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Trump Media surges after assassination attempt seen as boosting Donald Trump’s reelection odds
Trump Media & Technology Group’s stock price soared 50% in premarket trading Monday as Wall Street recalculated the odds of former President Donald Trump succeeding in his reelection campaign following Saturday’s failed assassination attempt.
The company, which owns the Truth Social platform, jumped $15.42 to $46.30 in trading before U.S. trade kicked off at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time. The stock was up 36% shortly after financial markets opened. The jump reverses a six-week slump in Trump Media shares, which have exhibited volatile trading patterns since going public in March.
Trump Media — whose ticker symbol, “DJT,” is the same as the former president’s initials — is viewed by some as a so-called meme stock because its wild swings are influenced largely by social media enthusiasm rather than the business fundamentals that investors typically look for, such as profit and revenue growth.
The failed assassination attempt could bolster Trump’s odds in the November presidential election, with The Economist’s prediction model now giving Trump a 3 in 4 chance of winning, experts said.
“[T]he events of the past few weeks — Joe Biden’s shockingly poor debate performance, followed by Saturday’s attempted assassination of Donald Trump — all but guarantee a strong Republican performance in November’s U.S. elections,” Louis Vincent Gave, CEO of investment research firm Gavekal, said in a report.
Trump’s wealth soars after shooting
Monday morning’s jump in Trump Media’s shares adds $3.6 billion to its market value, pushing its capitalization to $9.5 billion, according to financial data company FactSet. The value of Trump’s stake — the former president is the company’s largest shareholder, with 114 million shares — ballooned by $2.2 billion, putting his stake at $5.7 billion.
The surge now gives the fledgling social media company a larger market capitalization than many established businesses, such as U.S. Steel, which booked $4.2 billion in revenue in the first quarter. Trump Media, by comparison, had sales of $770,500 in the same period.
Many of Trump Media’s shareholders are small investors who have bought the stock to express their support for the former president. For that reason, some Wall Street observers have noted that the company tends to act as a barometer of Trump’s reelection odds.
On Truth Social, members of a group focused on DJT shares on Monday morning speculated that the stock could continue to gain steam following Saturday’s shooting. Some speculated that investors who have shorted the stock could be caught in a so-called “short squeeze,” or when short sellers must purchase shares to cover their position when a company’s shares soar, rather than fall, as they had bet.
“Don’t even think about selling yet … this is just the beginning,” one member of the group wrote on Monday morning. Another added, “If you don’t own DJT, you are not a patriot.”
Costco is recalling packages of salmon over concerns they could be contaminated with listeria.
Acme Smoked Fish Corp, the shopping club’s salmon provider, sent a notice to Costco shoppers this week informing them of the recall of Kirkland Signature Smoked Salmon, due to potential contamination with listeria monocytogenes bacteria.
The notice was sent to customers who Costco records show purchased affected fish products between October 9-13. Only packages from lot number 8512801270 are affected.
Customers who purchased the recalled salmon are instructed not to eat it and to return it to a Costco store for a full refund.
“We regret this unfortunate incident and have taken immediate corrective steps to ensure that this issue never happens again,” Acme Smoked Fish Corp. CEO Eduardo Carbajosa said.
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Biden administration rolls out new student debt plan, this time aimed at people with big debts
The Biden administration’s efforts to erase student debt for the 46 million Americans who are carrying college loans have repeatedly hit legal roadblocks. Now, the Department of Education is rolling out a new plan that could provide debt relief to 8 million borrowers who are suffering from financial hardships.
The new plan, unveiled Friday, would provide loan relief for approximately 8 million people with student loans who are suffering financial distress caused by other debts, ranging from medical expenses to costs due to a natural disaster. The Education Department said the proposed rules will be published in the Federal Register in the next few weeks, and that it expects to finalize the regulations in 2025.
President Joe Biden made delivering debt relief to people with student loans a key policy issue of his 2020 campaign, but Republican-led states have sued to block many of those efforts, while the Supreme Court in 2023 ruled 6-3 against his plan to erase up to $20,000 in debt for millions of borrowers.
At the same time, Americans are holding more than $1.7 trillion in student loans, a debt load that has impaired their ability to save or buy a home, among other issues.
“For far too long, our student loan system has made it too difficult for borrowers experiencing hardships, often financial hardships, to access relief,” Education Department Miguel Cardona said on a call with reporters. “It’s not fair, it’s not right and it’s not who we are as Americans.”
How people would get relief
Under the proposal, there would be two ways borrowers could qualify for the debt relief. Some people with student loans could receive forgiveness without an application, with the Education Secretary providing one-time relief to borrowers whom the agency determines have an 80% chance of being in default within two years, Cardona said.
“A big reason why we’re fighting for student debt relief is to address the more than 1 million defaults we see annually in the student loan system,” he said.
The second pathway for loan relief would provide forgiveness after borrowers fill out an application, with the department assessing 17 factors such as the applicant’s overall debt balance, household income, and whether their student loan payments are keeping them from affording basics like housing or health care.
“Financing a college education is supposed to help students climb the economic ladder, not leave them buried in a ditch,” Cardona said.
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