Large institutional investors have massively increased their holdings of Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) in recent months according to SEC filings, with many enlarging their positions by hundreds of millions of dollars.
The revelations raise further questions about big business’s desire to curry favor with Donald Trump and his administration via the enterprises he has maintained or commenced. TMTG runs the Truth Social social media platform – on which the US president himself posts almost daily – as well as financial services anda film and TV streaming service.
Some of the investing funds have prior connections with Trump and Republican political causes. Among those buying in was Charles Schwab Investment Management (Schwab), founded by theTrump associate Charles Schwab.
Critics say that the investments do not reflect any obvious improvement in the business prospects of the company, whichlost more than $400min its 2024 financial results.
Tony Clark is executive director of Accountable.us, a non-profit that monitors the influence of special influence onUS politics.
In an emailed statement, he told the Guardian, “Donald Trump’s refusal to divest from his publicly traded company has predictably prompted huge investments from wealthy special interests that could use a favor from the president.”
He added: “Institutional Wall Street investors and even a foreign company with business before the administration have effectively offered a form of tribute by bulk purchasing shares in DJT on the open market, which helps juice the value of Trump’s own shares.”
In both presidential terms, Trump has faced accusations of cronyism and self-dealing. According to the transparency non-profitCitizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Trump took in about $13.6m in his first term from foreign governments, mostly through payments to his hotels, whose operationshe did not sign over to a blind trust as had previous presidentswith their business interests.
The information in this story was derived from quarterly Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings made by major institutions – defined as those managing assets in excess of $100m. The filings reviewed by the Guardian were filed in early February and detail changes in TMTG holdings at 31 December 2024.
Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc is a subsidiary of Charles Schwab corporation, which is regularly listed as being among the 20 largest banks in the United States.
In the final quarter of 2024 the company bumped up its TMTG stake by almost a third, finishing the year with 788,722 shares worth $19.7m.
According to Schwab, this is in line with their normal investment strategy.
In an emailed statement, a spokesperson wrote: “As a large asset manager with nearly $400bn in ETF [exchange-traded funds] assets under management, our position in any publicly traded company is driven by our index funds and ETFs that track an underlying index. The extent a position changes is due to the change in the index itself or client flows into the ETF and is not reflective of any view of a company.”
As Trumptold a group of Nascar driversin introducing that company’s founder at an Oval Office meeting on 11 April, Charles Schwab is “not just a company, it’s actually an individual”.
Charles R Schwab, 88, made billions by offering lower costs on share trading for retail investors and pioneering innovations like ETFs. He has been a prolific Republican donor, including to a Republican National Committee legal fund that has helped fund Trump’s many legal battles since 2017. He suspended his Pac following the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol, citing a “hyperpartisan” political climate.
But he has remained in Trump’s orbit, as evidenced by the 11 April meeting in the Oval Office.
That day Trump told the group of Schwab, “he made two and half billion today”, the same day that markets rallied after Trump partly suspended his so-called Liberation Day tariffs announced 2 April.
Earlier that day, on his Truth Social account, Trump infamously posted ““THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT”, with the post and Schwab’s presence bothignitingaccusations of market manipulation and “insider trading”.
Schwab has business and personal connections with Trump businesses and the administration.
When the TMTG CEO, Devin Nunes – a former congressman and first-term Trump ultra-loyalist – announced in January that TMTG would push into financial services and cryptocurrency investments with the Truth.fi initiative, it was also announced that Schwab’s brokerage would “custody the assets and ‘broadly advise’ on Truth.Fi’s investment plans” according toFinancial Times reporting.
Earlier that month, Samantha Schwab, Charles Schwab’s granddaughter, wasappointed deputy chief of staff at the treasury department. Schwab senior donated $1m to Trump’s inaugural committee.
But Schwab’s company was not the only one that substantially increased its investment in TMTG stock.
Foreign billionaires with Trumpist sympathies have also piled into the stock.
Hancock Prospecting, an Australian mining company owned by Gina Rinehart, was a new shareholder in the fourth quarter, picking up 150,000 shares for some $3.7m.
Trump backers in the US have described Rinehart as a “female Donald Trump”, and Rinehart has characterized herself as a “Trumpette” – a member of a female Trump fan club – andattended his campaign launchat Mar-a-Lago in 2024, while urging Australia’s political leaders to“Make Australia Great Again”, and telling investors this year that “We need a USA-style Doge that delivers action, one that helps to return dollars to our pockets and investment back to Australia.”
She has appeared at several US events with Trump, and took out full page advertisements in US newspapers to congratulate him on his victory last year. She has urged Trump-like policies on Australia’s politician Peter Dutton, who recently lost to the Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, in Australia’s elections.
The Guardian contacted Charles Schwab Investment Management and Hancock Prospecting for comment on this reporting.
TMTG has been hit by numerous scandals, especially since it went public in 2021.
Last year,two men pleaded guiltyto securities fraud over insider trading in shares of the company that eventually merged with Trump’s fledgling media company to take it public.
The company has alsosought to punishthose shorting the stock – betting that it will decline in value – by reporting such activities to the SEC as suspicious.
It remains to be seen if new initiatives in financial services – to be offered alongside the core social media business and a streaming app featuring mostly pro-Maga commentary – will finally put the company in the black.
The company is yet to post a profit; the most recent earnings reportshowed a loss of $19.2min the third quarter of 2024, with falling sales and income.
Clark, the Accountable.us director, said: “Considering Trump Media has been hemorrhaging hundreds of millions of dollars in losses, there’s little doubt these hedge fund managers are hoping for a different kind of return on their investment.”
He added: “The President might as well put up a ‘bribe me’ sign on the White House – it’s corruption out in broad daylight.”