Barstool founder Dave Portnoy’s once-staunch support of President Trump suffered a gut punch this week after the president’s tariff implementation plunged Portnoy’s stock portfolio “in the sh–ter.”
Portnoy revealed Thursday he lost $7 million in stock and cryptocurrency value in the wake of Trump’s imposition of a 10% baseline tariff on imported goods and harsher “reciprocal” levies on dozens of countries.
“I’m down 7 million bucks in stocks and crypto,” Portney said in the clip widely circulated on social media.
“It’s tariff city. Trump has put his tariffs all over the place. I’ve been trying to understand them — I don’t,” the digital media company boss said.
“Like it’s more a trade deficit tariff. To me, like, ‘Hey, we get this much s–t from you, and you get this much from us. Let’s even that up. Let’s get some wacky formula, do tariffs. And everything’s in the sh–ter because of it,” he said in the clip.
Despite the substantial loss, Portnoy — who has an estimated $100 million net worth — admitted he will continue to stand by his man.
“I voted for Trump. I think he’s a smart guy. . . . I think he’s playing a high-stakes game here. I’m gonna roll with him for a couple days, a couple weeks,” he continued. “I’m going to give Trump the benefit of the doubt.”
Portnoy has been increasingly critical of Trump in recent weeks, especially surrounding Signal-gate.
In a video message to the president last week, the Barstool Sports owner insisted heads should roll after his administration accidentally invited Atlantic magazine editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to a private, encrypted Signal chat named “Houthi PC Small Group” where they deliberated over plans to attack the Yemen-based terrorist group — a disaster he called “a f–k up of epic proportions.”
“Listen, we’ve all texted the wrong person. We are not the secretary of defense, we are not the national security advisor, we are not the vice president of the United States,” Portnoy said.
“Yeah, mistakes happen. This one can’t.”
Portnoy also revealed last month that Trump offered him a gig in his administration’s Commerce Department, which he declined because it would have meant stepping away from Barstool Sports.
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