Truth Social Funds plans acquisition of God Bless America ETF

By Suzanne McGee

Jan 28 (Reuters) - Yorkville America Equities, LLC, the investment adviser that manages the five just-launched Truth Social-branded ETFs focusing on "America first" investment themes, said on Wednesday ​it has agreed to acquire the God Bless America ETF.

The move follows last month's ‌announcement by Goldman Sachs of its $2 billion plan to acquire ETF asset manager Innovator Capital Management and is another signal that ‌the increasingly crowded ETF arena could be in the early stages of a wave of consolidation.

The transaction, which must be approved by shareholders, is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026, according to a press release issued by both Florida-based Yorkville and Curran Financial Partners, the firm that developed ⁠the God Bless America ETF. Yorkville ‌said terms of the transaction are confidential.

The assets under management in the Truth Social transaction are a drop in the bucket relative to Goldman's pending purchase ‍of Innovator, which manages about $28 billion in assets in exchange-traded funds.

The five Truth Social ETFs, which form part of the Trump Media & Technology Group and are designed to be managed and advised by Yorkville, began trading on ​December 30. So far that group, which includes products targeting real estate in Republican-controlled states, defense, ‌and energy, has acquired a total of $46 million in assets, with the largest, Truth Social American Next Frontiers, having $14.8 million. YALL, launched in October 2022, has $101.7 million.

"The transaction makes sense given that YALL is a political-themed ETF that could align with Truth Social ETFs and gives them an ETF with a longer track record than their current suite of new launches," said Bryan Armour, an analyst ⁠at Morningstar who tracks developments in the ETF arena.

Steve Neamtz, ​president of Yorkville, told Reuters that discussions with YALL's ​management team began before he joined Yorkville in December to shepherd the Truth Social ETFs into the market.

"It just became logical, to bring together products that offer ‍investors a chance to align ⁠their political philosophy and their investment strategy," he added.

Neamtz said that YALL, as an actively managed ETF, is complementary to Truth Social's roster of index-backed funds.

To be sure, "The reality is ⁠that 'affinity' ETFs have simply not worked, regardless of the spin," said Dave Nadig, president and chief investment officer of ETF.com. "This ‌was true for some ESG launches, it's been true for politically oriented ETFs."

(Suzanne McGee ‌in Providence, Rhode Island; Editing by Matthew Lewis)