Trump Media stock sinks to new post-merger low
Shares of former President Donald Trump’s social media company on Monday touched their lowest price since they began public trading on the Nasdaq nearly five months ago after a merger.
Trump Media, the company that owns the Republican presidential nominee’s preferred social messaging platform Truth Social, traded below $22.40 per share before noon ET.
The previous low point for the stock, which trades under the DJT ticker, was in mid-April, when the price plummeted to $22.55 following the company’s slingshot rise in its frenzied public trading debut.
The notoriously volatile stock’s downward trajectory over the past month coincided with a swirl of seismic developments for Trump, who is both the majority stakeholder of Trump Media and a main draw for Truth Social users. The share price surged on July 15, the first trading day after Trump was nearly assassinated at a campaign rally in western Pennsylvania.
Protester: ‘Harris still has the option to help stop funding this war’
Annie Weiler, a 28-year-old marketing manager who traveled to Chicago from Knoxville, succinctly summed up why she came today.
“If you have a voice, use it,” she said. “You see the images [of destruction in Gaza] and at this point it’s hard to not get involved.”
She said she hoped the robust protest effort might help guide the Harris campaign to pivot not just on tone, but on policy regarding the war.
“Right now, Kamala Harris still has the option to help stop funding this war,” she said.
Weiler said she still wasn’t sure who she would vote for in the fall — but added it wouldn’t be Trump — though she also rejected that withholding a vote for Harris amounted to a vote for Trump.
“I am a Democrat, but it is hard to support Kamala Harris when she is openly supporting Israel in this conflict,” she said.
Chicago police superintendent says officers won't need riot gear if protests stay peaceful
Chicago’s top cop thanked protest organizers for keeping protests on Sunday peaceful and said their officers were able to respond in the way they were trained.
“We were able to talk to the organizers,” Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling said during a news conference Monday. “There was mutual respect there, and because of that, we didn’t have any incidents.”
Snelling added that they hope for the same outcome at every protest going forward and “if that occurs, then we’ve had the most successful Democratic National Convention that we can imagine.”
As Chicago police gear up for future protests, Snelling said his department has proven they can respond to First Amendment activity without it turning violent. “As far as riot gear, we don’t need officers out there in riot gear if people are protesting peacefully.”
Other police departments, including Milwaukee, Capitol Police and departments from across Illinois, are helping to staff DNC infrastructure so Chicago police are freed up to patrol the city they’ve been extensively trained on, Snelling added.
A 23-year-old woman was arrested on Sunday on charges of defacement of property and obstruction of a police officer, but Snelling noted she was not part of the protest imprint.
“We would prefer not to have clashes. We would prefer not to have to make arrests if we don’t have to, and we will avoid those things as long as we’re not committing acts of vandalism or violence,” Snelling said.
Biden to cast Trump as a threat to democracy in his convention speech
Biden has had a major role in Democratic conventions for decades — he’s only missed one since 1972: 1988, after he suffered a brain aneurysm. Still, less than a month after he dropped his bid for a second term, his 2024 appearance now will serve as more of a valedictory address rather than one laying out his vision for four more years in the Oval Office.
A senior Biden adviser said the president is viewing this moment without regret. “He makes a decision and moves on,” they said. “Is it hard for other people? Yes. But it’s not like being president is a part-time job. There’s a lot on his plate that he’s focused on.”
That includes making sure Harris is elected to replace him. While the vice president has embraced the positive energy around her candidacy to push a campaign message about the future, Biden still sees it as a critical mission to ensure voters understand what’s at risk if Donald Trump returns to the White House.
Biden will cast Trump as a threat to democracy and urge all Democrats, and all Americans, to focus on what’s needed to be done to defeat him. He will say that now that he’s made the decision he needed to make, it’s up to others to help him ensure that we are “continuing the progress we have made.”
“The most important thing they can do is vote,” the adviser said.
Biden advisers had had initial conversations about his convention speech prior to his politically fatal June 27 debate performance, but not yet begun to “put much on paper,” the adviser said. Tonight’s speech is expected to build on the themes of his Oval Office address explaining his decision to step aside.
With speeches and other tributes leading up to Biden’s remarks, the president wants to share his belief that his accomplishments were not his alone. He will note the dire situation he inherited when he came into office in 2021, and how he believes the country was able to recover beyond anyone’s expectations because of the determination of the American people.
“That’s a big distinction between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. He believes this is what we can do together. Trump says he alone can do it,” the adviser said. “Any time he talks about accomplishments, it’s really about what the country did.”
Biden will also argue that Harris has been an important partner in progress, and how likeminded they are in fighting for ordinary Americans.
“He’s fully supportive of her,” the adviser said.
Voting rights group asks DOJ to investigate Elon Musk’s PAC
Defend the Vote, a Democratic-aligned group that raises money for voting rights, wants the Justice Department to investigation Elon Musk’s America PAC over an allegedly misleading voter registration website.
In a letter over the weekend, Defend the Vote said it believed Musk’s PAC may have violated a federal law that makes it a crime to conspire to threaten civil rights, such as the right to vote. CNBC reported earlier this month that the website collected personal data from users but failed to direct them to voter registration help if they entered a ZIP code from a battleground state.
