Retail investors had the chance in 2025 to put their money directly on Donald Trump, in a way unlike any American presidency in history.
- A couple of those bets didn't work out so well.
The big picture: Trump's vast, burgeoning business empire includes multiple tradable assets linked to him and his family — but two of those assets underperformed peers and broader markets in 2025.
- The primary way to "buy" Trump in 2025 was either the stock of his publicly traded media-finance-and-energy company, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG, which has the ticker symbol "DJT"), or his cryptocurrency memecoin, Official TRUMP.
- Trump has plenty of other direct and derivative assets, from real estate to NFTs to other crypto ventures. But the publicly traded stock and cryptocurrency are the broadest — and easiest — way for the average investor to put money directly on the success of his business empire.
State of play: Trump Media (DJT) shares fell 67% from the day before he took office through the end of 2025.
- The Global X Social Media ETF (SOCL), which includes Trump Media among its diverse holdings, was up 27% over the same period.
- The Nasdaq, which includes most of the listed social media companies among its broad array of tech stocks, was up 18% in that time.
Official TRUMP ($TRUMP), the memecoin, had a spectacular run-up right after its Jan. 17 launch, but then fell quickly. It's down 89% since Jan. 19.
- The largest memecoin in the world, dogecoin, fell 67% over the same timeframe.
- Global cryptocurrency market capitalization, as tracked by CoinGecko, was down 16% for the same period.
By the numbers: A hypothetical $1,000 invested in various stock and crypto assets on Jan. 19 — the day before Trump took office — would have produced sharply different outcomes by year's end.
- On the stock side, a $1,000 investment in the Nasdaq would be worth about $1,184, while the same investment in the SOCL ETF would be worth $1,272 and in Trump Media shares would be worth $331.
- On the crypto side, a $1,000 investment in the global cryptocurrency market cap would be worth $842, while the same investment in dogecoin would be worth $327 and in Official TRUMP would be worth $114.
For the record: Neither the White House nor the Trump Organization responded to Axios' requests for comment.
The intrigue: The retail investing public may not have done well with Trump assets in 2025, but the president and his family, by all accounts, did just fine.
- Forbes estimates the billionaire president's net worth more than doubled from last year, fueled by gains in his various crypto investments.
- The magazine reports Donald Trump Jr.'s net worth rose sixfold in 2025, based also on crypto gains.
- In fact, just Wednesday morning, as the year closed, TMTG said it would launch a new crypto token for its shareholders.
Yes, but: There's a reason retail investors are always warned "past performance is not indicative of future results."
- Trump Media shares spiked at the end of the year after the company struck a transformative deal to pivot toward nuclear fusion power.
- The TRUMP memecoin has a track record of sharp rallies since its launch.
- And of course, markets that go up can just as easily go down, too.
The bottom line: Investing is not for the faint of heart — even when the president's business empire is the investment.
Disclosure: In 2023, TMTG sued 20 media organizations, including Axios, for defamation, and litigation is ongoing.
