Trump gets a stock market bonanza...

Maybe the investors in Trump Media should just donate to his legal defense fund instead, said Adam Lashinsky. The special-purpose acquisition company Digital World Acquisition, or DWAC, was finally given permission to complete its merger with Trump Media, whose sole product is Truth Social, Donald Trump’s right-tilting X clone. The merger allowed Trump Media to go public this week, and “investors, and presumably some Trump fans excited to be owning a piece of a company with his name on it, bid up shares” on the stock’s opening day. The surge was reminiscent of other “meme stocks” like GameStop and AMC, with no fundamental rationale. Simply put, “a company with $3.4 million in revenue and $49 million in losses over the past nine years” is not worth $7.8 billion, Trump Media’s market value after its first day of trading. That’s hardly the only red flag. Trump owns 58 percent of the company, and would surely like to sell some shares “to fund his $175 million bond he owes the state of New York.” The board of Trump Media would have to waive the customary six-month lockup on his shares, and if they did, it would surely “tank the stock.” But Trump would thank you for contributing to his election campaign.