Donald Trump's critics have been attacking Trump Media and Technology Group, which went public in late March, as a "meme stock" — meaning a stock that looks hot at first but doesn't perform well in the long run.
In a biting opinion column published by MSNBC on April 2, liberal journalist/author Paul Waldman stresses that Trump Media is showing just how much of a "meme stock" it is.
"To anyone who cashed out their retirement fund and moved it all into shares of Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, we have some bad news," Waldman explains. "Just a week after the former president's supporters rushed to invest in a company that looked to be Trump's financial salvation, its stock is plunging faster than Wile E. Coyote after he realizes he's stepped off the side of a cliff."
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The MSNBC columnist continues, "It didn't take a savvy investment analyst to see that the latest offering from the man responsible for such ventures as Trump University, the Trump Foundation, the Trump Network and the Trump Institute had all the hallmarks of another scheme in which Trump gets away with millions and leaves other people holding the bag."
Waldman points out, however, that MAGA Republicans investing heavily in the stock in order to "own the libs" are willing "victims" who will "thank Trump for the privilege of being shaken down."
"Though the supporters who bought Trump Media shares are certainly victims of a con," the journalist argues, "they are different from most who find themselves in that position…. In fact, they're probably happy to lose money, so long as Trump walks away a winner — which he probably will, especially since he didn't put up any of his own money to create Truth Social."
Trump supporters who lose their shirts with Trump Media stock, according to Waldman, won't become any less devoted to the former president.
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"Trump's innovation was to create a cult so encompassing that each dollar they lose is only more proof of their devotion," Waldman writes. "So don't feel bad for the buyers of Trump's meme stock. They're glad to be swindled."
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Paul Waldman's full MSNBC column is available at this link.