President Trump's media company was headed in the wrong direction, and Mark Angelo was ready to try something different. Very different.
Angelo's Yorkville Advisors, a small New Jersey investment firm, wasn't just a large stakeholder in Trump Media & Technology, home of Truth Social. It was an adviser and dealmaker, and by last year, with the company racking up losses and its stock in the tank, Angelo was open to ideas.
A radical one began to emerge as he chatted with a close associate during a car ride into New York. The conversation set off a chain reaction that ended with Trump's social-media firm agreeing to merge with a nuclear-fusion company, making the first family a player on the energy industry's frontier.
It is the sort of unorthodox deal that has helped the Trumps rapidly expand their business empire into new industries. To pull it off, they have turned to a growing roster of financial partners who aren't part of Wall Street's blue-chip elite but are comfortable raising money and striking deals that might seem risky to others. In other words, guys like Angelo.
The nuclear deal, which is expected to close later this year, is "our attempt at really trying to get Truth stock substantially higher," he said in an interview. "I think the market is bored of Truth until that deal happens." Angelo later clarified that he meant the Trump Media stock was "rangebound" in the interim.
As Trump returned to the White House, he and his sons launched crypto ventures that netted the president $1.4 billion in income, according to his 2025 financial disclosure. But the Trumps and their advisers have more recently pushed into real-world assets from drones to mining. Many deals follow a similar playbook: entering a new industry by merging with companies that are already there.
Dominari Holdings, a Trump Tower-based investment bank partially owned by the president's eldest sons, is getting the family deeper into defense by taking two drone makers public through mergers with a construction firm and golf-course operator. The Trumps gained exposure to minerals when Dominari helped engineer a deal involving a proposed tungsten mine in Kazakhstan that has drawn potential financial backing from Washington.
In the Trump Media deal, Yorkville is helping to facilitate a merger with TAE Technologies to create a $6 billion firm set to become one of the first publicly traded fusion companies. Trump's family trust, of which he is the sole beneficiary, owns 41% of Trump Media and will retain a large interest in the combined business.
For TAE, the deal will allow it to tap public markets while getting up to $300 million in much-needed cash from Trump Media in the process. Fusion is still an unproven technology, and TAE is one of several companies trying to make it commercially viable.
TAE "had to go in a vehicle. It had to get funded," Angelo said. "If it happens to be the president's vehicle, great." TAE declined to comment.
Trump Media needs its own pick-me-up. While the president's overall business empire has generated a windfall, the media outfit's shares have plunged more than 80% since March 2024 highs, erasing more than $6 billion in value.
A company spokeswoman said in a statement that its media business, coupled with the growth opportunity in the fusion sector, will help Trump Media build durable value. "We are focused on execution, with results that will define [Trump Media's] next chapter," she said.
Democrats and government ethics watchdogs say the Trumps' sprawling web of business interests creates stark conflicts of interest, particularly as the president promotes crypto, nuclear energy and other industries in which the family has invested. And while the Trumps have made out well, investors in some ventures have wound up big losers.
"All of President Trump's assets are held in fully discretionary accounts managed by independent third-party financial institutions," White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement. "There are no conflicts of interest."
If the deal closes, Trump Media will pay Yorkville a fee equal to six million shares, according to securities filings, holdings worth more than $50 million.
'Goldman wasn't looking for me'
Based in a leafy New Jersey suburb 17 miles west of Wall Street, neighboring a funeral home and an optometrist, Yorkville would seem an unlikely candidate for financial adviser to the president's namesake company. Angelo's team joined a multibillion-dollar plan last year to create a Trump-branded digital-asset treasury meant to scoop up digital currencies like bitcoin. They also help oversee a suite of exchange-traded funds that invest in Trump-aligned industries, with tickers such as YALL.
Angelo is a New Jersey lifer who attended Rutgers University. "Goldman [Sachs] wasn't looking for me," he said. He launched his firm in an office on the 77th floor of the World Trade Center just before terrorists struck on Sept. 11, 2001. Unscathed, his team scrambled for new digs across the Hudson River, growing into a major player in debt and equity financing for mostly small and midsize companies.
In 2012, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Yorkville for fraud, alleging it overvalued holdings to attract investors and boost fees. While a federal judge threw out the case after a yearslong legal battle, Angelo said investors fled with about 90% of Yorkville's assets under management. The company ground back, funding real-estate investment trust Service Properties Trust and data-center company Applied Digital, as well as many companies strapped for cash.
They are often "companies that can't get traditional financing, can't get a traditional IPO," said Justin Hibbard, founder of equity-research firm CapitalScope, which runs the ShortFinder platform.
The firm is known in part for so-called standby equity-purchase agreements, in which companies raise cash by selling discounted shares that Yorkville can flip into the market.
Angelo said he often makes such trades to build relationships with partners and pursue more deals. "You have to win the game," he said. "And usually to win the game, you need something called 'money.' "
A substantial risk
Before Trump Media went public in 2024, Yorkville was slated to be part of a $1 billion private financing deal, but it fell apart. Angelo's team hung around in the hopes the Truth Social parent, then led by former Congressman Devin Nunes, would come calling down the road.
It did. After the company's shares began trading, Yorkville bought $450 million of stock at a 2.75% discount as part of a standby equity-purchase agreement, securities filings show. Last year, the firm added to its holdings in the crypto treasury deal, and now has a roughly $70 million stake, making it the third-largest shareholder, according to FactSet.
The business, now a hybrid of social media and crypto, has hit a wall. Trump Media generated less than $1 million in first-quarter sales. The company posted a $406 million net loss in that period due largely to slumping bitcoin prices, according to securities filings.
"I took a substantial risk position that did not work out," Angelo said.
Angelo heard of TAE on his commute to New York last year from Kevin McGurn, who was then an adviser to Trump Media. McGurn, who has a college friend at the fusion company, was also chief executive of several Yorkville-linked special-purpose acquisition companies, blank-check firms that raise capital to take other companies public. Initial talks focused on taking TAE public via a Yorkville SPAC but -- after Angelo brought in Nunes -- shifted to using Trump Media as the vehicle.
Under the deal announced in December, shareholders of each firm will own about 50% of the combined business. Michael Schwab, a TAE board member and son of Trump ally Charles Schwab, is expected to chair the combined company.
"If it hits," Angelo said, "it's going to be an astronomical payout."
Nunes resigned in April after White House advisers told Trump his company was languishing, according to people familiar with the matter. Nunes didn't respond to requests for comment.
Three other board members have also left, securities filings show, and Trump's personal lawyer, Boris Epshteyn, now chairs the board. McGurn, who is also chief executive of a separate SPAC backed by Trump's eldest sons, took on the role of interim chief executive. He also recently became chief executive of a Yorkville-backed SPAC seeking acquisitions in countries including Venezuela, according to securities filings.
Sen. Ron Wyden is probing that blank-check company. In a letter to Angelo in June, the Oregon Democrat sought information on Yorkville's links with the first family, citing concerns the SPAC could help "funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to strengthen Donald Trump's businesses."
Trump Media and Yorkville didn't comment on the inquiry. The Trump Organization declined to comment.
Angelo added that he wasn't on an ideological mission. The president's role in American life has limited relevance to him -- as long as there are deals to be done.
"My joke is: Within reason, elect whoever you want," Angelo said. "I'll wake up and figure out capitalism."
Write to David Uberti at david.uberti@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 20, 2026 21:00 ET (01:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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