Some years ago, one of my clients was holding onto some tech stock that had been a losing investment. She was reluctant to give it up because the company was owned by a political figure she admired.
This same client later inherited some highly speculative and essentially worthless shares in a mining exploration company. A few years later, the value of those shares had soared.
Both investments—one failed, the other successful—held significant emotional value for the client. The important point is that neither outcome had anything to do with her attachment. Both were due to a variety of factors like the larger economy, company management, and market shifts.
Investing in line with our beliefs, whether about social issues, environmental concerns, or politics, can feel principled and emotionally satisfying. But markets don’t care about our convictions.
I have written previously about the downsides of mixing politics with investing. That warning is reinforced in a recent Axios article by Felix Salmon that tracked the results of investments strongly tied to President Trump. It provides a rare, real-world case study in investing as an expression of political loyalty. In 2025, everyday investors had an unprecedented opportunity to invest directly in a sitting president’s business empire.
The two most accessible vehicles were shares of Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) and the Official TRUMP cryptocurrency memecoin. Axios showed how those investments performed.
From the day before Trump took office through the end of 2025, Trump Media shares fell 67 percent. An investor who put $1,000 into Trump Media on January 19, 2025, would have ended the year with about $331.
Over the same period, the Nasdaq rose about 18 percent. A $1,000 investment there would have grown to roughly $1,184. The more diversified Global X Social Media ETF, which includes Trump Media among many other companies, rose 27 percent, turning $1,000 into approximately $1,272. Even an ETF that diluted Trump Media with dozens of other holdings dramatically outperformed a direct political bet on the company.
Crypto investors saw even worse results. The Official TRUMP memecoin surged immediately after its January 17 launch, then collapsed. By year’s end, it was down 89 percent from January 19. A $1,000 investment on that date would have fallen to about $114.
For comparison, dogecoin fell 67 percent over the same period, taking a $1,000 investment to about $327. The global cryptocurrency market declined 16 percent, leaving about $842 of that $1,000 investment.
Political investing activates powerful emotions around certainty, loyalty, identity, and a desire to belong to a winning team. The internal parts holding those emotions are persuasive and confident. They say, “This isn’t speculation. This is obvious.” But rarely is anything obvious to markets.
Axios also pointed out that, while many retail investors lost money, President Trump and his family reportedly did very well. That outcome is not unique to this situation. In speculative markets, insiders and early participants often prosper while late-arriving retail investors absorb most of the risk. Belief in the cause doesn’t change the math.
Values do matter in investing. There are thoughtful, diversified ways to align portfolios with one’s environmental, social, or governance priorities. The danger comes when investing becomes an expression of identity rather than a strategy for long-term financial health.
Market fluctuations from political winds can certainly produce profits as well as losses. Yet because politics amplifies emotional certainty and biases, before putting money behind a political belief, it’s worthwhile to ask one question. “If this investment had nothing to do with my values, would I still buy it?” Even better? Protect your portfolio from politics by leaving it alone.
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