Finally, the Democrats understood. Before the presidential election, I didn’t hear a word from anyone about how Kamala Harris would lose for not tackling inflation, planting mines along the southern border, reaching out to young men or women football players, or making her case (without a lot of abortion stickers ) among Latinos who are already in the country.

Now I can’t walk past a phone, laptop or TV without hearing of a Democratic pooper – usually it’s James Carville riffing with his Cajun accent, even if sometimes it’s Jen Psaki on MSNBC—registration all the reasons Harris lost.

“She didn’t go to Rogan…she failed to come to Jesus in Gaza…too many children happily skipped elementary school to go home with the opposite sex…” I’m sure you you’ve heard it all.

Before the election, all that mattered was that she was neither Donald Trump nor Joe Biden. Now all that matters is how to buy a piece of Donald Trump.

The same day that Trump won back the presidency on November 5. His own Hole-in-the-Wall gang running Trump Media and Technology Group (TMG or simply Trump Media) released its third quarter results and other SEC filings, proving once again that the presidency only counts as a get-rich-quick scheme to Trump.

Trump did not show up again at the White House to deal with the Ukraine issue “with one phone call” or to attend endless meetings on Social Security funding reforms. He ran, like in 2016, to stay one step ahead of the bailiffs and rob the trains.

In theory, Trump Media should cease operations, which, according to its deposits, has this declared objective:

TMTG’s mission is to end Big Tech‘The attack on free speech by opening up the internet and giving people their voices back. TMTG operates Truth Social, a social media platform established as a haven for free expression amid increasingly harsh censorship from big tech companies.

Given that Trump won the presidency and has now named Elon Musk, the owner of X (emblematic of “Big Tech”), to head what Trump calls the Department of Government Effectiveness, the reasons to cling to Trump The media has disappeared.

But Trump Media only Really had a “mission,” which was to create a public company under Trump’s control that could drain money from his supporters and allow Trump’s men to use a stock listing to raise direct “investments” in the new president.

Don’t kid yourself for a minute, thinking that Trump Media is an operating social media company or going concern.

As of September 30, 2024, Trump Media reported nine-month revenue of $2.6 million, down from $3.3 million the year before, but astonishing considering that TMTG’s market capitalization on that date was approximately $6 billion and that the company. cumulative losses for the nine-month period amounted to $363 million.

Additionally, SEC filings indicate that the company was not even paid for the few ads it ran on its social media pages. The report notes: “Unearned revenue of $2,453.5 was recognized as revenue for the nine months ended September 30, 2024…”

Almost all of its revenue is therefore fictitious, and the SEC proudly states that TMTG will not disclose traditional metrics (number of customers, etc.) of a social media company.

Simply put, the numbers mean that Trump Media has no paying customers, millions of dollars in startup losses, no business plan that makes sense, and a terrible management team of money transfer agents of Trump.

I doubt that in the history of Nasdaq there has ever been a company with a $6 billion market cap – and no revenue.

TMTG isn’t even a meme title; it is a cryptocurrency issued on the premise that Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Matt Gaetz can bring down the US government.

However, Trump Media now has a mountain of cash – nearly $700 million, raised by selling the questionable shares both to Trump’s gullible base and directly to the big hitters looking to corner the media market. Trump presidency.

In In exchange for not a dollar of investment capital, Trump received nearly 60% of the company’s outstanding shares.

In other words, Trump’s stake in Trump Media (a company with no profits and accumulated losses) ofalmost half a billion) is worth on the current market about 3.5 billion dollars. (As Trump’s cultural hero Al Capone liked to say, “You can go further with a smile and a gun than you can with a smile alone.”)

Even if Trump Media’s stock price fell from $29 today to $3.50 (closer to its book or liquidation value), Trump would still have a claim to 60% of the balance sheet’s cash, or about 420 million dollars, again without having invested a single dollar of capital. seed capital.

All Trump did for Trump Media was promise to post his social media posts there for six hours. After that, he is free to post wherever he pleases, including on the website of the Ministry of Government Effectiveness Czar’s social media company, X.

During the third quarter of 2024, Trump Media raised an additional $339 million through the issuance of its common stock, which is why the company’s management can now boast of having a “clean balance sheet”, without debt and nearly $700 million in cash.

In theory, even bad management should be able to invest some of that money in businesses that could generate better-paying profits than money market term deposits.

This could be promising if, for example, Donald Trump had the investment skills of a Warren Buffett or a Charlie Munger and was attracted to operating well-managed businesses selling at low multiples .

Buffett took the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad private for about $44 billion, and since the deal has made more than $50 billion in dividends, while retaining 100% of the company.

In contrast, in the third quarter, Trump Media spent $132 million to acquire an entity called WorldConnect Technologies, LLC (WCT), so that Trump’s social media mouthpiece could distribute its own television and video content.

I can’t say whether the company overpaid for WCTbut I can say that WCT is only valuable if Trump Media remains a going concern. If it fails in any way resulting In the event of bankruptcy (which Trump does often and well), the WCT will be valued at nothing.

Given that Trump returns to the White House and givesn that Elon Musk (Dr. Evil of Big Tech during the creation of Trump Media), does Trump Media have a role or future other than that of Donald TrumpIt is piggy bank and black bag, by what means can vague oligarchs buy influence with the new American president?

I don’t think so. Where Trump Media shines is like A seep into the money-hungry soul of Donald Trump.

Until mid-September, Trump’s shares in the company were “frozen” for six months, but since that time passed, Trump is free to sell his TMTG shares to anyone, including Vladimir Putin, to the Saudi royal family or Kim Jong. One, who might all want to, say, own 20% of Trump Media for $1.2 billion.. By purchasing its shares, they i can pay money directly to President Donald Trump, and it’s all perfectly legal.

This is the first time in American history that a president-elect or president has been listed on a major stock exchange.

Of course, another option would be for Trump to sell his 58% majority stake in TMTG to his new government efficiency expert, Elon Musk.

What could be more “effective” for Trump and Musk than charging his new best friend $1.2 billion for bringing him into government in a cabinet position? As Bertolt Brecht liked to ask: “What is robbing a bank compared to creating a bank?” »

The real problem with Kamala Harris wasn’t that she was soft on transgender or that she couldn’t police the border. Her problem was that she failed to think of the presidency as an IPO or leveraged buyout.

Trump ran on the grounds that anyone who paid him could find a voice in his administration, and Musk, for example, demonstrated good democratic spirit by doling out millions of dollars.–dollar checks made out to Trump in swing districts in western Pennsylvania. (The presidential contribution limit is $3,300 for “little people” only.)

When Trump talks about bringinging If we bring “market efficiency” back to government, what he means is that the Trump presidency will be available to the highest bidders, and for the moment, the most efficient way to settle scores with the new president is has buy shares of Trump Media (ticker symbol DJT).

After the polling stations closed, he it was clear that Harris could never having won. By around 3 a.m. on November 6, it was obvious that the country was keen to elect the presidency a man with 34 felony convictions, adjudications as a sex offender, pending cases under the sedition and espionage laws, and court judgments for fraud and defamation totaling nearly half a billion dollars.

Unless Harris managed to With an equally impressive criminal record, she was never going to win the presidency. She was running for Sergeant Preston when the country wanted Butch Cassidy.