Shares in Trump’s social media company spike after president-elect says he won’t sell stake
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(NEW YORK) — Shares in Donald Trump’s social media company spiked after the president-elect again vowed not to sell his stake in the parent company of Truth Social and called for an investigation into “market manipulators or short sellers.”
Trump Media’s stock price increased by nearly 16 percent to $32 per share on Friday, as investors reacted to the news.
In interviews with ABC News before the election, some shareholders expressed optimism about the company’s future if Trump won the election, in large part due to his potential ability to investigate and stop so-called “naked short sellers,” who they blamed for the company’s lackluster stock price.
Earlier this year, Trump Media’s CEO Devin Nunes called for Nasdaq to investigate whether the company’s stock price was manipulated by short sellers betting against the company without owning or borrowing shares.
“I’m very happy he’s the president and think he’ll do something about the short selling when he gets into office,” Todd Schlanger, a shareholder from West Palm Beach, told ABC News.
“The system seems kind of rigged,” Todd Schlanger, a shareholder from West Palm Beach, told ABC News earlier this year. “Once he becomes president, I think he’s going to fire the head of the SEC, and I think that’s going to make a big change for the company and for all companies.”
Shares in the company — which some analysts saw as a bellwether for Trump’s electoral odds — have surged since late September when the stock traded as low as $12. As Trump’s odds of winning the election improved, the stock’s value tripled in October, trading at more than $50 per share.
But the company’s long-term success remains uncertain, with the company losing more than $19 million during the last quarter while bringing in only $1 million in revenue, according to a recent SEC filing.
According to Similarweb, a data tracking site, the site only attracts 3.7 million unique monthly visitors, compared to rival X’s 461.4M monthly visitors.
As Trump heads into office and the company’s share price continues to surge, his 57 percent stake in the company is worth nearly $4 billion.
(NEW YORK) — The price of bitcoin surpassed $100,000 for the first time on Wednesday, soaring to a fresh high as the world’s largest cryptocurrency extended a rally set off by the election of former President Donald Trump.
Bitcoin has climbed more than 40% since Election Day, when voters opted for a candidate viewed as friendly toward digital currency.
Those gains have far outpaced the stock market. The S&P 500 has increased about 2.4% over that period, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq has jumped 2.6%.
On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to bolster the cryptocurrency sector and ease regulations enforced by the Biden administration. Trump also promised to establish the federal government’s first National Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
Trump said he would replace Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, whom many crypto proponents dislike for what they perceive as a robust approach to crypto regulation.
Gensler announced that he plans to resign on Jan. 20, 2025, the date of Trump’s inauguration.
The post-election euphoria has lifted other parts of the crypto sector. Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, has climbed 27%. Lesser-known dogecoin has skyrocketed about 140%, while litecoin has surged 35%.
Shares of Coinbase, a top crypto trading platform, have increased more than 70% since Trump’s reelection.
The growth in recent weeks extends a remarkable turnabout for the once-beleaguered crypto industry. The sector entered this year bruised after a series of high-profile collapses and company scandals.
FTX, a multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency exchange co-founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, collapsed in November 2022. The implosion set off a 17-month legal saga that resulted in the conviction of Bankman-Fried for fraud. In April, Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Changpeng Zhao, the founder and former CEO of major cryptocurrency exchange Binance, was sentenced to four months in prison in April after pleading guilty to charges that his platform had enabled illicit financial activity.
The reelection of Trump marks the latest in a series of positive developments that have buoyed cryptocurrency this year.
Those gains have been propelled, in part, by U.S. approval in January of bitcoin ETFs, or exchange-traded funds. Bitcoin ETFs allow investors to buy into an asset that tracks the price movement of bitcoin, while avoiding the inconvenience and risk of purchasing the crypto coin itself.
Last month, options on BlackRock’s popular iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) were made available for trading on the Nasdaq. The options, which provide a new avenue for bitcoin investors, allow individuals to commit to buy or sell the ETF at a given price by a specific date. While such investments typically come with additional risk, they can also make large payouts.
IBIT inched upward 1% on Friday, reaching a record high of about $56.
Bryan Armour, the director of passive strategies research at financial firm Morningstar, attributed the recent crypto surge to investors’ anticipation of friendly policy under Trump, as well as the newly available options trading for bitcoin ETFs.
Still, the performance of cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, has proven volatile, Armour added. The price of bitcoin could fall, especially if Trump encounters difficulty following through on his campaign commitments, he said.
“As long as the narrative stays positive, there’s always room to grow,” Armour told ABC News before bitcoin reached $100,000. “I also think campaign promises don’t always come to fruition.”
“It’s still a highly volatile asset,” Armour added.
(BERLIN) — Workers for the largest online retailer in the world are planning to go on strike during one of the busiest shopping weekends of the holiday season.
Amazon employees are preparing to protest in 20 countries, including in major cities in the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan and Brazil, starting on Black Friday over “labor abuses, environmental degradation and threats to democracy,” according to UNI Global Union and Progressive International, a Switzerland-based global labor union.
