Trump Media shares rise another 20% as the ex-president gathers the faithful at Madison Square Garden

The momentum appears to be on Trump's side in the final stretch of the campaign. He did a high-profile, three-hour podcast with Joe Rogan before later hosting a rally at a packed Madison Square Garden in New York alongside his “Dark MAGA” patron Elon Musk.

Shares of Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) rose more than 11% on Friday amid heavy trading volume – typically an indicator of bullish sentiment – and were up more than 8% in early trading on Monday. They have now reached their highest level since mid-July, making the humble social media platform almost as valuable as Elon Musk's X.

Even skeptics who distrust the heavily favored Trump odds on prediction markets like Polymarket, such as hedge fund legend Paul Tudor Jones, are positioning their portfolio to reflect the growing likelihood of a second Trump administration.

Truth Social's financially troubled parent company is now worth a whopping $8.3 billion, a stunning turnaround from historic lows in September and not far from the estimated $9.4 billion worth of Musk's far larger X Platform removed. And that despite a large loss in the second quarter and still-young sales that roughly correspond to the average sales of four Starbucks stores.

But traders expect traffic on the company's platform to surge as its Truth Social account – currently followed by just 8 million users – becomes his second administration's preferred method of reaching out to American voters.

Even political blunders don't seem to have dampened the enthusiasm for another term in office in recent days. A comedian and Trump activist called Puerto Rico a “floating trash island” at this weekend's rally at Madison Square Garden and joked that he and a Black friend had carved watermelons for Halloween.

The revival of Trump's political fortunes means TMTG has gained almost a third in value over the last five trading sessions. His personal 57% stake in the company has also skyrocketed, now totaling $4.4 billion.

Political pundits are now seeing flashbacks to 2016, when Hillary Clinton lost after many of her campaign messages revolved around Trump. Pollster Frank Luntz argued last week that the high-profile Harris campaign was also unhinged as the vice president moved from talking about how she can help everyday Americans to warning about a second Trump administration.

“She had the best sixty days of any presidential candidate in modern history,” he told CNN. “The moment she became anti-Trump, focused on him and said, 'Don't vote for me, vote against him,' that's when (her momentum) froze.”

A key example of this was her decision to include Dick Cheney's daughter Liz Cheney in her campaign, a figure deeply unpopular with the Democrats' left-leaning base.

The once-influential neoconservative from Wyoming was one of the few Republicans to turn against Trump after the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, even chairing a House congressional hearing on the incident. Cheney was despised within the Trump-controlled party and was defeated in her 2022 primary.