The MAGA alternative to Amazon was supposed to make conservatives rich, but instead, it's become a smoldering pile of financial wreckage.
PublicSquare, the MAGA-branded marketplace that launched with Donald Trump Jr. chanting "USA, USA" on the New York Stock Exchange floor in 2023, has all but collapsed, and the president's eldest son cashed fat checks the entire way down, the Wall Street Journal reported.
According to the report, PublicSquare has bled nearly $160 million since going public, and its stock has cratered a jaw-dropping 99%. The New York Stock Exchange has also warned it may delist the company because of its poor performance.
Even so, Trump Jr. was pocketing $42,000 a month in consulting fees starting in 2024, the report noted. Last year, he raked in more than $500,000 — out-earning the company's own CEO, who drew a comparatively modest $300,000 salary before resigning in January, it added.
A couple of Trump Jr.'s friends also got in on the scheme, according to the report. A firm founded by Junior's pal Omeed Malik collected more than $650,000. Former Trump official Nick Ayers pulled in nearly $400,000.
"The company’s marketplace failed to gain traction with consumers, and its underlying business model later fell apart, executives acknowledged, after President Trump embraced the tech companies he had attacked on the campaign trail," the report reads in part.
This year, the company torched its marketplace entirely, axed 41% of its workforce, canceled its streaming show and dumped an anti-abortion diaper brand.
The company's defenders insist Junior earned every penny. "Mr. Trump's compensation reflected the fact that he is a well-known public figure who speaks directly to an audience the Marketplace was built to reach," said William Kent, PublicSquare's head of investor relations.
The investors who believed him might disagree.
