Truth Social, the messaging service founded by Trump, will be listed on the stock exchange, but according to these prospects, Trump will only receive income from this in the fall.
of the former President of the United States Donald Trump’s founded media company Trump Media & Technology Group is listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York. The media company’s most significant product is the messaging service Truth Social.
The condition of the listing was that the media company merges with the one managing the acquisitions Digital World Acquisition Corp. with the company. Digital World shareholders approved the merger today. The new company may be listed on the stock exchange as early as Monday.
Trump owns almost 60 percent of the new company’s shares. Based on Digital World’s current stock price, Trump would net more than three billion dollars from the deal.
The leading right-wing message channel
Trump founded Truth Social in February 2022 after he was kicked out of major social media channels such as Facebook and then Twitter following the congressional impeachment the previous year.
Trump promoted Truth Social as a counterbalance to the mainstream media, which is critical of him. Truth Social has little moderation, so commenting is often brutal.
Truth Socialist has become the main outlet for right-wing opinions in the United States. It had an estimated five million active users in February, which is more than other right-wing messaging services, Parler and Gettri. Still, Truth Social falls far short of the billion audiences of TikTok and Facebook.
Trump uses Truth Social a lot for his own communication. His audience is especially MAGA-minded Republicans.
Trump’s salvation?
Donald Trump is in deep trouble, as he has until Monday to find $454 million worth of money or guarantees to pay the damages ordered against him in court.
Three billion dollars would come at just the right time for him, but with these prospects, he won’t be able to convert his shares into cash before the fall. In the United States, major shareholders are prohibited from selling and transferring for six months in large corporate transactions.
Trump can try to overturn the ban, but that would not be viewed well in financial circles. It would be strange if the largest owner of the new company immediately started selling his shares at a rapid pace. He would hardly get a good price for them.
Truth Social doesn’t seem like a successful company either. It made a loss for much of last year, its user base is declining, and its share value is declining news channel CNN according to drastically overpriced.
Source: AP