A group of allies from Donald Trump’s inner circle are looking to profit from his re-election and the resurgent Maga movement in the US, with a network of companies positioned to appeal to ‘anti-woke’ and ‘values-driven’ sentiment.
This week, companies in the so-called parallel economy — a nascent ecosystem targeting consumers with conservative or Christian values — celebrated Trump’s victory as a major boon to their businesses, which to date have struggled to eke out any meaningful profits.
Backers include Wall Streeter and campaign megadonor Omeed Malik, former Republican senator Kelly Loeffler and Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr, who have financed PublicSquare, an ecommerce platform similar to Amazon or eBay for users who value “life, family and freedom”, and whose main source of revenue comes from financing gun sales.
Meanwhile, libertarian investor Peter Thiel and Trump’s own vice-president, JD Vance, were early investors in Rumble, a right-leaning challenger to YouTube. Vivek Ramaswamy, will lead, along with Elon Musk, Trump’s government efficiency effort while also running his asset management firm, Strive Asset Management, which is anti-environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles.
For the publicly traded companies, there is hope Trump’s victory will help them do something the Joe Biden years have not: turn a profit. After years of dwindling sales and hefty losses, the companies, which position themselves as alternatives to “woke” corporate America, are banking on a reversal of fortunes, potentially providing windfalls for their Maga-aligned investors.
“I was proven correct that there were enough people who felt the way we were talking about from a political and cultural standpoint,” said Malik, who is the chair of PublicSquare and founder of 1789 Capital, his anti-ESG investment firm. “It is an open question if they feel that way economically and whether the political movement will translate into commerce, but I believe it will.”