Martyr Inc.: How Trump Monetized a Persecution Narrative

Former President Donald J. Trump hawks $59.99 Bibles with the same words he uses to win the votes of evangelical Christians. He sells swatches of the suit he wore in a mug shot while also raising money for his campaign by calling himself a “political prisoner.” He describes Truth Social, his refuge for those banned on other social media sites — and his best chance to substantially increase his wealth — as a bulwark against liberal companies out to silence Christians and conservatives.

As he seeks to reclaim the presidency, Mr. Trump has reprised the pitchman role from his reality TV days, with a crucial difference: He has intertwined the marketing of his private business affairs with the messaging of his campaign, leveraging his political stature for profit.

All of it could be described as Martyr Inc., a machinery that makes Mr. Trump money and promotes his re-election by characterizing him as unjustly persecuted and selflessly saving his supporters from a similar fate.

His most loyal followers have gone along for the ride, forming a niche marketplace for products bearing the Trump name and vowing to help prop up the stock price for the company that owns Truth Social. Even after recent declines, Mr. Trump’s shares are worth more than $3 billion, though he cannot yet sell. With Mr. Trump’s tacit encouragement, his supporters have characterized buying Trump products as a measure of patriotism. That was the former president’s message in his Truth Social pitch for the customized Bible on the cusp of the Independence Day holiday: “Every Patriot should have one.”

That conflation of profit and the presidency was highlighted as stock in the social media company tumbled after Mr. Trump’s recent conviction on 34 felony counts in Manhattan.

Members of an investor chat group on the site rallied behind both the stock price and Mr. Trump’s re-election. They describe short sellers who bet against the stock as part of the same evil apparatus seeking to prosecute and defeat him. (He also faces indictments in criminal cases in Florida, Georgia and Washington, though none is likely to come to trial before the November election.)