Trump Media Falls to All-Time Low As Republicans Lose Congress

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump's social media company and meme coin both plunged after Democrats won a decisive victory in the midterm elections, dinging the multibillion-dollar fortune of a president whose slew of new business ventures became a defining feature of his second term.

Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., the parent company of social media platform Truth Social, touched an all-time low of $5.03 on Wednesday. $TRUMP, the virtual token that Trump introduced days before his second inauguration, slid more than 10% in the past 24 hours, according to data provider CoinMarketCap.

The simultaneous drop in both assets — which trade heavily on retail speculation — signals investors may be anxious about the implications of the election for the businesses with links to the president, which are now expected to receive fresh congressional oversight.

For months, Democrats have signaled their appetite to pursue investigations into the president and his family's business interests if they prevail in either chamber, leaving any company connected to the first family as a potential target.

"LAWYER UP," Robert Garcia, the California Democrat in line to chair the House Oversight Committee, posted on social media as the results rolled in on Tuesday night.

The businesses account for meaningful wealth for the first family. Trump's stake in the social media company, which he holds through a trust controlled by his eldest son Donald Trump Jr, is worth about $600 million; the meme coin business accounts for about $83 million, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Trump shunned decades of norms for American presidents, drawing rebuke from the left for profiting from cryptocurrency ventures and business interests that bear his name while in office.

When the New York Times asked the president earlier this year about conflicts of interest in his second term, he said, "I found out that nobody cared." The White House has maintained that there are no conflicts of interests involving the president's business ventures.

Yet polling ahead of the midterms showed that government corruption, broadly, was a significant concern for voters. A Fox News poll found 60% of voters were extremely worried about government corruption, while a Gallup survey showed Americans' perceptions of government corruption in the US hit their highest level in 20 years, with 89% of respondents calling it widespread.