Trump Media Execs Target Crypto, Defense with New $179M Investment Firm

Forbes

Three senior leaders at Trump Media & Technology Group have launched a new blank-check company aiming to acquire a firm in crypto or related industries—as the Trump administration seeks to shape the sector—according to a registration statement filed Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacheverson/2025/03/19/trump-media-spac-renatus-tactical-nunes-swider-ipo/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  0:00 Introduction :30 What Did The Trumps Invest In And How Much Did They Make? 4:06 Trump Media Investments 6:01 Are The Trump's Investments Legal?  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Hi, everybody. I'm Brittany Lewis, a breaking news reporter here at Forbes. Joining me now

00:07is my Forbes colleague, staff writer Zach Everson. Zach, thanks so much for coming in.

00:13Thanks for having me back, Brittany. Senior leaders from Trump Media and Technology Group,

00:18which we know is Truth Social's parent company, launched a new SPAC, according to your reporting.

00:24So to kick off the conversation, can you explain what exactly the purpose of a SPAC is?

00:30Sure. That is a blank check company. So essentially, it's just the shell company

00:34that opens up, launches, registers with the SEC, says, we're going to take investor money.

00:39We're going to buy something. We don't know what exactly. Here's some industries we might

00:43be looking at. We're not beholden to picking from them. Buy our stock. And then when we do

00:49go to merge with this company, you will own some of the subsequent merged company.

00:53So it's the same process that took Trump Media to market, which I think we recorded

00:59a dozen videos about because there were a lot of problems with that. But if people remember,

01:03that was where the SPAC company, the blank, the blank check company was called Digital World

01:08Acquisition Corp. And it formed people could buy stock in that. And then it merged with Trump Media.

01:15And we are going to talk about that saga in just a second, because you and I covered that for

01:20over two years. But before we get into that, who are these executives from Trump Media and

01:25Technology Group? You and I have talked about this company at length. Who are the executives?

01:30Any names that we know? Yeah, the one that will stand out the most would be Devin Nunes,

01:34the former Republican congressman who was a big Trump defenders from California.

01:39He was chair of the Intel Committee who resigned from Congress to become the CEO of Trump Media.

01:46He is going to be the chair of the board of this new company. The other names that are there may

01:51not be as familiar to other people, but they certainly are all over Trump Media's merger.

01:55Eric Swider is going to be the CEO of this new company, Retinas Tactical.

02:00He's a board member of Trump Media. He was actually also the CEO of Digital World,

02:05the shell company that merged with it. And then there's Alexander Cano. He's going to be

02:09the COO of the new company. He previously had been the president and secretary of

02:15the shell company that acquired Trump Media. So we have three people right there

02:18who are pretty senior in Trump, two of them still with Trump Media and senior positions,

02:23and the other one formerly with the company. You hinted at this at the beginning of the

02:28conversation, but talk to us about that really messy SPAC merger between Trump Media and Digital

02:34World. That saga lasted for over two years. So give us the highlight reel.

02:40Yeah, it was it was a mess. A lot of issues going on there. The SEC charged a former

02:47Digital World board member and two other people with insider trading.

02:51The two other people pleaded guilty. The board member was found guilty.

02:55Digital World was forced to admit that two years worth of financial statements were unreliable

03:00and that it was also at risk of being delisted from Nasdaq for failing to file mandatory report.

03:05Keep going. Digital World agreed to pay an $18 million fine to settle fraud chargers for making

03:11misrepresentations in its filings. As I mentioned earlier, these SPACs are not allowed to have

03:16already had like talks about which company they're going to merge with when they go public.

03:20And it turned out that Digital World and Trump Media had in fact had those conversations. So

03:25they paid an $18 million fine. And then after the merger was completed, there were still more issues

03:31where two Trump Media co-founders sued the company, saying that their stakes had been diluted.

03:36Trump Media countersued, saying these guys did terrible jobs. And then there's Trump Media was

03:42forced to change its auditors after the SEC charged its accountant, BF Forgers, with, quote,

03:48massive fraud involving 120 or 250 clients. The accountant from their accounting firm there

03:55agreed to pay a $12 million fine and seek doing business. You know, not all of these are exactly

04:00Trump Media's fault, but it certainly is a long list of problems there for the.

04:06That road to the SPAC merger doesn't seem like all rainbows and butterflies and sunshine.

