For a long time, this community knows I’ve been a bull on Archer Aviation. But that changed the day the Pentagon started actively pumping stocks with government-sponsored propaganda. And I worked for the federal government and participated in multiple media campaigns, so I know what all goes into what might appear to the public as a one-off…no big deal…social media push. Hundreds of government insiders would have known about the video months in advance. Buddies calling buddies. “Hey, the Pentagon is about to do a drone video. Buy RCAT!”
And now that the U.S. is playing nuclear chicken with Russia, I suspect sometime in the future, probably 2026, there will be a big push to pump Anduril’s IPO, whenever that might be.
Not cool.
Especially, when the CEO is Matt Gaetz’s brother-in-law, which reeks of conflict of interest and makes me wonder if this buddy-buddy system is why Adam Goldstein partnered with Anduril and has spent so much time at the President’s country club in Florida.
Archer Aviation should know better.
They’ve got plenty of market share in the eVTOL race without allowing their brand’s success to be tied to ANY political party. And as we discussed about the whole Tesla fiasco, the worst thing a brand can do is get political and isolate half their customer base. And further, the numbers ain’t gonna work in any business model, especially when you’re banking on launching a partisan product in one of the most liberal cities in America.
Sorry. Hard pass for me. And I’m going to say the same for Joby out of an abundance of caution.
Yes. Each will make money on any shortsighted pump from the Pentagon, but they’ll absolutely get crushed, especially Archer, without mass buy in from the West Coast elite.
But more than that, even if I’m wrong and Archer and Joby go to the moon, I don’t ever want to put myself in a position where my voice might be limited because I benefited from crony capitalism at the Pentagon. Because there’s no amount of money that’s worth sacrificing one’s reputation. And as a professional headline writer, I know the ethical ones can be a death nail to this community.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Venture at your own risk. I’ll stick with railroads and life science that benefits the underserved.
\-Tweedle