Who Owns the Media: Trump Media

Trump Media 🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔

Capitulation Rank: Propaganda
Category: Online Platform 
Market Cap: $5.301 billion

The Trump Media & Technology Group makes up much of the billionaire president’s wealth on paper. As the 59 percent owner of the social-media platform, Donald Trump calls the shots. The company — whose board includes Donald Trump Jr., former Republican congressman Devin Nunes, former Trump administration official Robert Lighthizer, and, until recently, Kash Patel and Linda McMahon (now respectively the FBI director and Department of Education head) — serves as a quasi-official outlet for presidential announcements.

Trump also uses the group’s social-media platform, Truth Social, to launch frequent ALL-CAP attacks against his perceived foes. It has been investigated for murky financial links to a Russian oligarch and fraudulently misleading investors, an act that led to an $18 million SEC fine in 2023.

The media group also hawks crypto products such as non-fungible tokens and memecoins as part of the Trump family’s ongoing forays into digital currencies. While personally enriching the president, the company hasn’t once turned a profit, instead posting sizable financial losses throughout the four years since its inception. It reported a $400 million net loss for 2024.

DEI Doublespeak:

The company’s 2024 Corporate Governance Guidelines includes a “Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion,” which states “The Board is committed to creating and maintaining a culture of diversity and inclusion … and believes in and supports equal opportunity in employment to all persons.” However, in response to CNN reporting, a Trump Media spokesperson “dismissed the significance of the diversity and inclusion statement in the company’s corporate governance, implying that it was merely legal language to comply with anti-discrimination laws.”

What It Owns:

The social network Truth Social

Money & Influence Game:

The principal owner of Trump Media has leveraged his position as President of the United States to enrich himself, his family and loyal allies.