When I saw the news that the stock price of Truth Social went into freefall after the company initally went public for $8 billion, I immediately sent a joke to a friend text circle: "Whoever allowed the contract to keep Trump from dumping the stock until 6 months post-sale is gonna be covered in ketchup." Shortly after it was released, the company's stock soared to $70 a share, initially meaning Trump, on paper at least, had netted $3 billion in wealth. But Jay Ritter, a finance professor at the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business, told CNN he was "confident the stock price will eventually drop to $2 a share and could even go below that," because Truth Social's business model is not conducive to profit.
"Pump and dump is an unethical practice where influential figures talk up a stock they own a lot of shares in, artificially inflating the value, and then sell it off for a major profit before the rubes realize they bought a lemon. Because Trump is contractually obliged not to sell his shares yet, he's watching the value slide downhill before he can cash in, while other hustlers openly brag to Reuters they used the blind loyalty of Trump fans to pull off the pump-and-dump.
One investor bragged he bought at $35 when the stock first released, waited "for Trump's fan base to hear about it," which doubled its value, and then dumped it. Because of these shenanigans, Trump's already lost a billion of his initial $3 billion valuation.
We do not know yet how many ketchup bottles lost their lives due to Trump's anger over this, but he's found a public way to lash out at his underlings: He's suing them.
In a lawsuit filed right before public SEC filings showed Truth Social lost $58 million last year, Trump tried to push the blame onto his co-founders, two former "Apprentice" contestants named Wes Moss and Andy Litinsky. . . . That is, of course, how it goes: Bend over backward to help Trump out, and he will thank you by coating you in rage-ketchup.
Trump regularly offers paeans to the Jan. 6 insurrectionists, holding a ceremony to honor those who are facing legal consequences for their criminal efforts to help him overthrow the government. Sometimes he even promises pardons. All this is done for a nakedly obvious purpose: To convince followers to risk their own skins in the future on Trump's behalf. But it's telling that Trump never offers any material support to the over 1,300 people who have been charged with crimes. Despite his claims to be a "billionaire," he hasn't paid their legal bills or helped their families after they lost their jobs.
Wednesday, yet another Jan. 6 defendant was convicted. Taylor James Johnatakis got 7 years in federal prison for carrying a megaphone and barking orders at rioters as they attacked police. "In any angry mob, there are leaders and there are followers. Mr. Johnatakis was a leader," the judge said, correctly.
All of this fake support for people who commit crimes for him seems to have bamboozled Tyler Vogel, 26, of Lancaster, New York. Last week, Vogel was arrested by Erie County authorities for texting threats to New York Attorney General Letitia James and New York Justice Arthur Engoron, who prosecuted and presided over Trump's civil case for committing decades of fraud in New York.
Not that Vogel deserves an ounce of sympathy, but this is yet another pitiful example of someone throwing everything away for a man who would not give them a penny if they were starving. It's especially pathetic to see someone give up his freedom to defend Trump's "right" to keep private jets and golf courses that were obtained through decades of fraud. Trump has been on social media for months, unsubtly begging his supporters to get violent against law enforcement trying to hold him accountable. But we can all guess how much he'll do for this one guy who did what his orange god-emperor asked of him: Absolutely nothing.
Yet that reality never seems to breach thick MAGA skulls, where the faith that Trump cares about them — despite daily evidence he does not — seems immovable.
MAGA never learns, though.
After months of insisting to the press that she would prevail in court, failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake declined to defend herself against a defamation lawsuit filed by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, a Republican official she's been lying about for years in her efforts to pretend the 2022 election was stolen from her. The reason she backed down, of course, is the same reason Giuliani eventually did. And it's the same reason why Infowars host Alex Jones refused to cooperate in the defamation lawsuits he lost: They know the evidence they lied is so overwhelming it's impossible to argue against it.
Considering that a jury will soon decide how much Lake owes Richer for lying about him, you'd think she'd shut up and start performing the remorse she is clearly incapable of feeling. . . . Richer has documented the death threats against him and his family, for which people are still getting arrested.
It seems that MAGA people believe they are endowed with the impunity that Trump has so long enjoyed, due to his wealth and status. It is repulsively true that Trump wriggles out of consequences for his crimes time and time again. But that is because he is a master at finding someone else to take the fall for him, from the January 6 defendants to his former lawyer Michael Cohen to Fox News and Rudy Giuliani. Loyalty to Trump doesn't mean getting a piece of his unbelievable levels of undeserved privilege. It just means being the next in line to be thrown under the bus as Trump escapes accountability yet again.
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