Trump Media backers think they’ve uncovered a short selling scheme tied to the assassination plot

Investors in Trump Media ($DJT) believe that they can prove who had inside knowledge of the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.

But most of their claims are based on misreading a document filed last week with the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC).

$DJT investors and short sellers have been locked in an intense battle ever since the stock went live on the NASDAQ, with accusations Trump haters are trying to use the stock to sink the president.

But a gunman firing on the Trump has set things over the edge. 

The claim that $DJT was heavily shorted before the Trump assassination attempt went viral multiple times on X, where posters claimed that shorts had been placed on Friday, June 12—the day before the attempt.

People shorting the stock expect its value to fall. And while the price soared on Monday given Trump’s survival, if he had been killed, it’s likely the stock, which is based entirely on his persona and value, would have plummeted. 

“BREAKING: WHO KNEW THE HIT WAS COMING,” posted @JohnnyTabacco. “$DJT SHORTS SKYROCKETED THE WEEK BEFORE THE HIT. FOLLOW THE SHORTS: $DJT shorts went from 7M to 15M from July 1 -July 12.  They thought Monday morning Trump would be dead. Who shorted Millions of shares the week before the HIT JOB?”

“This is a gr8 question: can the shorting be traced?” asked @LaLaRueFrench75.

“Keep your eyes on who shorted the stock…they knew,” posted @hodgetwins.

The morning of the shooting, an account on Truth Social noticed an uptick in shorts that corresponds to the above chart.

"$DJT Daily Short Volume still coming in above 60%. The nonsense continues....." they wrote, highlight the change over the week.

Some accounts on Truth Social pointed the finger at an Texas-based investment firm they thought might have had advanced knowledge. 

“[The firm] shorted 12,000,000 shares of $DJT on 7/12/24,” posted @Honk4Liberty. Congress needs to ask them some questions.”

“Whoa...that's a lot of money!” posted @Amerikanwoman.

Those posters pointed to data from an investment research platform called fintel.io, which reported that the firm filed an SEC document on July 12 disclosing 12,000,000 puts on $DJT. Puts are essentially bets placed on stocks on the expectation that the price will go down, though they’re less risky than shorts.

The firm, which the Daily Dot is not naming, did file an SEC document on the July 12 disclosing that they’d placed 12,000,000 puts on Trump’s stock, but there’s no information in the filing about whether those puts are shorts. fintel.io says they it considers all put option positions to be short positions and report them as such.

The firm didn’t immediately respond to questions from the Daily Dot about whether the put options were shorts, when the puts were placed, or why the company placed the puts.

But claims that the puts were placed specifically right before the assassination don’t hold water. The filing is a report for a calendar year or quarter ending on June 30, which is the latest the puts could have been placed. 

It’s possible firms shorted DJT on July 12, but reports revealing that are not currently available. 

Trump Media stock jumped up 30% on Monday, the first day markets opened after the assassination attempt. Since then they’ve declined a little bit, but are still above what they were last week.

Still, that didn’t stop the speculation among $DJT backers, who also tried to point the blame at another firm already mired in assassination conspiracies.

“Trump Shooter is associated with BlackRock (was in their commercials). Someone with DEEP Pockets shorts $DJT HARD on Friday expecting Trump dead on Monday. Short would have to be an entity with the ability to use advanced algorithmic trading (Aladdin). Theory: BlackRock is the short!!” posted @chadnedohin in the $DJT group on Truth Social on Wednesday, a post that's since been deleted.

Conspiracy theories connecting Trump’s would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks to BlackRock, a massive, deep-pocketed investment company, have swirled since a Blackrock ad filmed at Bethel Park High School was unearthed following the shooting. Crooks, alongside other students, was featured in the background of the video.

“Institutions have a majority ownership in BlackRock and guess who’s been shorting the shit out of DJT? You guessed right, institutions! They doubled their short positions before the assassination attempt!! Why, to reap the rewards for trying to kill a former President!” posted @WallStreetGreg on Truth Social.

While offing a former president seems like an long way to go to make a quick buck, the stock market and massive events have been conspiratorial intertwined.

Stock market shorts of airlines the day before Sept. 11, 2001 have long led to furious speculation that some people traded on advance knowledge of the attacks.

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