Today is the day that creepy Donald Trump can start selling his stock in his social media company Truth Social, in which he is the majority shareholder. Since this company is basically worthless since its operating costs vastly exceed its revenues, it is considered a meme stock, one whose value is sustained by people wanting to believe in it and thus buying and holding on to it even when it makes no investment sense.

But many people were not willing to be so loyal and ever since July 15, the share price has been steadily decreasing from about $40 on that day to $13.55 today, which is well below its peak value of around $80 on March 27.

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There is a huge vested interest in portraying elections in the US as very close, right up to election day. Each side likes to do so to prevent complacency among their supporter and to nudge people to vote, contribute money, and volunteer to do campaign work. The media loves it because it draws viewers and generates ad revenue. And there is a vast network of election pundits who are kept in business by blathering away about every little nugget of news to say how they think it will affect the election, even though they have no idea. Then there are the political consultants and media operatives who become more important in close elections, as campaign seek to squeeze out every advantage.
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Presidential campaigns have to make choices about where to pour most of their resources in the final stretch up to the election on November 5th. As many people know, the Electoral College system in the US is such that there are just seven states known as ‘swing’ or ‘battleground’ states (Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and North Carolina) that play an outsize role in that they are seen as the only ones in contention, while the results of the other 43 states and the District of Columbia are seen as foregone conclusions for one party or the other and not worth campaigning in.

Campaigns need to decide whether they want to go on the offense and ‘expand the map’ (as the cool kids say) by making an effort in non-swing states that are leaning towards the opponents but that they think they have a chance of flipping. For the Democrats, these would be states like Indiana, Iowa, and Florida. Florida has been a tease for them for a long time. The demographics of the state with its rising percentage of Hispanic voters has long seemed promising but each election has seen their hopes dashed, with Republicans winning it comfortably. Republicans have fewer options in prying states out of Democratic hands. New Hampshire, Minnesota, and Virginia used to be possibilities but recently they have gone Democratic and there are reports that the GOP has given up on them, although both New Hampshire and Virginia have Republican governors. Alternatively, campaigns can decide they want to play defense, focusing only on the swing states that they think they have a good chance of winning and have sufficient electoral college votes to put them over the top, and largely ignoring the others.
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