President Donald Trump’s media company, the Trump Media & Technology Group, revealed on Wednesday its plans to begin to sell financial products.
The company said that it will launch a finance firm known as Truth.Fi. While it didn’t state if it plans to begin offering investment or savings products to the public, it indicated that it’s possible that the company will offer investments backed by Trump, according to The Wall Street Journal.
To help the venture, Trump Media is taking about $250 million of the company’s cash into cryptocurrency and other investments, according to the Journal. Charles Schwab will hold the funds.
The goal is to offer services to conservatives who may feel frozen out by big banks. Last week, Trump slammed the CEOs of Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, arguing that they haven’t allowed conservatives to work with the bank.
Bank of America Chief Executive Brian Moynihan appeared on stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland as Trump spoke via video link.
“I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives,” said Trump. “Because many conservatives complain that the banks are not allowing them to do business within the bank and that included a place called Bank of America.”
While JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon wasn’t on stage, he attended the forum.
“What you’re doing is wrong,” Trump added.
The banks argued that they don’t discriminate against conservatives, but that didn’t stop right-wingers from posting letters of account closures on social media, which they believe was the bank’s way of targeting them for their political beliefs. That kind of criticism has been building after banks took on diversity policies following the 2020 police murder of George Floyd.
Devin Nunes, Trump Media CEO, told The Journal: “Developing American First investment vehicles is another step…[so] American patriots can protect themselves from the ever-present threat of cancellation, censorship, debanking, and privacy violations committed by Big Tech and woke corporations.”
According to Trump Media, Truth.Fi investment will mostly be aimed at “American growth, manufacturing, and energy companies as well as investments that strengthen the Patriot Economy.”
The company said that it would work to launch new financial products this year. Trump Media said Yorkville Advisors would be the investment advisor to Truth.Fi’s products.
The stock of Trump media rose 7 percent following the announcement, according to The Journal.
The president owns roughly 53 percent of Trump Media, a December securities filing shows. After his election victory, the president moved the shares into a trust controlled by Donald Trump Jr. The filing states that Trump’s son has “sole voting and investment power” over the approximately 115 million shares.
It would be yet another unprecedented moment for Trump, being a sitting president in control of a company looking to invest and hold assets, The Journal noted.
Trump Media is the parent company of Trump’s social media platform Truth Social and it recently started the streaming platform Truth+, going public last year. The stock has been as high as $95 and as low as $12.
Shareholders are now arguing that Bank of America and Citigroup must reveal how much they have discriminated against customers for their political or religious beliefs, and Bank of America was recently ostracized from providing services in Louisiana because of the allegations.
Alternate conservative options to mainstream firms have been attempted in the past, but Trump’s ascension has prompted further discussion regarding rightwing values at companies.
Strive, operated by Republican presidential candidate and former DOGE co-leader Vivek Ramaswamy, offers investment management and wealth-planning services. It pitches itself as a Wall Street alternative that uses its funds “to push their social and political agendas, often in the name of ESG [and] DEI.”
Meanwhile, Trump Jr. has joined the venture capital firm 1789 Capital, which is working to invest in a “Republican” or “Parallel” economy, according to The Journal.
Ken Griffin and Peter Thiel provided funds to start GloriFi, a bank for those viewing Wall Street as too liberal. But just months after launch, those investments had mostly vanished, with the startup shuttering in 2022.
