Author: Dan Alexander, Forbes

Translation: Nora, Forbes

Proofreading: Lemin

Vadim Fistikan started working at the age of 17, saving money through years of overtime, delaying various expenses, and practicing self-restraint after adulthood. By the time he was nearly thirty, his savings had exceeded $100,000. In 2021, this truck driver from Washington state set his sights on a waterfront home in Florida, which included a pool, a waterway connecting to a river that flowed into the ocean, and his family living nearby. “We were ready to finalize the purchase at that time,” he said, “but various Trump-related investment projects were surging in popularity.”

The core target of this wave of enthusiasm was the Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), the operator of the social platform Truth Social.

In October 2021, Trump officially launched the development plan for this enterprise, claiming to create a social platform with no content moderation, and opened investment channels to supporters through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The SPAC's stock price skyrocketed by 1650% within two days, only to fall by about 30% when the market opened on the third trading day. However, to Fistikan, this was not a warning sign but rather an opportunity to enter at a discount. “I thought at that time, I have to get in.” This voter, who had cast three ballots for Trump, continued to increase his investment, eventually reaching a total stake of $205,000.

Today, this investment's market value is only $30,000.

Last fall, Fistikan vented his frustrations on Truth Social. “I posted that this is simply a scam,” he recalled, “but a lot of users rebutted me, saying I was just a Trump hater. I replied to them: I have been optimistic since the project launched... now I am left with nothing.”

01、It's not just him who is at a loss.

The former CFO of the SPAC, Katherine Chiles, recently shared a song on her Truth Social account, with lyrics accusing Trump of betraying his supporters, openly calling him “Donald Trump is a bastard”. Chad Nedohin, a church worship leader and a former grassroots leader among retail shareholders of Trump Media, now bluntly states that this company is merely a cash-grabbing tool for Trump and his inner circle. “In their eyes, we are just the leeks they harvest for profit,” Nedohin said, “He doesn’t care about anyone.”

In Trump’s lifetime, the iconic businesses he built—the Atlantic City casino, the securities offerings on the New York Stock Exchange, and the political movements sweeping across America—have all relied on one type of person: loyal followers. When Trump left office in 2021, he still had a vast number of supporters behind him, and he quickly launched a monetization plan, structured in three steps: first, create business projects out of thin air, investing almost no personal funds while holding a significant portion of equity; second, incite loyal followers to frantically invest in the projects, extracting as much profit as possible; third, watch the assets collapse and divide the remaining value. From 2021 to 2025, five projects under the Trump family raised funds from ordinary investors: Trump Media and Technology Group, World Liberty Financial, Trump Coin, Melania Trump Coin, and American Bitcoin Company.

Now, all projects have fallen into the third step of collapse.

The stock price of Trump Media has plummeted by 89% from its peak; World Liberty Financial’s token has dropped by 82%; Trump Coin has shrunk by 98%; Melania Coin has fallen by 99%; the stock price of American Bitcoin Company has declined by 95%. Forbes' estimates indicate that the Trump family has cashed out a total of $1.9 billion, still netting $3.1 billion overall; investors have collectively lost about $7 billion.

A representative from the Trump Group did not respond to reporters' requests for comments; a spokesperson for Trump Media also declined to comment. The company previously sued several media outlets, including Forbes, accusing them of publishing false reports regarding its first-year operating losses. The White House did not address inquiries regarding the various profit-making projects of the president, only releasing a policy statement. Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly stated: “President Trump deeply cares about the patriotic people who voted him into office, and he works daily to fight for their rights.”

02、The painful price this scam has inflicted on ordinary people can be seen in Fistikan's experience.

What he bought was not just stocks but a whole set of extravagant rhetoric—claiming that Trump would treat his supporters as partners, not as tools for exploitation. “I nearly bet all my life savings on this single stock,” Fistikan stated, “this is the worst plunder and scam he has ever committed.”

In January 2025, Nick Pinto was dining at the championship restaurant of Trump’s Miami golf resort, decorated with solid wood and genuine leather, when he received a push notification from Robinhood: Trump is launching his personal meme coin.

The 26-year-old Pinto primarily earns a living by creating videos for various social platforms. His due diligence amounted to little more than a casual Google search, scrolling through content on X platform (formerly Twitter). “I thought at the time, I should buy a bit and see, nobody can predict the future trend,” so he initially invested $7,000.

Pinto was one of the ordinary investors caught up in this investment frenzy. As Trump returned to the White House, this wave of enthusiasm brought immense wealth to the "First Family". The source of it all was the crypto project World Liberty Financial launched by Trump a year earlier. Billionaire Justin Sun, embroiled in a legal battle with the SEC, injected $45 million into the project's tokens after Trump won the election and later added another $100 million to buy Trump's personal meme coins. Melania Trump also launched her own meme coin. Just before and after Trump officially returned to the White House, these three tokens traded exceptionally hot, generating hundreds of millions in cash-out profits for the Trump family.

