By Samuel A. Lopez – USA Herald | November 6, 2026

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's family made enormous sums of money from cryptocurrency ventures, while his financial managers substantially increased his investments in traditional stocks and bonds. Then came the midterm elections, a series of significant corporate developments involving Trump Media, and a Wall Street collapse that erased trillions of dollars in market value.

The timing deserves a closer examination, particularly because federal securities records reveal that Trump Media & Technology Group was advancing a major merger involving artificial intelligence-related power technology during the same week investors began fleeing technology stocks.

The question isn't simply whether Trump made money from cryptocurrency before the market crashed. It's whether the president's expanding financial interests, including those connected to Truth Social, positioned Trump-affiliated businesses differently from the ordinary investors who suffered substantial losses.

On Thursday, November 5, the Nasdaq plunged 5.5%, the S&P 500 dropped 4.4%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 3.4%, according to the Associated Press.

The sell-off was particularly severe among companies associated with artificial intelligence, semiconductor manufacturing, and data-center construction. Investors were reassessing the industry's prospects following Democratic victories in the November 3 midterm elections and growing concerns that tighter government oversight could slow AI infrastructure development.

But while Wall Street was struggling to determine what the election results meant for technology companies, a Trump-affiliated corporation was moving forward with an ambitious transaction of its own.

On Monday, November 2, Trump Media established the shareholder record date for its proposed merger with TAE Technologies, a company developing fusion energy and advanced power-management technology.

The following day, November 3, as Americans headed to polling stations, Trump Media and TAE announced the filing of a second amended registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Election Day filing, submitted under SEC Form 425, confirmed that the companies were continuing toward a proposed merger originally announced in December 2025.

The filing also disclosed that Trump Media planned to release its third-quarter financial results on November 9, after the close of trading.

Then, on Thursday, November 5, as Wall Street suffered its steepest decline in months, Trump Media announced another important development.

The SEC had declared the company's merger registration statement effective, allowing the transaction to advance toward a shareholder vote scheduled for December 14.

According to the November 5 announcement published by Nasdaq, the proposed all-stock combination would leave existing Trump Media shareholders and TAE investors each holding approximately half of the combined enterprise on a fully diluted basis.

The underlying SEC merger registration documents reveal that the proposed transaction involves hundreds of millions of shares and substantial financing commitments, including $200 million provided by Trump Media to TAE and the possibility of an additional $100 million under specified conditions.

That is no ordinary expansion of a social media business.

Trump Media, whose best-known asset is Truth Social, is seeking to combine with a company developing fusion energy technology, power-management systems for AI computing, and cancer-treatment applications.

The proposed merger would give Trump Media shareholders exposure to an entirely different industry; one connected to the same AI infrastructure boom that helped drive technology stocks higher before Thursday's sell-off.

There is an important distinction, however. The merger announcement is not evidence of any wrongdoing.

What the filings do establish is that a Trump-affiliated public company was pursuing a substantial restructuring during a period of extraordinary political and financial uncertainty.

The president's earlier cryptocurrency transactions provide another piece of the story.

A Reuters investigation published in July examined Trump's financial disclosures and found that his traditional stock and bond holdings had expanded dramatically as cryptocurrency-related revenues accumulated.

At the end of 2024, those investments were valued between $225 million and $608 million. By the end of 2025, their reported value had grown to between $703 million and $2.6 billion.

Those disclosure ranges do not establish precisely how much cryptocurrency revenue was transferred into individual investments, but they show that the president's conventional financial holdings had increased substantially.

A separate Reuters examination of the family's cryptocurrency revenues reported more than $1.4 billion in proceeds associated with Trump-linked digital asset businesses during 2025.

The activities included the Trump meme coin and World Liberty Financial, the cryptocurrency venture associated with Trump and his sons.

One of the most significant transactions involved World Liberty Financial and ALT5 Sigma, a publicly traded company that announced a roughly $1.5 billion financing and digital-asset treasury arrangement in August 2025.

