The CEO of President Donald Trump's social media empire said Friday that a trading company owned by billionaire Republican donor Ken Griffin said the former president “would fire The Apprentice.” He was branded a loser.
In a rare statement, Citadel Securities accused Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) CEO Devin Nunes of trying to evade responsibility for the company's recent stock market woes. . TMTG fired back, claiming that Citadel is “world famous for defrauding” small investors.
Hours earlier, Nunes, a former Republican lawmaker who resigned two years ago to run TMTG, sent a letter to the head of New York's Nasdaq stock exchange raising “potential market manipulation” of the group's shares. It became clear that
Shares of TMTG, which owns President Trump's social network Truth Social, have been under continued pressure since its stunning debut on the market last month. However, it has rebounded in recent days amid volatile trading.
In a letter to Nasdaq on Thursday, Nunes suggested that so-called “naked” short selling was behind the market turmoil plaguing TMTG, naming several major trading companies, including Citadel Securities. , claimed to be behind most of the deals.
Short selling is a way to bet on publicly traded companies. Investors borrow stocks and sell them. If the stock price then falls, the investor buys it back and pockets the difference.
A so-called “naked” short sale is when you sell a stock without first borrowing it or determining whether you can borrow it. As Nunes pointed out in his letter, it is generally illegal in the United States.
“Devin Nunes is the proverbial underdog who tries to blame the decline in stock prices on 'naked short sellers,'” said a Citadel Securities spokesperson. “Nunez is exactly the type of person Donald Trump would fire on 'The Apprentice.' If he were working at Citadel Securities, we would be happy to work with him because his competency and integrity are at the center of everything we do. We will fire him.”
Trump Media stated: “Citadel Securities is a huge company that has been hit with fines and charges for an incredibly wide range of crimes, including issues related to naked short selling, and it routinely exploits retail investors at the behest of other companies. It's world famous for deceiving people. It's the last company on earth that should be preaching to anyone about 'integrity.'
TMTG stock rose 9.6% on Friday.