Trump Media Shares Surge After Assassination Attempt

Washington, Jul 15 (AP) Trump Media surged in the first day of trading following an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.

Also on Monday, a federal judge presiding over Trump's classified documents trial in Florida dismissed the case because of her concerns over the appointment of the special prosecutor who brought the case.

Shares in the owner of social networking site Truth Social soared more than 35 per cent in early trading.

The US Secret Service is investigating how a gunman armed with an AR-style rifle was able to get on a nearby roof and shoot and injure the former president at a rally Saturday in Pennsylvania.

The gunman, who officials said was killed by the Secret Service, fired multiple shots at the stage from an “elevated position outside of the rally venue”, the agency said. Trump was bloodied and says he was “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear”. A spectator was killed.

In the classified documents case, US District Judge Aileen Cannon granted a defense motion to dismiss the case Monday, voiding a prosecution that at the time it was brought was seen as the most perilous of the multiple legal threats Trump faced.

The stock, which trades under the ticker symbol “DJT”, has been extraordinarily volatile since its debut in late March, joining the group of meme stocks that are prone to ricochet between highs and lows as small-pocketed investors attempt to catch an upward momentum swing at the right time.

Shares swung wildly both on the day after Biden's terrible debate performance, and a day after Trump's conviction in his hush money trial.

A New York jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through hush money payments to a porn actor who said the two had sex.

The stock frequently makes double-digit percentage moves either higher or lower in a single day. It peaked at nearly USD 80 in intraday trading on March 26. For context, the S and P 500 is up 18 per cent year to date.

Trump Media reported in May that it lost more than USD 300 million last quarter, according to its first earnings report as a publicly traded company.