Donald Trump Jr. joins the advisory board of drone manufacturer Unusual Machines

The share price of Unusual machines rose greater than 100% on Wednesday morning after the small U.S. Manufacturer of drones and drone components announced that Donald Trump Jr. – the son of President-elect Donald Trump – has joined its advisory board.

“Adding Don Jr. to our advisory board provides us with unique expertise we need as we bring drone component manufacturing back to America,” Allan Evans, CEO of Unusual Machines, said in a press release.

“He brings a wealth of experience and I look forward to his advice and role in the company as we continue to grow our business,” said Evans, whose Orlando, Florida-based company has a market capitalization of lower than $50 million .

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“The need for drones is obvious. “It is also clear that we must stop buying Chinese drones and Chinese drone parts,” Trump Jr. said in a press release.

“I love what Unusual Machines is doing to bring drone manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. and look forward to taking a larger role in the movement,” Trump Jr. said.

In an S-1 filing Wednesday, Unusual Machines says its consumer business “has been heavily dependent on Chinese imports for our products and operations,” raising the chance that President-elect Trump will impose tariffs on Chinese imports.

“Due to the recent US presidential election, President-elect Trump is expected to threaten and potentially impose high tariffs on imports of goods from China, including the drones we use in our B2C business,” it said File. “If higher tariffs are imposed, it could have a material and adverse impact on our business and operating results.”

The president-elect said Monday he’ll impose “an additional 10% tariff on top of any additional tariffs” on imports from China unless the country stops trade in chemicals used to make the deadly opioid fentanyl.

In the identical S-1 statement, Unusual Machines disclosed that Trump Jr. previously owned 331,580 shares of Unusual Machines stock prior to a stock offering listed within the statement and doesn’t currently own any shares. The statement doesn’t disclose what price Trump Jr. paid for his shares or at what price he sold them.

Unusual Machines, which accomplished its initial public offering of 1.25 million shares with net proceeds of $3.85 million in February, recently reported revenue of just $3.56 million for the nine months ended September 30 and a net lack of $4.86 million for a similar period.

The 52-week low for Unusual Machines stock is 98 cents per share. As of Wednesday morning, the stock, which closed at $5.36 per share on Tuesday, was trading at greater than $8 per share.

Volume was high on Wednesday morning, with greater than 13.5 million shares traded. The company's average 10-day trading volume is simply about 380,000 shares.

When the corporate accomplished its IPO in February, it also acquired drone brands Fat Shark and Rotor Riot from Red Cat, whose founder and CEO Jeffrey Thompson is the founder, former CEO and current board member of Unusual Machines.

Unusual Machines noted in a recent regulatory filing that the corporate modified its accounting firm in April and “terminated its engagement with the previous auditor.”

“On May 3, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) issued an order imposing a cease-and-desist order against the Company’s previous auditor, requiring the Company to retain latest auditors and re-audit its financial statements for the years ended on December 31, 2023 and 2022,” the filing states.

The latest accounting firm hired by Unusual Machines re-examined the corporate's prior financial reports and located that “certain transactions were not recorded in the correct period, stock compensation expense of $600,000 was not recorded in connection with the common stock issuance on March 7, 2023 .” Deferred offering costs were classified as an operating activity and never a financing activity.”

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