“A scheme to trick people into believing that they have successfully registered to vote would put those individuals at risk of being unable to exercise their constitutional right to vote in future elections,” wrote Brian Lemek, Defend the Vote’s executive director.
Election officials in Michigan and North Carolina have said they're investigating America PAC's website for potential violations of state law.
Musk and America PAC did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Justice Department also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
America PAC says in regulatory filings that it supports Trump. Last month, the former president said he expected Musk to support him with $45 million a month in campaign funds, though Musk later said the amount would be lower.
Harris voters at protest hope to shape her platform on Gaza
Some march attendees were more openly aligned with the Democratic Party and clearer about their intentions to vote for Harris in November — explaining that they felt their presence at today’s protest was an act of service in helping steer the party.
Mariana Espana, a 17-year-old student in Chicago who will be old enough to vote by Election Day, said that she was here to help push Harris specifically to “act on a cease-fire for Palestine” because “it’s such a tragedy to see these kids dying.”
“I personally support Kamala. A Trump presidency would be a disaster. But I feel it’s important to push Kamala to push for a cease-fire,” she said.
“I think it would help her campaign because it would help rally this wing of the party,” she said.
DNC protester says she was inspired by 1968 protests
Sarah Martin, 84, came from Minneapolis to be part of the March on the DNC.
She was in her 20s during the 1968 DNC protests. She said the 1968 protests inspired her to protest the DNC, explaining that “there really are parallels.”
Martin says back then, she had just become involved in activism and remembers watching the protests on TV and being “horrified” by the police response. She said, “We’re here to remind Kamala and Tim Walz that remember 1968 and being timid on the issue of U.S. war is not a good thing. Doesn’t lead to a good result politically for you.”
Martin says she is not sure who she is voting for yet, saying, “A lot of it depends on what happens between now and the election.”
When asked whether she thinks a Trump-Vance administration would be better for this issue, she said, “Heavens no, they’d be much worse.”
Retired conservative federal judge Michael Luttig endorses Harris
Retired conservative federal judge Michael Luttig, who publicly advised former Vice President Mike Pence to defy Trump’s demands to unconstitutionally block the certification of the 2020 election results, announced his endorsement of Harris in an interview with CNN.
“In the presidential election of 2024 there is only one political party and one candidate for the presidency that can claim the mantle of defender and protector of America’s Democracy, the Constitution, and the Rule of Law,” Luttig said in a statement provided to CNN. “As a result, I will unhesitatingly vote for the Democratic Party’s candidate for the Presidency of the United States, Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris.”
Luttig, whose expected vote for Harris would mark his first time voting for a Democrat, told the news outlet that partisanship must be set aside heading into the November election to block Trump, whom he described as “singularly unfit,” from winning the election.
“In voting for Vice President Harris, I assume that her public policy views are vastly different from my own, but I am indifferent in this election as to her policy views on any issues other than America’s Democracy, the Constitution, and the Rule of Law, as I believe all Americans should be,” Luttig said, according to CNN.
Luttig emerged as a vocal critic of Trump after his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. The former federal judge testified before the House Jan. 6 committee, warning that Trump and his allies were a “clear and present danger to American democracy” because they continued to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election process.
DNC protest much larger than those at RNC
The DNC hasn’t even formally kicked off downtown, but the protests this week are already far larger than any that occurred during the RNC last month.
Attendees at today’s march — many who identified as progressives — offered different reasons on why they felt it was crucial to protest the Democrats but not necessarily the Republicans.
“I want to push the Democratic Party on a lot of issues,” said Jacob Smith, a 32-year-old software engineer, who traveled from Detroit to attend today’s event. He listed “stopping the genocide in Gaza” and achieving a “permanent cease-fire” as chief among them. He said he felt both the Democratic Party and the GOP were “equally beholden to special and corporate interests.”
“They’re both basically right-wing parties at this point,” he said, adding — “but in general Democrats are a little better than Republicans.”
“They both equally support the police and they both equally don’t truly care about the people,” he said. Smith said he hasn’t decided who he wants to vote for yet and wouldn’t offer who he’s considering, other than that it “won’t be Trump.”
Smith said he felt that it's more pertinent to protest the Biden-Harris administration because “it’s the administration that has aided and abetted an ongoing, visible genocide.”
“The country is run by Democrats right now, this is happening on their watch,” he said.
Smith explained that he was hopeful that Democratic Party leaders would be more likely to listen to such protest efforts “because progressive voters are part of their base — maybe they’ll be more likely to listen to us” than Republicans.
Smith did not attend any of the far smaller protests at the RNC.
“Obviously protesting Republican policies is a good thing,” he said, “but how much of a policy change is really realistic to expect would happen that way.”
“It’s about efficacy in a lot of ways,” Smith added. “Where are your actions going to be most effective?”
Thousands gather for Coalition to March on the DNC protest
Thousands have already gathered in Union Park, on the Northwest side of Chicago, for today’s Coalition to March on the DNC protest — the biggest planned protest event this week.
A stage is set up on the west end of the park, where several speakers, from the dozens of groups that are part of the organizing coalition, will begin speaking shortly, ahead of the march.
Middle Eastern music blared from speakers, while protesters banging drums were already parading through the large park, chanting slogans in support of Palestinians.
Today’s event will feature advocates from an array of progressive causes — but it has been billed most prominently as a demonstration for Palestinians and against the war in Israel and Gaza.