Trump stock takes Washington by storm

livemint.com:

Wall Street has always played a big role in politics, but never like this. Former President Donald Trump is tantalizingly close to tapping a multibillion-dollar windfall that could help pay his legal bills and give a much-needed cash injection to his presidential campaign. Almost no one saw it coming.

Nearly everything went wrong with the get-rich-quick plan for Trump’s social-media platform to go public by riding one of the biggest speculative waves in market history. As has often been the case with Trump, missteps and obstacles didn’t matter. The combination of luck and his most passionate followers has added a great unknown to the presidential race.

And it has suddenly brought everything about social media’s growing influence over financial markets into politics. “He’s the ultimate winner, at least on paper," said Matt Simpson, managing partner at Wealthspring Capital and an investor in shell companies like the one that took Trump’s firm public. The result is a never-before-seen mashup of stock-market frenzy and political financing.

Suddenly, Trump’s supporters can back his campaign by driving up shares of his company, a form of political expression that goes beyond buying hats or Bibles. The parent company of Trump’s Truth Social, Trump Media & Technology Group, is now worth about $8.5 billion, more than toy maker Hasbro and almost as much as Caesars Entertainment, one of his old casino rivals. This for a company with about $5 million in sales in its existence.