A steep selloff in technology stocks led Barron's to declare on Thursday that President Donald Trump's "bad week is getting worse," with the slump hitting Intel especially hard. The chipmaker is the company in which the US government purchased a 10 percent stake at Trump's behest last summer, and Intel shares have since lost half their value in a matter of weeks.

The bulk of that 50 percent decline came last week, when the stock tumbled 29 percent in a single day following a weak earnings report. "There has been no bounce whatsoever since that brutal selloff," Barron's reported. The stock "has fallen another 11 percent in the three full trading days since then amid broader tech pressure and it's down 6 percent early Thursday," the outlet noted. In Barron's assessment, "It's more bad news for the Trump administration after the Democrats won control of both the Senate and the House following Tuesday's midterm elections."

Trump publicly celebrated the investment after the government's purchase last year, touting the returns as the stock climbed. At Intel's peak in June, he said in a social media post, "America's stake is now over 60 Billion Dollars. When was the last time a president made America money??" Within days, the share price began trending downward, before plunging in the final days of October.

According to Barron's, the government's stake was worth roughly $50 billion before that plunge; it now stands at around $24 billion — well below the more than $60 billion figure Trump cited at Intel's June peak. While the position remains above the government's initial investment of $8.9 billion, the outlet observed that if the stock continues on its current trajectory, the stake's value will soon be back to the buy-in price, erasing the paper gains Trump touted over the summer. When Intel crashed last week, commentators were alarmed at what then amounted to an $11 billion loss; this week's continuing tumble has more than doubled that decline, with no signs of stopping.

Experts have raised concerns about the position. Telegraph financial columnist Matthew Lynn wrote on X that "Trump's investment in Intel is not looking quite so smart." Cato Institute economist Scott Lincicome highlighted a structural problem with the holding: "One of the many problems with the government's Intel stake — and Trump bragging about big stock gains over the summer — is that the 'gains' are an illusion: they're only realized when the government sells, but the government can't sell." Were the government to pull out of the position, Lincicome explained, the resulting investor panic would destroy the company.

Intel was not the only falling stock to complicate Trump's week. On Wednesday, a steep selloff in DJT — the ticker for Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. (TMTG), the parent company of Trump's Truth Social social media platform — drove the shares to their lowest point on record at just over $5 per share. Washington Post contributor Drew Harwell pointed out after the fall, "A share costs about as much as a Happy Meal. At its peak, investors paid $175 a share." New Yorker writer Philip Gourevitch offered a blunt warning: "Do not buy the dip."