The U.S. archivist Trump fired last year got Obama, Bush and Clinton to write about giving up power

The In Pursuit 250th-anniversary essay series (43 presidents, excluding Biden and Trump) is being framed amid concerns about democratic integrity under President Trump and the integrity of the presidency. The project is curated by U.S. archivist Colleen Shogan, who was fired without explanation by Trump in February 2025, and the article notes the White House has not responded to requests for the reason. Despite the political backdrop, the series has drawn strong public interest (1M+ cumulative views on Substack and 160k+ podcast downloads), with a PBS documentary scheduled for October.

Analysis

DJT is the only name with a real trading read-through, and it is mostly a sentiment/volatility asset rather than an operating business in this context. The article reinforces the stock’s dependence on Trump-centric narrative flow: that can support periodic retail attention, but it also means every institutionally negative reminder of Trump’s governance risk can widen the discount rate applied by more fundamental capital. For GOOGL, the linkage is too indirect to matter unless this turns into a broader debate about content moderation or government archives/data policy; WSOUF looks similarly non-actionable from this item alone.

Near term, the first move is likely a headline fade unless there is a fresh Trump response that extends the cycle. Over 1-3 months, the relevant catalyst is not the historical essay project itself but any escalation around archives, federal records, or executive-power themes that keeps DJT in the news and sustains implied volatility. The structural risk over 6-18 months is reputational: if Trump-related political controversy stays elevated, DJT can remain expensive to own on fundamentals even if it rallies on flow-driven spikes.

Contrarian take: the market may be overestimating the economic significance of a purely symbolic institutional story. That argues against a clean directional short unless you have a catalyst calendar; the better expression is to sell optionality into strength or use defined-risk puts. The thesis is falsified if DJT stops reacting to Trump headlines and starts trading purely on user/revenue metrics or if volatility collapses despite ongoing political noise.

Key Decisions for Investors

• DJT: fade any opening spike with a 2-6 week bearish put spread rather than outright short stock; target a move back to the pre-headline range with limited premium at risk.
• DJT: if shares gap up on the next Trump-related headline, consider a tactical short against that strength with a tight stop above the recent squeeze high; this is a flow trade, not a fundamental one.
• GOOGL: no trade on this item; keep it as a watch item only if the story morphs into a policy fight over archives, search, or platform content moderation.
• WSOUF: no actionable signal; avoid forcing a position absent a clear operating linkage or follow-on catalyst.
• Alert: if DJT implied volatility remains elevated for several sessions without a corresponding earnings or policy catalyst, consider systematically selling front-month premium rather than expressing a strong directional view.