It used to be that there was a barrier or China Wall between the President and some of the holdings which made his family wealthy. Under President Trump the barrier was broken down and the shining example is Truth Social.

In an article by Matthew Goldstein of the New York Times News Service, the President had a falling out with Elon Musk the owner of Twitter which became X and started Truth Social. All social media sites sell advertising to pay the bills and Truth Social has struggle to expand its user base and attract advertisers beyond those selling to President Trump’s fan base. The company has 29 employees and never made a big commitment to selling ads and only has a few people on staff charged with that task. The company incurred a net loss of $31 million in the first quarter of the year.

However, Truth Social has 10 million followers because the President has no official position at Trump Media and does not advise on corporate policy, he is the largest shareholder. The President uses Truth Social as his primary social media channel. According to Similarweb, roughly 80% of the traffic for Truth Social is to view comments of the President.

In the past few months, President Trump has become a major player in the crypto industry. Truth Social raised $2.5 billion from selling stocks and bonds to dozens of hedge funds and the Wall Street trading firm Jane Street Capital.

The $2.5 billion is being invested in a partnership with Crypto.com, a Singaporean based cryptocurrency exchange to launched 3 ETFs to trade on the New York Stock Exchange. The ETFs will be called Truth Social Bitcoin ETF, Truth Social Bitcoin Ethereum ETF and Truth Social Crypto Blue Chip ETF. The money will make Trump Media the 4th-largest public company to hold bitcoin.

Trump Media will be competing with a dozen other firms including iShares, a division of Blackrock, the world’s largest asset management firm. Bryan Armour, the director of ETF research at Morningstar said there is not much to distinguish the funds outside of the name.

On the regulatory front, the President has signaled his strong support for crypto and to rein in the SEC. Crypto companies donated $18 million to President Trump’s inaugural committee and President Trump has met with people from the industry at his golf courses and the White House.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, while there might be a role for crypto in one’s portfolio, people such as Warren Buffett are staying away because you need to ask your yourself the price will fluctuate but what keeps the price up besides the fear of missing out? What supports the price when it goes down? If you buy profitable stocks which can pay a dividend, when the market goes down the support level is the dividend payments. Eventually, when the market begins to recover, the value buyers will start buying profitable companies at lower prices and they will rise to their former levels the quickest.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.