Why Trump Media Stock Surged 14.7% Last Month and Has Kept Rising in 2026

Trump Media & Technology Group (NASDAQ: DJT) stock posted big gains in December. The company's share price rose 14.7% last month, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Trump Media stock got a big boost in 2025's final month after the company announced some major merger news. Despite the big rally, the stock is still down roughly 60% over the last year of trading.

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Trump Media surged on big merger news

On Dec. 18, Trump Media published a press release announcing that it had entered into an arrangement to merge with TAE Technologies. The $6 billion, all-stock deal will see TAE integrated into Trump Media and was championed as creating one of the world's "first publicly traded fusion companies."

Trump Media and its TAE Technologies division are expected to begin production on their first fusion power plant this year. The acquisition and plans for growth initiatives connected to nuclear-fusion technologies represent another major pivot for the company.

While Trump Media was originally founded as a social-media company built around the Truth Social platform, the company has changed directions multiple times since its formation. The new focus on nuclear energy comes on the heels of other initiatives to foreground financial trading services, cryptocurrencies, and other offerings as growth drivers.

The acquisition of TAE is projected to close near the middle of this year. Energy demand connected to artificial intelligence (AI) looks poised to surge over the next decade, and nuclear-energy providers could see strong gains connected to the trend. On the other hand, the commercial viability of fusion technologies has yet to be proven at scale.

Why Trump Media stock has kept rising in 2026

Trump Media announced on Dec. 31 that it planned to distribute cryptocurrency tokens to its shareholders. The distribution is part of Trump Media's partnership with Crypto.com and is expected to see one new token distributed for each share of stock held. The news helped power bullish momentum for Trump Media's share price, and the stock is currently up roughly 5% across 2026's trading.

Thus far, Trump Media has been able to leverage its connections to President Donald Trump as a way to increase support among investors and pave the way for partnerships and expansion into new product-and-service categories. On the other hand, the company has yet to develop meaningful revenue streams -- and it remains to be seen whether the business's growth bets will pay off.

Keith Noonan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.