Donald Trump on Thursday defended his social media platform Truth Social as a growing number of critics and short sellers view the parent company as a meme stocks The stock price was severely overinflated.
Trump, split in two lengthy post On The Truth Society, critics of the platform are accused of being “radical left-wing Democrats” trying to convince others that “the truth isn’t a big deal and doesn’t ‘get out there’ like other people, and they know it is Fake.”
“I think the truth is amazing!” Trump wrote, echoing a statement earlier this week Devin NunesCEO of the app’s parent company, Trump Media Technology Groupit has “no debt and over $200 million in the bank.”
“More importantly, this is my primary way of speaking out, and people want to hear what I have to say, good or bad,” Trump wrote.
In addition to being a megaphone for the Republican presidential nominee, the platform is also a gateway to a potentially huge financial windfall for Trump.
Trump owns 78.8 million shares of the company, a 57.3% stake worth more than $3.6 billion based on the company’s stock price of $46 on Thursday morning. Trump must wait until a six-month lockup expires before he can sell any shares.
But it’s unclear how the volatile stock has performed during that period, when Trump Media’s long-term business plan has spurred dozens of companies skeptic.
According to data firm S3 Partners, Trump Media has become by far the most expensive stock to short sell in the United States. As of Wednesday, the annual financing cost required to borrow DJT shares for short selling ranged from 750% to 900% of the stock price, according to S3.
The company, which trades under the ticker DJT, surged 50% in its Nasdaq debut last week after completing a lengthy public merger. But the company’s stock price plummeted 21% on Monday after the company reported a net loss of $58.2 million in 2023 on revenue of just $4.1 million.
DJT was down more than 5% as of 10:30 a.m. ET Thursday. Despite this, the company still has a market capitalization of approximately $6.2 billion.
The company’s stature is inseparable from the stature and continued relevance of its founder and public face, Trump. On Thursday morning, Trump even seemed to see himself as the main attraction for the Truth Society.
But the former president faces multiple political, legal and financial challenges, all of which could undermine his standing as a public figure and, by extension, the value of Trump Media.
Meanwhile, the company said in a recent regulatory filing that it will not disclose key performance metrics such as sign-ups, average revenue per user, ad impressions or active user accounts because such metrics could distract the company. and “may be inconsistent with the company’s performance.” Long-term goals.
Trump Media said it may eventually change its mind and report the data, but it also “may never collect, monitor or report any or certain key operating metrics.”
Trump’s own post acknowledges that his follower count on Truth Social has dwindled significantly compared to what he once had on much larger rival platforms such as X, where he has more than 87 million followers .
The company and others banned Trump after his supporters violently rioted at Congress on January 6, 2021, months after Trump used social media to spread false claims of election fraud. X reinstated Trump’s account Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk bought the company, but Trump has yet to resume regular tweets.
Trump said his roughly 7 million followers on Truth Social are “very good for a startup and growing very quickly.”
According to the Associated Press, research firm Similarweb estimated that Truth Social had about 5 million visits in February.In contrast, Facebook report By the end of 2023, there will be more than 3 billion monthly active users.
If the platform didn’t work, he added, “I wouldn’t use it – but it does, and it works really well – and the fun has just begun!!!”
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