#Trump #filthy #rich #Truth #Socials #IPO #paper
The first two days of Trump Media & Technology Group’s stock exchange listing have generated billions of dollars on paper for major shareholder and former American President Donald Trump. The company, which includes its social media platform Truth Social, made its debut on the Nasdaq technology exchange in New York on Tuesday.
The price of DJT – Trump’s initials are the abbreviation for the company on the stock exchange – rose within a few hours after the introduction from $49.95 (more than 46 euros) to almost $80. The share stabilized during the day. This Wednesday, DJT opened on Wall Street around $65. That makes it worth about $9.5 billion. Trump, who owns 58 percent of the shares, can add about $5.5 billion in assets.
At least, on paper. He cannot sell his shares for the next six months, due to the lock-up which includes Trump Media. This arrangement, which is common in recently listed companies, means that ‘old’ shareholders are only allowed to sell shares again after a certain period. The measure is intended to prevent the rapid sale of another large package of shares from spoiling the stock price.
Real estate fraud
Trump, once again a candidate for the American presidency, desperately needs the money. The New York Court of Appeals certain Monday that he will have ten days to post a $175 million bond. The judge had previously set the bail at almost half a billion dollars, but the court decided to reduce that amount.
Trump must post bail to appeal a $464 million fine he received last month for fraud in his real estate company. The judge ruled that Trump had overstated the value of his assets for years to negotiate lower interest rates on loans and thereby misled banks.
In January, a federal judge also ordered the presidential candidate to pay writer E. Jean Caroll $83 million in damages. She was sexually assaulted by Trump in a department store fitting room in 1996.
In recent weeks it has become clear that Trump, who likes to portray himself in the media as ‘self made billionaire’, does not just have this money lying around. According to calculations by The New York Times he owns approximately $350 million (cash and stock) that he can access immediately. The rest of his assets are mainly in real estate, including [een deel van] the Trump Tower in New York and several golf courses.
If Trump wants to immediately sell his shares in Trump Media & Technology Group, he will have to convince the newly appointed seven-member board to remove the lock-up. The chance that this will succeed seems considerable: the directors are Trump loyalists, including his eldest son Donald Trump Jr.
The question is whether it is necessary, because Trump seems to be able to pay the 175 million in bail from his immediately available resources. Based on his share in DJT, he is certainly an official billionaire: a status that is useful in the PR surrounding the election campaign.
Truth Social
The question is whether the price of the Trump Media & Technology Group will remain so high. The share has all the characteristics of one meme stock, a share that is mainly bought by individual investors, because there is a lot going on on social media. This may temporarily boost the price, but it can also collapse again just as quickly.
From research by The New York Times it emerged this week that virtually no major investors have taken an interest in Trump Media. Shares are mainly bought by individual Trump fans who support him in his election campaign for the American presidency. There is no serious financial basis for the company itself.
“This share is heavily overhyped and Trump will do everything he can to boost that hype,” says stock analyst Nico Inberg. “For Trump, he has to sell before the elections. He’ll have to be on time cashingbefore the market realizes that there is little to no turnover.” If Trump becomes president again, he will no longer be allowed to own any companies.
Trump Media & Technology Group currently runs entirely on Truth Social. Trump founded the social network in February 2021 after he was removed from Twitter, Facebook and YouTube in the aftermath of the storming of the Capitol. He wanted to “fight the tyranny of Big Tech” with his new medium, Trump said at the time.
Until the IPO, the company mainly cost money. In the first nine months of last year, the medium generated $3.4 million in advertising revenue and lost $49 million. Truth Social is a small social network with only five million active monthly users. By comparison, Twitter had 215 million users when it went public in 2013. Facebook even had 845 million users when the company went to Wall Street in 2012.
On Truth Social, the IPO was under the ‘truthseekers‘, as users of the platform are called, the talk of the day. The most important trending topics from Trump’s social network Wednesday morning: #TruthSocial and #DJT.
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