Today is the day that creepy Donald Trump can start selling his stock in his social media company Truth Social, in which he is the majority shareholder. Since this company is basically worthless since its operating costs vastly exceed its revenues, it is considered a meme stock, one whose value is sustained by people wanting to believe in it and thus buying and holding on to it even when it makes no investment sense.
But many people were not willing to be so loyal and ever since July 15, the share price has been steadily decreasing from about $40 on that day to $13.55 today, which is well below its peak value of around $80 on March 27.
The price went up a little last week to $18 when creepy Trump said that he had no intention of cashing out and selling his stake in the company. To me that was a signal that he was going to sell but apparently there are still some people who think that he is a man of his word. But this week saw a further slide. We will see next week whether he sells or not and what the other major investors will do.
But he has already started another grift and this time it apparently involves cryptocurrencies. Yes, indeedy! He is starting this with his three sones Donald Jr., Eric, and Barron. The youngest son is just 18 and is apparently a crypto enthusiast but that does not necessarily mean that he is particularly knowledgeable.
Former President Trump and his sons unveiled new details about their new cryptocurrency platform World Liberty Financial on Monday night, marking the former president’s latest embrace of digital currencies after years of skepticism.
…The conversation featured crypto investor Farokh Sarmad, who interviewed Trump, his sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr., and other business allies on the new business and the broader crypto industry at the former president’s Palm Beach resort Mar-a-Lago.
…Trump did not offer many specific details about the project and did not address crypto until 16 minutes into Monday night’s conversation when he discussed his three sons – Eric, Barron and Donald Trump Jr. – and their experience in the industry.
“Barron knows so much about this,” Trump said of his 18-year-old son. “He talks about his wallet. He’s got four wallets or something, but he knows this stuff.”
One thing that surprises me about this venture is that he did not call the cryptocurrency Trumpcoin or something like that with his name on it.
Creepy Trump is clearly clueless about cryptocurrencies. In fact, he once called it a scam. There is no shame in being ignorant about it. Cryptocurrencies and the underlying blockchain technology is sufficiently complicated and esoteric that most people, myself included, have no clue about how it works. This is what has enabled many con artists to swindle so many people out of their money by bamboozling them with fancy talk of big and quick profits. Recent history has many examples of this, and is why I would not go anywhere near it myself.
But creepy Trump must be banking on the fact that his endorsement means something to his followers and that they will put money into this venture.
The Daily Show‘s Ronnie Chieng comments on Trump’s new crypto venture.
Seth Meyers has video of creepy Trump looking on in befuddlement as two other people try to help him pay his bill at a bar using crypto. It does not inspire confidence in his new company.
His minor social media site is his trumpet, so I doubt he’ll let it go.
But I do wonder who’s propping it up, given the continuous losses. It’s cash flow is mostly from financing, and it’s end cash is basically going to 0. It seems like it will need another cash infusion soon.
At a guess, the cryptocurrency is just another way to fleece his MAGA base.
The reliably excellent crypto journalist Molly White covered this recently: https://www.citationneeded.news/issue-65/ and
https://www.citationneeded.news/issue-66/. (In both cases, scroll down to “In elections and political influence”.)
What’s particularly funny is that both Lara and Tiffany Trump had their Twitter accounts compromised to promote fake tokens purporting to be associated with the project… It’s scams all the way down.
It’s worth bearing in mind that crypto has raised more money through PACs than any other industry (yes, more than either conventional finance or pharma), so while I don’t doubt that this is a scam to fleece his supporters, I strongly suspect it’s also a bid to hoover up that cash too.
It’s from last year, but I’d say the best recap/sendup on crypto is John Oliver’s:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7zazuy_UfI
no technical explanations mind you, just a recap on some of the latest ginormous boondoggles and that’s a rich field indeed.
They are being conned, they know they are being conned, and they love the person conning them. There are dozens of Ph.D. theses in psychology in there somewhere.
So, is this going to be the death knell for crypto?
It will become a lot more obvious that crypto is a scam now that Creepy Trump and his worthless sons are involved.
Crypto is an interesting theoretical idea, a medium of exchange which is not attached to any sovereign nation. But as a currency it is redundant. There are already plenty of currency options in the world. There are only a few things it is good for: speculative trading, money laundering, and scams. None of which the average person has much use, or time, for. Except to be fleeced.