President Trump's social media company may need approval from his administration as it moves forward with a financial services firm for "American patriots."
Trump Media & Technology said it applied for six trademarks on Thursday for the firm, named Truth.Fi. The trademarks cover the energy, manufacturing and bitcoin sectors, with two investment options — separately managed accounts and exchange-traded funds —for each. According to Axios, the bitcoin ETF is likely to draw attention due to Trump promoting cryptocurrency on the campaign trail and investing in it.
Some of the financial products, such as bitcoin ETFs, need approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission before they can be created, listed and traded.
While the company hasn’t yet filed these trademarks with the SEC, according to Reuters, it doesn’t seem likely they would run into trouble. Trump’s SEC chair nominee, Paul Atkins, is a known crypto advocate, to the point where his nomination caused the price of Bitcoin to surge.
ETFs, similar to mutual funds, are a type of investment fund that pools money from investors.
Trump Media said it plans to launch its financial products sometime this year as an alternative to traditional financial institutions, which Trump views as being unfair to conservatives.
“We aim to give investors a means to invest in American energy, manufacturing, and other firms that provide a competitive alternative to the woke funds and debanking problems that you find throughout the market,” Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes said in a statement. “We’re exploring a range of ways to differentiate our products, including strategies related to bitcoin. We will continue to finetune our intended product suite to develop the optimal mix of offerings for investors who believe in America First principles.”
Trump Media operates Truth Social, a social media platform created in 2021 after Trump was banned from Twitter. It had 6.3 million active users at the end of January. Trump Media also has a web streaming service, Truth+, that launched last October.
But the company has struggled to generate revenues from advertising on those platforms, The New York Times reports.
Trump is the company's largest shareholder. Before his second term began, he transferred all of his shares to a trust controlled by his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., who is also a company board member.
Trump Media's move into the financial industry led critics to raise conflict of interest concerns, since he appoints the head of the agency that regulates cryptocurrencies and Wall Street. His selected leaders are expected to take a less aggressive approach than the Biden administration.
A few days before his inauguration, he and Melania Trump launched their own meme coins. The highly volatile digital currencies generated billions of dollars for the president, at least on paper.
Trump and his sons are promoters of World Liberty Financial, a crypto trading business they started last fall with Steve Witkoff, a co-chair of Trump's inaugural committee and Middle East envoy. The Trumps are not owners or employees of the platform but can receive revenues from it.
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