It’s been a pretty bad week for the Trump Media & Technology Group. Trump’s stock value — for a company that was only recently allowed to go public — has plummeted by a quarter just this week alone.
But that’s not all. Without getting too complicated here, “short-selling” a stock is when an investor borrows a stock and sells it on the open market, expecting to buy it back at a lower price. If you suspect a stock will plummet, an investor will “short” the stock. And lots of people are shorting DJT.
There’s a cost involved in short-selling: You pay the broker (who arranged everything) a percentage. That percentage has nearly doubled in the last few months.
But there are also borrower’s fees, which are the incentive for a broker to lend a security to you in the first place. And if I’m going to use “plummeted” in this article, let me emphasize it here: The incentive for lenders has plummeted from a high of 790 percent last week to just 124 percent today.
In short (no pun intended), Trump’s stock, which actually trades on the Dow under his initials, DJT, is basically almost worthless.
And while this affects Donald’s bottom line (and ability to pay the legal fines he’s recently incurred and will keep incurring), even THAT isn’t the end of it.
Remember all of those properties that pried his name off the side of their building over the last 8 years?
Trump stakes literally everything on his reputation. He can’t imagine a world in which he isn’t adored, at least by people dumb enough to buy into his brand.
And since he was president, many investors have been among those supporters. Traditionally, Republican policy favors their class. Or, let me back that up; I don’t have any stocks, and I bet you don’t either. That’s why you vote the way you do, because you know Republicans are looking out for people who don’t live paycheck-to-paycheck or on their Social Security.
Trump may never lose the inexplicable crowd of evangelicals who support him (despite being a rapist who was pro-choice two minutes before he ran as a Republican).
But if Donnie loses the investor class? That’s not just votes. That’s reputation. And he absolutely hates the idea that the people who will give him the MOST money to stay in power might think less of him because of his monetary value.
The capstone irony of all of it is that this is what he just lost in court for. Misrepresenting his value.
