Trump’s Truth Social company asks Congress to investigate alleged market manipulation of stock
Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Donald Trump’s beloved Truth Social, has asked Congress to investigate whether “potential manipulation” of the company’s stock could have caused its share price to plummet.
Former GOP Congressman Devin Nunes, the current CEO of Trump Media & Technology Group, addressed a letter on Wednesday 23 April to four chairs of House committees – Judiciary, Ways and Means, Financial Services, and Oversight and Reform – to look into this “urgent matter”. The company trades under the ticker “DJT”.
“We assess there are strong indications of unlawful manipulation of DJT stock,” Mr Nunes wrote.
He wrote that DJT was “the single most expensive stock to short” on 3 April, meaning that brokers have a “significant financial incentive to lend non-existent shares”. Mr Nunes said there were indicators of “naked” short selling, or selling shares without first borrowing them.
Data indicates that “four market participants” – Citadel Securities, VIRTU Americas, G1 Execution Services, and Jane Street Capital – have been responsible for more than 60 per cent “of the extraordinary volume of DJT shares traded”, the CEO claimed.
He requested that the Congressional chairs investigate the “anomalous trading of DJT” to see whether any laws had been broken, including “RICO statutes and tax evasion laws.”
Mr Nunes insisted that this probe is necessary to “protect shareholders”.
When the company started publicly trading under the DJT ticker on 26 March, it opened with a price of around $70 per share. As of 25 April, the share price is roughly half of that, at $35.
A Citadel spokesperson told CNBC: “Devin Nunes is the proverbial loser who tries to blame ‘naked short selling’ for his falling stock price.
“Nunes is exactly the type of person Donald Trump would have fired on The Apprentice. If he [Nunes] worked for Citadel Securities, we would fire him.”
Mr Trump is the majority shareholder of Trump Media & Technology Group.
