Trump Media & Technology Group, the owner of struggling social media platform Truth Social, is began its long-delayed journey as a public company at Tuesday’s opening bell under the ticker symbol “DJT.”
The stock surged about 56% at the open, to $78, and trading was briefly halted for volatility. Trump Media shares have since stabilized at around $70, marking a 40% increase from Monday’s close.
Wall Street is assigning Trump Media an eye-popping valuation of around $13 billion — a price tag that experts warn is untethered to reality.
The skyrocketing share price comes despite the fact that Trump Media is burning through cash; piling up losses; and its main product, Truth Social, is losing users.
“This is a very unusual situation. The stock is pretty much divorced from fundamentals,” said Jay Ritter, a finance professor at the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business, who has been studying initial public offerings (IPOs) for over 40 years.
Trump hit with huge fine he can’t pay -> Rumors of Trump trying to raise money from foreign governments -> Lawyers push back, say ‘you can’t just accept half a billion from foreigners to pay the fine, there are rules!’ -> Truth Social IPO raises a bunch of money that (foreign) investors are willing to ‘loose’ when the stock inevitably collapses -> Trump puts up the stock as collateral to pay the bond to pay the fine.
What? He can’t sell his stock for 6 months? No, he isn’t selling it, he is putting it up for collateral, totally legal, totally won’t be investigated by the SEC until he gets elected and fires the head of the SEC and the lawsuit goes away.
He can’t use the stock as collateral for 6 months either or the other shareholders can sue. This dude is not a financial genius. People smarter than him have tried to game the system. Some win but there are a ton of laws and ways to sue for it.
Being on the wrong side of a court proceeding (or several) doesn’t seem to be much of a disincentive to Trump doing whatever he wants.
Not to mention if the foreign investors are using this to curry favour with the potential next POTUS, the ‘investment’ isn’t in the $DJT stock, it’s in what trump will do for them if elected. They won’t sue unless he loses.
“I’ll settle the bill when I get back to the White House.”
Ah, smarter people have tried maybe, but did they have the same amount of zealotous clout?
Ah yes, thank GOD for the failsafe financial regulations in this country! There are LAWS!
Like, wow.
I for one am shocked. Shocked.
They can exit once he has enough out.
It may be better than risking the loss.
Depends on what you stand to win, innit.
“I’ll settle my debts when I get to the White House.”
Solid gamble for investors, honestly. Like, extremely good. If I was a subhuman parasitic dickworm or something, I’d put at least half my chips on red.
And seriously, look what we’re doing. While we are talking about how he is going to repay his debts for [insert crooked fucking shit and prostitutes pissing on Trumps face here], we are not talking about how the FUCK a guy with his record is even allowed to run for president.
Just moving the goalposts, one investor at a time. Everyone knows this hog will get slaughtered sooner or later, and they are sucking its tiny teats for as much daddy milk they can before it dries up.
Then it’s MTG’s turn to be led to the top of the Aztec pyramid and control the world for a few years before she goes soccer mom tits up.
…And people say he’s a dummy after nearly 30 years that would make gotti blush at the brazenness.
With the intellect of late stage Alfonse Capone.