Truth Social will start trading on Tuesday. Trump stands to earn a fortune
The company behind Donald Trump's social media app Truth Social will start trading on the Nasdaq exchange on Tuesday, potentially delivering a windfall of more than $3 billion to the former president.
Trump Media and Technology Group is set to become a public company after completing a merger with a listed shell company called Digital World Acquisition Corporation (DWAC), which was created to merge with the former president's company.\
Trump Media will trade under the stock symbol DJT, short for Donald J. Trump.
The former president would own at least 58% of the merged company, a stake that could be worth billions of dollars at current market valuations.
The windfall comes as Trump is mired in a slew of legal cases. Earlier on Monday, a New York appeals court reduced the amount Trump must post as bond in his civil fraud case to $175 million from nearly half a million dollars — and gave him him another 10 days to post it.
But Trump may not be able to sell his shares in Trump Media for another six months under his current agreement. He could, however, try to renegotiate his agreement or put up his stock holdings as collateral in exchange for a loan.
In a news conference on Monday, Trump lauded Truth Social's performance despite its poor financial health.
"Truth Social is doing very well," he said. "It's hot as a pistol and doing great."
In filings Truth Social has said it only had revenue of just over $3 million in the first nine months of last year and lost nearly $50 million during that period. [Copyright 2024 NPR]
