Trump Media shares erase 2024 gains as key sale date nears

Trump Media shares on Wednesday closed below where they stood at the end of 2023, as the Truth Social maker’s stock continued to slide ahead of the date when majority-owner Donald Trump can begin selling his stake.

The DJT slump, which followed a brief surge in mid-July spurred by the former president surviving an assassination attempt, has shaved billions of dollars off the company’s market capitalization.

Trump Media ended the trading day at $16.98 per share, a 6% decline on the day.

The stock has fallen more than 75% from its intraday peak of $79.38 per share, which it hit in its Nasdaq trading debut in late March following Trump Media’s merger with a special purpose acquisition company.

The stock price has ricocheted since then, as traders and analysts increasingly viewed Trump Media as a meme stock and as its value rose and fell with the political fortunes of the Republican presidential nominee.

Shares of the SPAC, Digital World Acquisition Corp., were at $17.50 at the market close on Dec. 29, the last trading session of 2023.

They shot up in mid-January, around the time that Trump emerged as the clear frontrunner in the Republican presidential primary.

Despite losing millions of dollars in consecutive fiscal quarters and generating scant revenue from Truth Social ad sales, Trump Media’s market capitalization is currently around $3.5 billion. At its post-merger peak in late March, it was valued at nearly $8 billion.

Trump owns nearly 59% of the company’s outstanding shares, which at Wednesday’s price were worth just under $2 billion — about half of his total on-paper net worth, according to Forbes.

Trump and other company insiders cannot sell their shares until a lock-up agreement expires, which could be as soon as Sept. 19.

That upcoming deadline has stoked speculation about whether Trump will try to cash out his shares or hold onto his stake.

If he does move to sell, he could rattle other investors’ confidence in the stock and push the price even lower.

Even if he doesn’t, other early investors could. Trump Media last month asked a Florida judge to temporarily block two firms involved in the SPAC merger from selling more than 18 million shares once their lockup expires.

The company’s request, which described that sale as “imminent,” was denied.

A spokesman for Trump Media did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the stock price.

As the lock-up deadline approaches, Trump has increasingly posted on other social media platforms, including TikTok and Elon Musk‘s X.

Trump nevertheless talked up Truth Social in a recent interview with podcaster Lex Fridman.

“Truth is very powerful,” Trump said. “And it’s my platform and it’s been very powerful, very, very powerful.”

“Truth has become a very successful platform. And I like doing it, and it goes everywhere. As soon as I do it, it goes everywhere,” he added.