Truth Social Stock Starts Trading

Facts

• Former Pres. Donald Trump's Social Media company Truth Social hit the stock market Tuesday under the ticker symbol DJT, with shares jumping as high as 59% and closing 16% higher than their initial price on its first day of trading.¹
• Despite the company suffering $10.6M in operating losses through the first nine months of last year, Tuesday's stock surge put shares at a high of $79.38 before closing at $57.99 — launching its market capitalization toward $8B.²
• Based on Trump's roughly 58% stake in the company (80M shares), his personal share value rose to almost $4B before the stock launch and even higher later Tuesday.³
• Truth Social, which claims to have 8.9M users, went public via a merger with a shell company specifically built to buy companies and take them public, known as a SPAC. DJT merged with a SPAC company called Digital World Acquisition Corp.⁴
• The merger seemed to help DJT gain value, especially compared to other social media companies that generate tens of millions of users and hundreds of millions in annual revenue.⁴
• This comes as Trump is due to pay a $175M New York civil fraud bond in 10 days. His current merger contract prohibits him from selling his stock for six months, but the company's board could vote to allow an earlier cash-out.⁵

Sources: ¹WSJ, ²Al Jazeera, ³FOX News, ⁴BBC News and ⁵Washington Post.

Narratives

• Anti-Trump narrative, as provided by Washington Post. Those who bought this meme stock — whether they're real investors or just Trump supporters — and ignored Trump's history of using his failed businesses as a tool to cash out at the expense of his supporters and pay off his legal bills are in for a surprise. DJT shares will plummet once this nefarious scheme is over.
• Pro-Trump narrative, as provided by New York Post. The former president has pulled off a brilliant last-minute victory in the face of the unrelenting ire of New York's corrupt legal system. While he still faces many other uphill legal battles — as well as a closing deadline to actually pay off his civil trial bond — this news is certainly a cause for celebration for Trump and his campaign.

Predictions