Former President Donald Trump is facing “very real consequences” for his behavior, said his niece Mary Trump on Tuesday, as she dwelled into some of the biggest risks her uncle faces.
Trump Media Woes: Mary Trump noted that her uncle’s newly-listed media company Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. DJT has seen its shares go about a free fall. The stock that opened for trading at $70.90 on March 26 has been cut in half now and it ended Wednesday’s session down 8.57% at $34.26.
This has prompted traders to place short bets on the stock and Mary Trump said this is “the ultimate insult” for Donald Trump.
More importantly, Donald Trump may have committed a crime by “engaging in manipulative and deceptive devices” to pump up TMTG stock, Mary Trump said. She noted that in the wake of the stock slide, Donald Trump took to social media to assuage investor concerns and bragged about the financial stability of the company, its sound cash position, and purportedly “fast-growing” user count of the Truth Social platform,
Citing comments by Standard Law Professor Michael Klausner, she said her uncle’s statement could be a case of stock pumping that would be tantamount to securities fraud.
Mary Trump also referred to the admission by Michael Shvartsman and Gerald Shvartsman, early investors in SPAC Digital World Acquisition Corp, which merged with TMTG, that they made over $22 million in illegal profits by selling on inside knowledge.
Kushner’s Shady Investments: Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is back on the radar, with the New York Times reporting Tuesday that 99% of the investment in the latter’s private equity firm was from foreign sources – an unusual occurrence, Mary Trump said.
“This financial influx originates primarily from authoritarian governments, a fact that has led to concerns about potential conflicts of interest. His financial dealings have been described as "unprecedented" and "unusual" by economic analyst Steve Rattner,” the psychologist said.
In 2022, merely six months after Donald Trump left the White House and four years after the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, at the direction of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, invested $2 billion in Kushner's newly established private equity firm, she noted.
Kushner's firm has also received investments from state-managed funds in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. and some of those foreign funds were earmarked for investment in a $500 million real estate project in Serbia, Mary Trump said. Rights and liberties of Serbian citizens have deteriorated significantly over the past year and the country is named as only “partly free,” she added.
Given that Kushner has not ruled out a return to the White House under a future [Donald] Trump administration, his dealings with authoritarian governments matter because of concerns about conflict of interest, national security, and ethics and transparency, Mary Trump said.
“It's critical we shine a light on this,” she said.
Mary Trump said the “path to holding Jared accountable” is to relaunch the investigation into his $2 billion Saudi deal. The House Oversight Committee launched an initial investigation into it in 2022, but the Republican majority has blocked it, she added.
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