Truth Social CEO Devin Nunes speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, USA, Thursday, March 2, 2023.
Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes said Friday he will “do whatever it takes” to protect the company’s retail investors from possible illegal conduct short selling its shares.
“If we have to go to Congress, or if we have to take legal action, we will do whatever it takes to protect our retail investors,” Nunes said in an interview with right-wing outlet Newsmax.
Nunes also criticized President Joe Biden for mentioning Trump Media’s stock price in a speech earlier this week.
“Isn’t that weird?” Nunez said.
Biden took a jibe at his November Republican election rival Donald Trump in a speech in Scranton, Pa., on Tuesday, as shares of Trump Media Inc. fell from their debut price of more than $70.
“If Trump’s stock in Truth Society (his company) falls even lower, he may do better under my tax plan than he does,” Biden said.
Trump Media’s stock trades under the symbol DJT, which rebounded at the end of the week but has fallen sharply from its peak. This reduced the book value of the 60% stake held by Trump, the company’s largest shareholder.
Nunez’s comments on Newsmax further strengthened his previous theory that DJT’s stock price decline was at least partially due to alleged illegal market manipulation.
Earlier on Friday, Nunes warned Nasdaq’s chief executive that the decline in Trump Media’s stock price could be due to “naked” short selling, a type of trading in which sellers bet that a stock’s price will fall. It involves traders selling shares that have not been borrowed or arranged to be borrowed.
“Reports indicate that DJT is ‘by far the most expensive U.S. stock to short’ as of April 3, 2024,” Nunes wrote in a letter filed, meaning the broker has a huge financial incentive to lend out shares that don’t exist.
Nunes said Trump media has appeared on Nasdaq’s “Reg SHO threshold list,“This may indicate illegal trading practices.
However, the SEC notes on its website that naked short selling “does not necessarily violate federal securities laws” unless naked short selling is intentionally used to manipulate the market. It also said that the presence of stocks on the Reg SHO threshold list does not necessarily mean there is illegal trading activity.
Later in the day, Citadel Securities, one of the market firms named in the letter, mocked Nunes, calling him “a known loser trying to blame ‘naked short selling’ for the stock price decline.”
In an interview with Newsmax, Nunes seemed to push back on the claim: “If you don’t think there’s anything wrong, then you say there’s nothing wrong. You’re not going to go out and attack me personally.
Ken Griffin, the founder of Citadel Securities, is a major donor to Republican candidates, including Nunes, who served as a California Republican House representative before taking the reins of Trump Media.
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