Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes appears to have gotten under Citadel Securities’ skin
A spokesperson for Citadel Securities, led by GOP megadonor Ken Griffin, has fired back after Trump Media’s CEO and former Republican Congressman Devin Nunes warned the NASDAQ exchange that the firm and others could be engaged in “potential market manipulation.”
“Devin Nunes is the proverbial loser who tries to blame ‘naked short selling’ for his falling stock price,” the spokesperson for Citadel, one of the world’s largest hedge funds, said. “Nunes is exactly the type of person Donald Trump would have fired on ‘The Apprentice.'”
“If he [Nunes] worked for Citadel Securities, we would fire him, as ability and integrity are at the center of everything we do,” the spokesperson added.
Nunes, who named Citadel Securities, Virtu, Jane Street and G1 Execution Services in the Thursday letter, accused firms of the generally-illegal practice of “naked short selling,” when a stock is shorted without first borrowing the asset. He claimed that 60% of trade volume on the Trump Media (DJT) stock stemmed from the four groups.
Nunes went on to ask NASDAQ’s CEO to “advise what steps you can take to foster transparency and compliance.”
Griffin, who backed Trump challengers Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and Nikki Haley (R-SC), is one of the most powerful donors in the GOP world, but he has previously voiced skepticism for another Trump term.
“For a litany of reasons, I think it’s time to move on to the next generation,” Griffin told Politico in 2022.