Friday is the first day that Donald Trump can sell his majority shares in Trump Media & Technology Group, the company that operates his Truth Social platform. Unfortunately for him, the stock opened Friday by dropping to its lowest level so far, at $13.73 a share.
The company was valued at more than $5 billion in March, with shares reaching a closing high of $66.22, but is now worth less than $3 billion. As of early Friday, Trump’s shares are estimated to be worth around $1.6 billion.
The media company stock was originally overvalued at close to $9 billion. It quickly dropped after its initial public offering and has been trending down for months. In May, the company’s revenue filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission revealed the company was operating at a net loss through its first earning quarter. It has continued to hit new lows over the past few weeks.
Many have called the media company something of a pump-and-dump stock, which matches with the rest of Trump’s ventures these days, including his new crypto venture. You know cryptocurrency? It’s the thing Trump once rightly called a “scam” (broken clock and all of that). But on Wednesday, Trump was handing out what he termed “crypto burgers”—burgers he bought with bitcoin—at a bar in New York City.
Trump’s Truth Social platform began after he was kicked off of Twitter for his part in inciting the violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The social media network has been something of a disaster since the start with its legally dubious logo design, top executives jumping ship, and stakeholder lawsuits. In the end, its main value has been as a forum to watch Trump freak out over the state of his life every few hours.
Back in March, businessman Mike Crispi, who chairs New Jersey’s America First Republicans group, had this prognostication to offer “liberals”:
Thoughts and prayers.