Subsequently, Trump introduced an additional benefit: the top 220 meme coin investors by holding size could attend a dinner at his private golf club in Virginia.

“I was completely swept away at the time,” Pinto said. He increased his investment to $480,000, nearly 60% of his total investment being on this meme coin, enough to secure a ticket to the dinner. The event turned out to be both absurd and shabby. Pinto described the atmosphere as reminiscent of a wedding, with ordinary food and poor service. “They didn’t even provide me with soda; I only drank plain water the whole time.”

Another attendee recalled passing a cigarette to former NBA player Lamar Odom, who, while standing outside, received a video call. He said to Khloe Kardashian on the other end, “I’m hanging with these young crypto traders!”

After the dinner, the price of this meme coin plummeted and never recovered, losing two-thirds of its value by the end of the year. It was around this time that Pinto, persuaded by a friend who also attended the dinner, turned from “bullish” to “bearish” on this token.

Pinto conveyed his friend's words: “This thing is just something that the Trump family launched out of nowhere; nobody can predict the future trend of this token, nor do we know what their plans are for it.”

Convinced, Pinto sold 75% of his holdings, locking in around $250,000 in losses. He kept the remaining position, hoping for a major turn of events in the future.

And indeed, a turnaround came. In April of the same year, Trump hosted another investor event at Mar-a-Lago, where guests could receive a goodie bag containing Trump trading cards, a president figurine with built-in cologne, and a Trump-branded watch. “I almost couldn't even get a goodie bag; someone was always stealing mine,” Pinto recalled, noting that someone quietly took six bags. “After my bag got stolen, I saw one on an empty chair, and I snatched it.”

Memes Coin Goodie Bag

Trump held two offline events for meme coin holders, one at his golf course in Virginia and another at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach. Attendees could take home a bag full of Trump-branded merchandise.

Bill Zank, Trump’s business partner, stated at the April Mar-a-Lago event: “I’m advising the president to hold this type of event every six months.”

Smell of Victory

The goodie bag included a cologne bottle shaped like Trump’s golden likeness, retailing online for $249. Nick Pinto attended both meme coin events and stated, “I haven’t used it yet; I just keep it as a decorative piece.”

Victory Watch Commemorative Watch

The red dial watch became a sought-after gift at the Mar-a-Lago event. Trump’s online store also sells other styles of watches, one of which contains fabric scraps from the suit and tie he wore when he was photographed being booked at Fulton County Jail in Georgia after facing charges including organized extortion in 2023.

Portrait Collection Card

This set of Trump trading cards features him shouting a slogan after being attacked in Butler, Pennsylvania, with a bullet grazing his ear: “Fight like hell, fight like hell, fight like hell!”

Night Limited Baseball Cap

The traditional red “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) baseball cap is already out of date. Guests at this meme coin-themed dinner each received a black hat, adorned with Trump’s likeness, a replica signature, and the name of the meme coin $TRUMP.

“I thought at that time, I should buy a bit and see, nobody can predict the future trend.”

Some attendees wanted far more than cheap Trump-branded memorabilia. Before the first dinner, Huma Finance co-founder Erbil Karaman made an additional investment; at that time, the White House was reviewing a stablecoin-related bill, and this type of dollar-pegged cryptocurrency was the tool his company used for cross-border money transfers. Karaman stated that he did not engage in any lobbying efforts at this event. Two months later, he received an invitation from the White House to attend the signing ceremony of the related bill.

03、The ones genuinely making big money from Trump Coin are mostly those who don’t take the token seriously.

Morten Christensen, founder of the crypto news site airdropalert.com, bought the token in its early days and decisively sold it days after the market heat faded, profiting nearly 30 times his investment. To gain access to both dinner events, he held both spot tokens and short positions as a hedge; his total cost for securing a seat at the first event was about $1,200 in fees, while the second event's seat cost him only $500.

“Those die-hard MAGA supporters genuinely believe this narrative,” Christensen said, “I’m here purely to make money. I’ve joined several chat groups of such supporters, and they always ignore all the facts and data…I kind of feel sorry for them.”

Even Justin Sun no longer pretended that Trump’s crypto products had investment value. In April, he filed a lawsuit accusing World Liberty Financial of forcing him to invest more, and when he declined to cooperate, they froze his token assets. Sun accused the company of fraud and extortion, while World Liberty Financial argued it had the right to freeze the tokens held by Sun and countersued him for defamation. Sun also claimed that after the company funneled significant funds to Trump and other insiders, it began taking on high-risk loans. Aside from Trump himself, the person who aggressively promoted the project to the public was him, yet now he openly admits the project is “on the verge of collapse.”