That arrangement involved WLFI tokens, corporate securities, and financing commitments. It would be inaccurate to characterize the entire transaction value as cash paid directly to the Trump family.

Nevertheless, the structure illustrates something ordinary cryptocurrency buyers may not fully appreciate: the companies and individuals creating digital assets can generate revenue through business arrangements that differ considerably from the returns available to investors who purchase and hold the tokens.

The distinction becomes especially important when token prices decline.

Reuters previously estimated that retail investors in several major Trump-backed cryptocurrency projects had experienced approximately $2.3 billion in losses by April 2026.

Meanwhile, Trump's financial disclosures reflected a substantially larger traditional investment portfolio.

This does not establish that the president anticipated the November market collapse. His financial disclosures also showed that he retained substantial exposure to cryptocurrency-related assets, meaning he was not entirely insulated from digital-asset market volatility.

But the contrast between business proceeds and investor losses raises legitimate questions about who benefits financially from cryptocurrency promotions and who ultimately bears the market risk.

The Trump Media merger introduces an additional dimension.

According to the company's securities filings, existing Trump Media shareholders would retain approximately half of the combined business following the merger, while TAE investors would receive a substantial ownership interest through newly issued shares.

That arrangement makes the proposed merger more than a simple corporate announcement. It involves changes in ownership, the issuance of securities, and the allocation of financial risk between two groups of investors.

For shareholders, the relevant questions include whether the combined company's valuation is justified, how much additional capital fusion technology development will require, and whether the anticipated commercial benefits can actually be achieved.

TAE's technology may have significant potential, but commercial fusion energy remains a capital-intensive field with substantial scientific, engineering, and financial uncertainties.

There is also the matter of Trump's position as president.

His administration exercises considerable influence over cryptocurrency regulation, energy policy, and the development of artificial intelligence infrastructure. At the same time, businesses associated with his family maintain financial interests in industries affected by those policies.

The White House has previously denied allegations that the president's business interests improperly influence government decisions, and federal law generally exempts the president from the principal criminal conflict-of-interest statute applicable to many executive branch employees.

That exemption does not resolve every question concerning financial transparency or corporate governance. It also does not establish misconduct.

What matters from an investigative standpoint is whether the financial records reveal transactions, ownership changes, or investment decisions that warrant additional scrutiny.

The dates are particularly important.

November 2 established which Trump Media shareholders would be entitled to vote on the merger. November 3 brought the amended SEC registration announcement during midterm voting. November 4 saw investors reacting to the election results, including a reported sharp decline in Trump Media shares. November 5 brought both the SEC's effectiveness determination and the broad Wall Street sell-off.

The available filings reviewed for this report do not establish that Trump personally bought, sold, or transferred DJT shares on November 2, November 3, or November 4.

Establishing such activity would require transaction-specific evidence, including applicable insider-trading disclosures, beneficial ownership records, and other financial documents.

For millions of Americans whose retirement accounts and investments were affected by Thursday's market decline, the larger issue is financial exposure.

A cryptocurrency promoter can receive business revenue even when a token's market price subsequently falls. A company can pursue a merger or obtain financing even as its publicly traded shares decline. And wealthy investors with diversified holdings may face very different financial consequences from those experienced by average Americans whose savings are concentrated in a handful of assets.

Those differences are not necessarily unlawful. But they are essential to understanding how modern financial markets distribute profits and losses.

The evidence currently available establishes that Trump-affiliated businesses generated substantial cryptocurrency proceeds, the president's traditional investments expanded, and Trump Media advanced a major merger during the week of the midterm elections.

It does not establish that Trump knew Wall Street was about to plunge or that he personally executed a series of election-week trades to avoid the losses.

The unresolved questions concern the precise movement of cryptocurrency proceeds, the beneficial owners of Trump-affiliated securities, and whether additional transactions took place around the election that have not yet been established through public records.