Dubbed the “Make Amazon Pay days of resistance,” the strike is scheduled to last from Black Friday through Cyber Monday, the union announced in a press release. Demonstrators are calling for increased wages and for employees to be permitted to unionize.
The strike could lead to delays in holiday deliveries for customers, economy experts told ABC News.
Unions and allied groups around the world are planning to participate, according to UNI Global Union.
Thousands of workers in the German cities of Graben, Dortmund Werne, Bad Hersfeld, Leipzig, Koblenz and Rheinberg will also protest, in addition to hundreds in New Delhi, who are demonstrating to demand fair treatment following the mistreatment of workers during a heat wave in July, the union said.
The Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions and Citizen’s Action will hold protests in multiple cities across France, and garment workers will also take to the streets in Bangladesh, the union said.
This year marks the fifth annual Make Amazon Pay demonstration, which aims to “hold Amazon accountable around the world” by targeting a busy holiday shopping weekend. In 2023, Amazon represented 18% of the worldwide Black Friday sales, with more than $170 billion in total holiday sales, according to an earnings report released earlier this year.
“Amazon’s relentless pursuit of profit comes at a cost to workers, the environment and democracy,” said Christy Hoffman, general secretary of UNI Global Union. “[Jeff] Bezos’ company has spent untold millions to stop workers from organizing, but the strikes and protests happening around the world show that workers’ desire for justice — for union representation — can’t be stopped. We stand united in demanding that Amazon treat its workers fairly, respect fundamental rights, and stop undermining the systems meant to protect us all.”
Amazon defended its treatment of workers in a statement to ABC News on Thursday.
“This group is being intentionally misleading and continues to promote a false narrative,” Amazon spokesperson Eileen Hards said. “The fact is at Amazon we provide great pay, great benefits, and great opportunities — all from day one. We’ve created more than 1.5 million jobs around the world, and counting, and we provide a modern, safe, and engaging workplace whether you work in an office or at one of our operations buildings.”
The company announced earlier this year a $2.2 billion investment to increase pay for fulfillment and transportation employees in the U.S. As a result, the average base wage for these employees is now more than $22 per hour and the average total compensation more than $29 per hour when the value of their elected benefits is factored in, according to the company.
Comprehensive benefits for these employees that begin on the first day of employment include health, vision and dental insurance; a 401(k) with 50% company match; up to 20 weeks paid leave, which includes 14 weeks of pregnancy-related disability leave and six weeks of parental leave; and Amazon’s Career Choice program, which prepays college tuition, according to Amazon.
An earlier statement to ABC News from Amazon stated: “While we’re always listening and looking at ways to improve, we remain proud of the competitive pay, comprehensive benefits and engaging, safe work experiences we provide our teams.”
Amazon workers have been outspoken in recent years about workers’ rights, especially as the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic increased the number of online orders. E-commerce sales in the U.S. increased by $244.2 billion — or 43% — in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, rising from $571.2 billion in 2019 to $815.4 billion in 2020, according to the Census Bureau’s Annual Retail Trade Survey.
In 2022, a worker-led independent group led the first-ever U.S. union at the company, unionizing a 6,000-employee Amazon warehouse in Staten Island, New York.
While subsequent attempts at facilities in Alabama and New York have failed, efforts have continued.
In June 2023, nearly 2,000 Amazon workers organized a walkout after a mandate to return to the office was issued. In Kentucky, Amazon employees who spoke to ABC News alleged that the company was leading a union-busting campaign to discourage employees from organizing.
Amazon told ABC News last year that the disciplinary action taken by the company at an Amazon facility in Kentucky came in response to infractions of company policy.
“Amazon squeezes everything that it can get, but it changes its behavior depending on its jurisdiction,” James Schneider, communications director for Progressive International, told ABC News this week. “Let’s say, in Sweden, it engages much better at how it operates with trade unions. But in the U.S., it engages in union busting.”
A 2022 report by the United Nations’ International Labour Organization found that post-pandemic inflation and the rising cost of living have been decreasing the value of minimum wage globally.
The rise of inflation has paved the way for collective action, experts say. (Starbucks was also part of the 2022 union resurgence.)
“Amazon is everywhere, but so are we. By uniting our movements across borders, we can not only force Amazon to change its ways but lay the foundations of a world that prioritizes human dignity, not Jeff Bezos’ bank balance,” said Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla, Progressive International’s co-general coordinator.
(WASHINGTON) — Social media platform TikTok is hurtling toward a U.S. ban that could upend its business and frustrate more than 150 million American users — unless President-elect Donald Trump finds a way to reverse the policy.
Trump, who boasts 14 million followers on TikTok, voiced opposition to the ban earlier this year. The policy, which orders TikTok to find a U.S. parent company or face a ban, is set to take effect on Jan. 19, a day before Trump’s inauguration.
