
Gina Rinehart boosts investment in Donald Trump's Truth Social while beefing up US portfolio
The mining billionaire is a long-standing member of the Trump support group and has close ties with the President, celebrating his election night victory with close friends at his Mar-a-lago residence in West Palm Beach.
She has also called for Mr Trump's policy agenda to be followed in Australia, including setting up a Department of Government Efficiency and following the US withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement.
Mrs Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting increased its holdings of Trump Media & Technology Group, which operates Truth Social, by 67 per cent in the June quarter, according to a regulatory filing cited by Bloomberg.
The stake is believed to be worth about $US4.5 million ($6.92m)
Hancock's portfolio of US-traded and exchange-traded funds was worth about $US3.1 billion as of June 30.
Mrs Rinehart's Hancock has been a major investor in a number of US ventures including rare earths miner and refiner MP Materials, of which she owns 7.8 per cent.
The US Department of Defence last month struck a landmark deal with MP Materials to acquire a 15 per cent stake in the Las Vegas-headquartered company and inked an offtake agreement to buy MP's Californian production of rare earth materials at a set minimum price.
The deal saw Mrs Rinehart add more than $400m to her net worth in the space of 24 hours owing to her major stakes in MP and Lynas. Lynas has operations in WA and Malaysia with ambitions to build a rare earths refinery in Texas.
Shares in MP have rocketed more 70 per cent since the deal, according to Bloomberg, inflating the value of Mrs Rinehart's holding to more than $US1b.
Mrs Rinehart also reportedly increased her investment in Canadian copper giant Teck Resources and took fresh positions in copper-focused critical minerals company Hudbay Minerals, uranium explorer NexGen Energy, US chip giant Nvidia and Dell Technologies.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

Sky News AU
39 minutes ago
- Sky News AU
‘Tweedledee and Tweedledum': Albanese and Wong are ‘putting stress' on Australia-US alliance
Sky News host Steve Price discusses Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong's 'slack-jawed' approach to Palestinian recognition and how this move has put stress on the Australia-US alliance. 'I am referring to the slack-jawed way our leader has decided to reward the terror group Hamas with the decision to recognise a Palestinian state with a visit to the UN,' Mr Price said. 'One can only wonder at the tone of the phone calls between other left-leaning leaders like France's Macron and the UK's Starmer in the lead-up to this. 'So, here we have Tweedledee and Tweedledum, Albo and Wong, courting votes from the Harbour Bridge march … and the Greens putting stress on the US alliance to support a fanciful notion that no one … in the Middle East thinks is ever going to happen.'


Perth Now
2 hours ago
- Perth Now
Hezbollah warns disarmament plan could spark civil war
Hezbollah has raised the spectre of civil war with a warning there will be "no life" in Lebanon if the government seeks to confront or eliminate the Iran-backed group. The government wants to control arms in line with a US-backed plan following Israel's military campaign against Hezbollah, which was founded four decades ago with the backing of Tehran's Revolutionary Guards. But the group is resisting pressure to disarm, saying that cannot happen until Israel ends its strikes and occupation of a southern strip of Lebanon that had been a Hezbollah stronghold. "This is our nation together. We live in dignity together, and we build its sovereignty together - or Lebanon will have no life if you stand on the other side and try to confront us and eliminate us," its leader Naim Qassem said in a televised speech on Friday. Israel has dealt Hezbollah heavy blows in the past two years, killing many of its top brass including former leader Hassan Nasrallah and 5000 of its fighters, and destroying much of its arsenal. The Lebanese cabinet last week tasked the army with confining weapons only to state security forces, a move that has outraged Hezbollah. Qassem accused the government of implementing an "American-Israeli order to eliminate the resistance, even if that leads to civil war and internal strife". However, he said Hezbollah and the Amal movement, its Shi'ite Muslim ally, had decided to delay any street protests while there was still scope for talks. "There is still room for discussion, for adjustments, and for a political resolution before the situation escalates to a confrontation no one wants," Qassem said. "But if it is imposed on us, we are ready, and we have no other choice ... At that point, there will be a protest in the street, all across Lebanon, that will reach the American embassy." The conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, which left parts of Lebanon in ruins, erupted in October 2023 when the group opened fire at Israeli positions along the southern border in solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas at the start of the Gaza war. Hezbollah and Amal still retain influence politically, appointing Shi'ite ministers to cabinet and holding the Shi'ite seats in parliament. But for the first time in years, they do not hold a "blocking third" of cabinet, enabling them to veto government decisions in the past. Hezbollah retains strong support among the Shi'ite community in Lebanon, but calls for its disarmament across the rest of society have grown.

Sky News AU
2 hours ago
- Sky News AU
Australians warned to ‘wake up' as Albanese's Labor government drifts further from US after Palestine recognition decision
Australians have been warned to 'wake up' over the impact the Albanese government's decision to recognise Palestine is having on the US relationship. The decision has sparked a war of words between the Albanese government and the Trump administration, with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee blasting Australia over the decision to recognise the state of Palestine, revealing there was a sentiment of 'disgust' inside the Trump administration over the move. 'I think the timing has been very hurtful to any prospects of negotiating some settlement in Gaza with Hamas. They basically walked away. This is a gift to them, and it's unfortunate,' Mr Huckabee told ABC's 7.30 programme. "There's an enormous level of disappointment and some disgust.' Speaking to Sky News on Friday, former Labor MP Michael Danby said Australia was being led by 'not a normal Labor government'. 'We have a socialist left government … This is not a normal Labour government and they have abandoned our usual procedures,' he told Sky News host Rowan Dean. 'Wong said that she only called Rubio in a perfunctory way the night before they made an announcement. 'How would you not consult the Americans who are actually involved in negotiations for ceasefire, who have all of those forces over there, and consult the French?' Mr Danby said it was a 'ridiculous basis' to decide Australia's foreign policy and warned Australians of a 'fundamental shift'. The former Labor MP said Mr Albanese, Ms Wong, and the rest of the Labor Caucus were 'fundamentally shifting', which the Americans 'sense' was a shift away from a friendly 'pro-US stance' to a 'pro-China worldview'. 'Australians should wake up. This is not a matter of just Israel. This is a fundamental shift in Australian foreign policy, and it's absolutely unjustified,' he said. Responding to the US diplomat's comments on Friday morning, the Prime Minister said Mr Huckabee was an 'ambassador of a country, not Australia, to another country. Not Australia, Israel'. 'My job is to represent Australia's interests and Australians have been disgusted by what they see on their TV every night,' Mr Albanese told ABC Radio Melbourne radio.