President Trump’s media company was headed in the wrong direction, and Mark Angelo was ready to try something different. His firm, Yorkville Advisors, was more than a large stakeholder in Trump Media & Technology, the operator of Truth Social. By last year, the company was racking up losses and its stock was in the tank, so Angelo was open to bold ideas.

During a car ride into New York, Angelo’s chat with a close associate sparked a radical concept. The idea ultimately led Trump’s social‑media firm to agree to merge with a nuclear‑fusion company, putting the first family on the energy frontier.

To pull it off, the Trumps turned to a growing roster of financial partners outside Wall Street’s blue‑chip elite—people comfortable raising money for high‑risk deals. One such partner, Yorkville Advisors, engineered a planned merger between Trump Media and fusion firm TAE Technologies to create a $6 billion publicly traded company.

Trump Media’s shares have fallen more than 80 % since March 2024 highs, and the company posted a $406 million net loss in Q1. In June, Sen. Ron Wyden sent Angelo a letter probing the firm’s ties to the first family over a SPAC he said could funnel hundreds of millions to Trump’s businesses.