America and the man behind the meme-stock has many more trials, both literal and figurative, ahead of him.