Trump Moves Majority Of His TruthSocial Stock Into Trust
President-elect Donald Trump has opted to transfer nearly his entire stake in Truth Social to the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust.
According to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing on Thursday, Fox News reported the development.
Truth Social’s parent company, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), gained traction during the election season, with traders speculating on Trump’s potential return to the presidency.
“Trump has maintained up to 57% ownership of the company. In the lead up to the election, his stake was worth almost $4 billion,” the report stated.
However, Jordan Libowitz, Vice President for Communications at CREW, raised concerns about the ethical implications.
“Yes, he put it in a trust, but [he] basically did nothing to assuage any ethical fears,” Libowitz told Politico. “This is like a head nod in the direction of ethics without taking an actual ethical step.”
Meanwhile, Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for the Trump-Vance transition team, emphasized Trump’s financial sacrifices. She noted that the president-elect had “removed himself from his multi-billion-dollar real estate empire to run for office and forewent his government salary, becoming the first President to actually lose net worth while serving in the White House.”
In April, TMTG exceeded market expectations with its stock performance. Following a merger and public debut on the Nasdaq exchange, the company’s value increased by nearly 25%.
TMTG began trading on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol DJT on March 26 after merging with Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC). Days later, DWAC shares closed at $49.95, and later that week, The Epoch Times reported TMTG shares trading at $61.96—a rise exceeding 24%.
At the time, Trump held 78.75 million TMTG shares valued at $61.96 each, placing his stake at roughly $4.87 billion. This contributed to the company’s market capitalization of approximately $8.39 billion. As of March 30, Trump’s net worth was estimated at $7.48 billion, ranking him 350th among the world’s 500 wealthiest individuals.
The stock’s robust performance came as a surprise to analysts, who had predicted weaker results. Critics pointed out that TMTG had yet to achieve profitability, reporting just $3.3 million in revenue from January to September 2023 while incurring $49 million in losses over the same period.
In a November SEC filing, DWAC acknowledged TMTG’s reliance on Trump’s involvement. The filing stated that if Trump ceased dedicating “significant” time to Truth Social, the company’s operations would suffer.
“TMTG’s success depends in part on the popularity of its brand and the reputation and popularity of its Chairman, President Donald J. Trump. The value of TMTG’s brand may diminish if the popularity of President Trump were to suffer,” the filing read.
“Adverse reactions to publicity relating to President Trump, or the loss of his services, could adversely affect TMTG’s revenues, results of operations, and its ability to maintain or generate a consumer base,” it continued.
Truth Social experienced a significant boost in March, with a surge of users joining the platform to watch Trump’s real-time reactions to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address.
Just the News reported that the influx caused intermittent delays for users attempting to access the platform.
“Trump uses his platform exclusively for his social commentary, making Truth Social the only social media site that hosts content from both Trump and Biden. Biden’s campaign recently opened up an account on Truth,” the outlet noted. “Trump essentially live-blogged his responses to Biden’s speech on the platform, starting with an opening salvo on Biden starting his speech late.”