Trump Media merged with the shell business Digital World Acquisition Corp. and started trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market using the former president's initials, DJT. Insiders at Trump Media, which owns the Truth Social app that former President Donald Trump frequently uses, benefit from the transaction that made Trump Media shares publicly listed. The merger was officially announced on March 26.
With 78.75 million shares or approximately 58% of the social media company's common stock, Trump is by far the largest shareholder. Only some people get cash rewards in the early going of the business. Along with the former president, it also includes several Trump associates and senior financial and operational officers.
“It is unsurprising to see die-hard Trump haters and leftwing flacks blow a gasket now that Truth Social has become a public company that, still today, refuses to suppress political expression that contradicts the narratives they want to enforce,” Shannon Devine, a Trump Media spokesperson said.
According to corporate documents, CEO Devin Nunes and other executives of Trump Media, this generated sales of only $4.1 million but reported a net loss of $58 million, received specific information about their pay, retention bonuses, and stock allocations. At some point when it was still a privately owned firm, Trump Media gave the executives promissory notes, a form of legally binding IOUs, according to the petition. The notes that were issued had a total value of $6.25 million, of which $1.15 million was allocated to Nunes, $4.9 million to Juhan, and $200,000 to Northwall.
“We are excited to be operating as a public company and having secured access to capital markets…Closing out the 2023 financials related to the merger, Truth Social today has no debt and over $200 million in the bank, opening numerous possibilities for expanding and enhancing our platform," Nunes in a statement said.
Former President Donald Trump, who holds the bulk of the company's shares, has seen his net worth fluctuate with the stock's price fluctuations, dropping from a peak of over $5.2 billion to roughly $2.9 billion. However, Trump is contractually prohibited from selling or even borrowing against his shares for six months, so those numbers are essentially meaningless.
Analysts have been predicting this drop for a while, and it is a clear sign that investors are selling the costly shares. Although Truth Social generated a pathetic $4.1 million in sales last year and lost $58 over the same period, TMTG benefited greatly from the transaction, which valued the company at billions of dollars. As of this writing, shares are trading for about $36, which is significantly less than what it was at the merger. Billions of dollars in value have already been lost since the scandal, including more than $1 billion of Trump's net worth.
“It will be interesting to see how this significant loss in money affects Trump and his legal battles going forward. Along with his continuing campaigning for the 2024 election. His legal battles and campaigning cost millions and millions of dollars that seem to be dwindling as the days go on,” NHS junior Giovanni Rivera said.