04:11Not easy, not a seamless process, to say the least. So talk to us about what this SPAC will

04:16be doing. Possibly having problems along the way to its merger, given the track record of those

04:22three, it is interesting that they got the band together back together when the band the first

04:26time around had a lot of issues. But this time they are looking at investing in companies that

04:32are involved in crypto, in blockchain. In the registration statement, they specifically cite

04:38the regulatory environment that President Donald Trump has created

04:45to make crypto appealing. They're also looking at working in the defense industry and in terms of

04:52data protection as well. So they're looking at three industries that are really have a lot to

04:58do with the government, either where the government is could be a major client or sets a lot of

05:03regulations that oversees those industries. As we know, the last time between Digital World

05:09and Trump Media, there were a lot of stumbles along the way. What is the process of a SPAC

05:15merger? Who oversees that and what really needs to be done to ensure a seamless process?

05:21Right now, it's going to be the co-founders. It's kind of a quiet

05:24point until the co-founders figure out which company they want to merge with

05:28and have a company that agrees. So it's going to take a little bit, I believe,

05:33for us to find out some more information there. But once it does go through,

05:37once they do have that information, inform the SEC, there are going to be federal agencies that

05:42take a look at it to make sure it does comply with existing laws. So you've got the Federal

05:47Trade Commission and the SEC or two that stand out there that will be reviewing this merger to

05:52make sure it follows through. And of course, those are two agencies that are run by appointees

05:59of Donald Trump. Aside from acquiring companies that are either in the crypto space or the

06:05defense space, what else did you learn from this company's SEC filing?

06:11It hopes to raise $178 million, selling 17.5 million shares to the public at about $10 each.

06:18And then there's also going to be a private placement where people can buy warrants

06:22for a dollar each. They're going to be three point nine million of those that are going to

06:25be available. So, you know, your opportunity to there will be opportunities to invest in this

06:31if this is, in fact, an investment vehicle you determined is in your best interest.

06:37You know, as we always talk, we always talk because you were part of the money in politics

06:42team, the ethical lines here. And you mentioned before that these are Trump appointees overseeing

06:48this. These are senior leaders from Trump media. Are there any ethical concerns being raised?

06:56Concerns? Absolutely. I mean, absolutely. You have three of the president's business partners

07:00working on a new venture that stands to making a lot of money for them. If the government were

07:06to invest in certain sectors or depending on the regulatory environment, regulatory environment

07:11that you've also got, FTC, DOJ and SEC are all agencies that will be looking at this merger.

07:18And, you know, could certainly put their thumb on the scale, whether or not I don't know.

07:23But it certainly is an area where the president is in a position to help some of his business

07:31partners. Zach, I'm obviously thinking back on past conversations you and I recently talked about

07:38Trump's oldest sons, Don Jr., as well as Eric Trump, getting themselves involved in a crypto

07:44in the crypto space. Does President Trump have a more bullish outlook on cryptocurrency

07:50than past administrations, than President Biden even? I mean,

07:53what are his policies surrounding cryptocurrency? Yeah, absolutely. He's talked about having a

07:58National Reserve. He's talked about the crypto industry wants regulation. They want to be

08:04made legitimate, but they want the regulations to be pretty lax. And he has spoken up in line

08:09with that. And, you know, crypto, pro crypto people were big backers of his campaign. Andreessen

08:14Horowitz, David Sachs, Elon Musk famously with $250 million. So these are all people who have

08:22big vested interest in wanting to see crypto succeed. And Trump has really done a 180 here

08:28from originally where he called crypto just a big scam to now that he's pushing it, which,

08:33you know, maybe he realized it is a big scam, but it just wants to get down on as well.

08:38So, you know, the executives involved here, including Devin Nunes, you know,

08:42that this SPAC wants to acquire something either in the defense space or the crypto space.

08:47We don't know much else. I imagine you are going to be looking at future SEC filings.

08:52What are you going to be looking for in them? What other information is going to be available?

08:58I'm going to be looking to see if there are any more names that get attached to this

09:02project. You know, if a Trump or somebody else were to be involved,

09:05that would certainly be interesting. Looking to see, most importantly,

09:08what company they merge with. Also see if they have any problems going forward.

09:11You know, as we mentioned, the previous SPAC had a lot of issues going forward.

09:16He's got a lot of issues before the merger went through. So we're going to see if, you know,

09:21some of these mistakes repeat themselves with this one.

09:24Well, Zach Everson, per usual, always appreciate your reporting. Thanks for joining me.

09:29My pleasure. Thanks for having me, Brittany.

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