U.S. President Donald Trump has cemented himself in American culture by putting his name on everything from office towers to passports.
Now Trump’s brand is hitting Wall Street trading floors, too.
The Trump Media and Technology Group (DJT-Q), which counts Trump as the largest shareholder, has introduced exchange-traded investment funds carrying the brand of his social media platform, Truth Social. The company’s goal is to pitch the funds, which are baskets of individual stocks, to investors who share Trump’s worldview. The funds began rolling out earlier this year.
“We are here to talk about American superiority,” said Steve Neamtz, CEO of Yorkville America, an investment firm in New Jersey with close ties to Trump Media that is managing the funds.
Neamtz said the Truth Social funds were focused on companies in sectors critical to the U.S. economy, like energy and security, while avoiding stocks of companies that are seen as promoting social causes at the expense of profits. “We don’t want activism,” he said.
But the Truth Social basket of ETFs all have a decidedly “America First” aura. The five newly launched funds have names like Truth Social American Icons (TSIC-A), Truth Social American Security and Defense (TSSD-A) and Truth Social American Energy Security (TSES-A). Companies that the funds own shares in include Home Depot, Uber, Lockheed Martin, CrowdStrike, Exxon Mobil, Walmart and Chevron.
Yorkville recently acquired two older ETFs with a strong conservative bent and rebranded them as Truth Social funds.
One of those is Truth Social America First, which trades under the “MAGA” stock symbol. And the other is Truth Social God Bless America, which trades under the symbol “YALL.”
ETFs, which have been around for decades, are a popular way for investors to get exposure to stocks without having to be their own stock pickers. The funds themselves trade on stock exchanges.
The ETF market is huge, with US$24 trillion in assets, and is dominated by big money-management firms like BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street. The Truth Social funds are entering the market with about US$150 million in combined assets.
It is unclear just how much of a revenue-maker the seven funds will be for Trump Media, which does not have any role in managing or selecting the stocks. The company is licensing the Truth Social name to Yorkville for an unspecified amount, according to regulatory filings.