Trump Media may generate more revenue for lawyers than itself

No matter how Trump Media’s stock moves, lawyers are going to get paid

4/4/24 3:42PM

Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) may not be generating much revenue for itself (under $1M last quarter), but it certainly is generating attorney fees as seemingly everyone involved with the company is suing each other. Additionally, two TMTG investors just pleaded guilty to securities fraud. A recap of the legal proceedings surrounding the hottest new meme stock:

In 2021, days after President Trump left the White House, Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss, two former contestants on Donald Trump’s reality TV show, The Apprentice, pitched the former president on the idea of building a conservative media network. The parties agreed that a SPAC merger could provide the funding needed to scale the company, and in November, TMTG announced that it was going public through a reverse merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp, a roughly $300 million SPAC led by CEO and Chairman Patrick Orlando.

On February 28, 2024, United Atlantic Ventures, a partnership between Litinsky and Moss, sued to block TMTG’s merger with DWAC, claiming that Trump was attempting to dilute them from an 8.6% stake in the company to less than 1%.

One day later, ARC Global Investments II, which is controlled by Patrick Orlando, sued to block the merger until Orlando received a larger payout. Orlando was fired by the firm in March 2023, as DWAC’s board cited “unprecedented headwinds” necessitated a leadership change.

On March 20, 2024, Digital World Acquisition Corp sued ARC to force Orlando, still the largest shareholder of DWAC, to vote to approve the merger.

Trump countersued Litinsky and Moss in a separate Florida lawsuit on March 24, claiming they failed to set up a proper corporate governance structure or find an appropriate merger partner, therefore they don’t deserve their 8.6%, $606 million stake.

Oh, and if these weren’t enough legal issues to keep track of, in unrelated, non-lawsuit matters, Michael Shvartsman, head of Miami-based venture capital firm Rocket One Capital, and his brother Gerald Shvartsman pleaded guilty to insider trading involving DWAC. In June 2021, before DWAC IPO’d, they were approached about becoming early investors in the SPAC. Upon learning that DWAC would likely be taking Trump Media public, they acquired shares in the SPAC, selling them upon merger news for a $22 million profit. Rocket One’s CIO, Bruce Garelick, is scheduled to face trial on related charges on April 29th.

TL;DR:

Trump Media’s co-founders sued Trump for attempting to dilute their shares
Trump countersued, claiming they don’t deserve their shares
DWAC’s former CEO sued the SPAC for more compensation
DWAC sued its former CEO to force him to vote to approve the merger deal
Two investors (so far) have pleaded guilty to securities fraud for insider trading tied to DWAC; another exec will face trial soon

So regardless of how the stock moves, the biggest winners of $DJT might just be the attorneys involved on both sides.

Max Knoblauch5/29/26

The Trump administration is reportedly planning a 50% made-in-America requirement for USMCA tariff relief

Qualifying for USMCA-related lower tariffs may soon require more US-made vehicle components, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal.

The Trump administration is reportedly planning to introduce a 50% US content requirement for vehicles covered by the trade pact to receive lower tariffs. The content would be measured by cost, according to the WSJ.

There currently isn’t any US-specific requirement for those lower tariff rates, but in order to receive preferential tariffs, vehicles are must contain at least 75% regional content (components made in North America). Per Reuters reporting, the Trump admin is seeking to raise the regional requirement to 82%.

These reported plans are subject to change as the US negotiates USMCA terms with Mexico over the next few months.

Overall, Tesla will likely have the easiest time qualifying for any stricter requirements. The automaker’s vehicles contained the highest amount of US/Canadian content in 2025, according to American University research. Ford, GM, and Stellantis all scored lower.

Notably: the underlying government data that many domestic content measurements rely on intentionally combines US and Canadian components, so it’s difficult to know exactly how much of any given vehicle is specifically US-made.

Exclusive | Trump Administration Wants Autos Under USMCA to Be at Least 50% Made in America

These reported plans are subject to change as the US negotiates USMCA terms with Mexico over the next few months.

Tom Jones5/29/26

The $640,000 Luce makes the average Ferrari look like a bargain

Put aside the shape; put aside the smoothing out of Ferrari’s iconic sharp edges; put aside, even, the calls from former Chairman and President Luca Cordero di Montezemolo to “take the Prancing Horse off.” On the grounds of price alone, Luce detractors might have a point.

By now, many of us will have read the criticisms of Ferrari’s first fully electric vehicle, as the Luce — which was unveiled to the world earlier this week and promptly saw the company’s shares crash out in New York and Milan — gets subtly shaded by competitors online and not-so-subtly shaded by basically everyone else.

What makes all of this worse for Ferrari is that, even by the luxury car maker’s notoriously high standards, they’ve slapped a pretty hefty price tag on the Luce, and the company’s CEO, Benedetto Vigna, has already been forced to defend the €550,000 ($640,000) price point, saying yesterday that it’s “fair to pay for innovation,” per Reuters.

While Ferrari’s cars have been getting more expensive of late, as recently as 2022, Ferrari’s average revenue per car sold was around $340,000. At nearly twice that price, this new electric model is obviously proving a little much (visually, conceptually, and financially) for many loyal and long-standing fans of the Prancing Horse to stomach.