An effort to eliminate the ban may present formidable political challenges and legal hurdles, experts told ABC News. The outcome could depend on support from an array of major institutions ranging from Congress and the Supreme Court to tech giants like Google and Oracle, they added.
The China-owned app has faced growing scrutiny from government officials over fears that user data could fall into the possession of the Chinese government and the app could be weaponized by China to spread misinformation.
There is little evidence that TikTok has shared U.S. user data with the Chinese government or that the Chinese government has asked the app to do so, cybersecurity experts previously told ABC News.
TikTok did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment. Neither did Trump’s transition team.
The president is expected to try to stop the ban of TikTok after he takes office, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with his views on the matter.
Here’s what to know about the different ways that Trump could try to stop the TikTok ban, according to experts:
Push Congress to repeal the TikTok ban
The most straightforward way to reverse the policy would be a repeal of the law that enacted the ban in the first place, experts told ABC News.
A repeal would require passage in both houses of Congress, landing the measure on Trump’s desk for his signature.
“The easiest way is to ask Congress to reverse the ban,” Anupam Chander, a professor of law and technology at Georgetown University, told ABC News. But, he added, it isn’t as easy as it sounds.
Congress voted in favor of the ban only seven months ago. In the House of Representatives, the ban passed by an overwhelming margin of 352-65. In the Senate, 79 members voted in favor of the measure, while 18 opposed and 3 abstained.
A repeal effort carries political risks for Trump, since it could be perceived as conciliatory toward China, in contrast with the adversarial tone voiced by Trump on the campaign trail, James Lewis, a data security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told ABC News.
“It’s a political problem,” Lewis said, noting that Trump could soften potential backlash by seeking a reform of the law rather than an outright repeal.
Trump may not need Congress to repeal the ban. A lawsuit against the ban brought by TikTok on First Amendment grounds currently stands before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Experts who spoke to ABC News said they expect the court to rule against TikTok, but the company could then appeal, potentially sending the case to the Supreme Court before the ban takes effect. The Supreme Court may determine that the legal challenge holds sufficient merit to delay implementation of the ban, leading ultimately to a rejection of the law.
“The Supreme Court may want a crack at this,” Alan Rozenshtein, a law professor at the University of Minnesota who focuses on the First Amendment, told ABC News.
Refuse to enforce the TikTok ban
Instead of repealing the law or counting on court intervention, Trump could try to prevent the Justice Department from enforcing the measure, experts said.
The law orders distributors like Apple and Google to stop offering the social media platform in their app stores, and it requires cloud service providers like Oracle to withhold the infrastructure necessary for TikTok to operate.
Companies that violate the law risk a penalty of $5,000 for each user who accesses TikTok. “That adds up,” Rozenshtein said.
In theory, Trump’s Justice Department could opt against enforcement of the law, reassuring the likes of Apple and Oracle that the companies would not face prosecution in the event of a violation, experts said.
Along similar lines, the Trump administration could take up an interpretation of the ban that affords it wide latitude in finding that TikTok has complied with a requirement that it divest from parent company ByteDance, experts said.
In other words, even if TikTok has made little effort to comply with the law, the Trump administration could attempt a reading of the measure that finds the company has met the threshold necessary to avoid a ban, Rozenshtein said.
If Trump opts against enforcement, the move could still prove insufficient. Companies like Apple and Oracle may decide to comply with the ban anyway, since they could face legal risk if the Trump administration reverses its approach, Rozenshtein added.
“Trump is mercurial,” Rozenshtein said. “If you are Apple’s general counsel, do you really want this hanging over you?”
Help TikTok find a U.S. buyer
Finally, Trump could try to find a U.S. buyer for TikTok, allowing the platform to avoid a ban. This approach may appeal to Trump’s self-image as a business dealmaker, but time is running short for such a significant business transaction and TikTok has shown little appetite for it, experts said.
The law allows for a 90-day extension of the deadline for a TikTok sale, as long as the company is advancing toward an agreement. Under such a scenario, the deadline would move back to April, providing Trump with additional time.
“It’s possible that he’ll try to force TikTok to come to some kind of deal with American buyers,” Lewis said. “It’s not likely. TikTok will hold out as long as they can.”
China has signaled opposition to the sale of TikTok to a U.S. company, The Wall Street Journal reported in March.
Alternatively, Trump could seek a compromise measure in Congress that affords him additional time and wider latitude to establish a U.S.-based operation for TikTok, experts said. Or the Trump administration could offer up an interpretation of the law that gives it space to strike a compromise with TikTok.
TikTok previously proposed a solution called “Project Texas,” in which the company would keep all data on U.S. users within the country through a partnership with Oracle. When TikTok CEO Shou Chew testified before Congress last year, several members raised concern about a potential lack of third-party oversight in such an arrangement.
Trump could seek to assuage the concerns of members of Congress while reaching terms satisfactory to TikTok, Chander said.
“Trump may be able to do things that reassure the American people that the app is safe, and that it is bringing a lot of the programming here to U.S. soil,” Chander said.
