Donald Trump’s net worth has fallen by just over $2 billion after the value of shares in his Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which owns his Truth Social website, dropped dramatically over the space of just eight days.
On March 22, TMTG merged with the Digital World Acquisition Corp., an existing shell company, clearing the way for it to go public and causing its value to surge, making Trump billions of dollars virtually overnight. However the shares shed much of this gain when it emerged the company lost $58.2 million in 2023, whilst only bringing in revenue of $4.1 million, raising questions about its long-term future.
Trump has taken a number of major financial hits in recent months, including being fined $454 million after a New York judge concluded he engaged in civil fraud, though the prospective Republican presidential candidate is appealing this. The bond was later reduced to $175 million and posted through the Knight Specialty Insurance Company.
The value of each TMTG share reached a high of $71.9 on March 27 before its profit and loss figures were released.Trump owns 78.75 million TMTG shares, meaning their total value at this point was about $5.7 billion.
However the new financial information, and concerns over the TMTG’s long-term future, saw the value of each share fall to $46.2 when markets closed on April 4, reducing the total value of Trump’s portfolio to $3.6 billion, equating a total loss of about $2.1 billion.
This was still higher than the figure when markets opened on March 22, prior to the company going public, at which point each TMTG share was worth $44.2, or $3.5 billion for Trump’s portfolio.
Speaking to Newsweek, TMTG spokesperson Shannon Devine said: “We are excited to be operating as a public company and to have 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. We intend to take full advantage of these opportunities to make Truth Social the quintessential free-speech platform for the American people.”
Newsweek has contacted Donald Trump representatives by email for comment.
On Tuesday a petition was launched on the Care2 website calling for authorities to “investigate whether Trump should be charged with securities fraud for the Truth Social stock crash.”
Scott Olson/GETTY
The petition states: “Just days after it went public, and its stock price placed its value in the billions, Donald Trump’s ‘Truth Social’ crashed back to Earth, with that same stock dropping like a rock.
“Why? Because the $50 million profit it said it made in 2022 had turned into a loss of $58 million in 2023—with only $4 million in total revenue.”
As of 9 a.m. ET on Friday morning the petition had received just over 16,400 signatures.
On March 27, CNBC expert Robert Frank said the sudden surge in TMTG suggested it was being moved by Trump supporters and retail investors and was detached from conventional Wall Street analysis.
He said: “This is the combination of a meme stock, and the first purely political stock. It’s like this new hybrid that people can express their excitement for politics, and their excitement over the stock, without regard to any of the fundamentals.”
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.