Capitol Riot Leads to Fundraising Pitfall

January 6, 2021

Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Twitter permanently banned Trump’s personal account, turning this incident into a marketing material he could exploit; Amazon stopped providing cloud hosting services for the right-wing social platform Parler, leading to a supply gap in the market.

January 27, 2021

One week after leaving office, Trump met two former contestants of The Apprentice at Mar-a-Lago to discuss building a media and technology empire.

October 20, 2021

Trump announced the Trump Media and Technology Group, a social media company aiming to create a pro-Trump online ecosystem, with its first product being the Twitter clone, Truth Social.

October 22, 2021

A special purpose acquisition company, Digital World, planned to merge with Trump Media to go public, with the stock soaring to an all-time high of $175, implying a valuation of over $25 billion for this company, which had hardly engaged in substantive business.

March 25, 2024

After years of regulatory delays, Trump Media finally completed its merger with Digital World and officially became a publicly traded company. The day after the merger, the stock surged by 59%.

September 30, 2024

As the presidential election rush began, Trump announced a new project on Truth Social: “I promised to make America great again, and this time we will fulfill that promise with cryptocurrency. World Liberty Financial will help America become the global crypto capital!” However, the project continued to receive lackluster market response.

November 5, 2024

Trump defeated Kamala Harris to become the first U.S. president to win two non-consecutive terms since Grover Cleveland in 1892.

November 25, 2024

Justin Sun, a billionaire in the crypto industry entangled in SEC charges, purchased $30 million in World Liberty Financial tokens, boosting the project’s activity, ultimately bringing Trump over $800 million in revenue.

January 17, 2025

Three days before the inauguration, Trump launched his personal meme coin. The fine print in the agreement warned buyers that the token was not an investment product, yet many Trump supporters still flooded in, igniting a trading frenzy that ultimately netted him over $600 million.

January 19, 2025

Melania Trump launched her personal meme coin to increase her net worth. Financial disclosure reports showed that this token, which plummeted 99% from its historical peak, brought the First Lady $6 million in revenue.

May 12, 2025

American Bitcoin Company announced plans to merge with a special purpose acquisition company, prompting investors to buy heavily into the stock, driving its price up by 448%; subsequently, the stock dropped a total of 96%.

04、As many supporters began to harbor doubts, the Trump family started a series of intriguing asset realignment operations.

The World Liberty Financial project, which claimed to be able to overturn the traditional financial system, brought Trump about $850 million in revenue; afterward, Trump heavily invested in the most conventional and stable assets in the financial market—municipal bonds. Meanwhile, rather than being a social media company, Trump Media Group could be seen as a major holder of Bitcoin. At a time when the company’s stock was high, it raised $2.4 billion through equity and debt financing and invested all that funding into Bitcoin as the price approached its historical peak.

This operation resulted in a loss of about $1 billion in shareholder equity but left the company with an asset that significantly outlasted Truth Social. This platform, which touts “freedom of speech,” recently banned a Forbes journalist who used the platform to contact shareholders. The Trump Media Group claims to empower everyone to speak out, yet its definition of who has the right to speak seems quite narrow.

During Trump’s presidency, his eldest son Donald Trump Jr. and second son Eric Trump managed the daily operations of their father's various assets, replicating his profits scheme. In March 2025, the brothers entered into a partnership with a data center firm, acquiring a 20% share of that company's Bitcoin mining equipment, renaming that business American Bitcoin Company.

What did this data center company gain? A host of investors caught up in the Trump-related hype. The company could substantially offload shares to this group, with proceeds sufficient to completely offset the cost of surrendering a 20% equity stake. American Bitcoin Company announced plans to go public via SPAC on May 12, 2025, with its SPAC stock soaring by 448%.

Ryan Kenney, a 41-year-old military family member who majored in architecture and now spends most of his time at home caring for two children, invested $60,000 in the stock immediately after the announcement, thinking he had seized a low-cost opportunity. However, the stock's value relied entirely on market hype and lacked solid operational fundamentals, making the popular rallying phrases in the meme stock community—“Buy the dip!” “Buy more when it drops to lower your average cost!”—especially dangerous. Kenney continued to accumulate shares, eventually investing a total of $98,000, while his current holdings are worth only $9,000.

Recently, he often thinks of investors who find themselves in the same situation and cannot help but consider the overall scale of losses for this group. “Maybe no one has lost as much as I have,” he said, “but there are probably tens of thousands across America, each person losing five thousand dollars.”

Back to Fistikan, he still cannot let go of that Florida home. With his savings depleted, he could only settle for a lot of overgrown weeds priced at $18,000, pondering the day he might build a house there. He runs freight in the Pacific Northwest, and the conflict between the U.S. and Iran has caused local diesel prices to soar above $6 per gallon, significantly squeezing his income.