By Jennifer Odell
5:00pm PDT, Apr 9, 2024
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Truth Social "is AMAZING" and its parent company, Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), is "growing fast." That's according to Donald Trump, who sang the social media platform's praises in two lengthy posts on April 4, as DJT stock — the ticker Trump Media's been trading under since its March 26 Nasdaq debut — continued its erratic market performance.
The day Trump Media went public, shares hit an initial high of $78, stabilized around $70 and finished the day trading at $57.99 — just a hair below the price Trump was hawking his
USA-branded bibles for ahead of Easter. The stock's initial 56% surge settled down quickly and TMTG ended the day up 16%, with the company valued at a whopping $8 billion, per
CNN, with analysts noting the former president's supporters had likely driven the surge. Then came the tumble.
An SEC filing posted April 1 showed that in 2023, Trump Media reported just $4.1 million in revenue — and a net loss of $58.2 million. It doesn't help matters that Trump holds the majority stake in Trump Media and currently faces major financial challenges stemming from his ongoing legal drama and his presidential campaign. The company's also been mired in internal lawsuits and linked to an investigation related to the merger that allowed the company to go public.
All of this added up to a
rough second week on Wall Street for TMTG, with shares dropping to $46.2 as the market closed on April 4. It's also triggered a firestorm of commentary, with experts, late night hosts, politicians — and even Trump himself — weighing in.
Keep reading for the best reactions to Trump Media's soaring highs and plummeting lows…
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"Truth Social is basically a meme stock now. And its price has risen based on the same principle behind meme stocks like GameStop and AMC: If enough investors buy shares, they can drive the price up and everyone can somehow get out before the bubble bursts.
But the GameStop movement was at least nominally about wresting financial power away from s***** rich arseholes and restoring it to the little guy, whereas this movement is about funneling the little guy's money directly to the s******** rich a******* there is." –John Oliver, on the March 31 episode of "Last Week Tonight"
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"All of the competitors to TRUTH SOCIAL, especially those in the Radical Left Democrats Party who are failing at every level, like to use their vaunted 'disinformation machine' to try and convince people, and it is not easy to do, that TRUTH is not such a big deal and dd doesn't 'get the word out' as well as various others, which they know to be false. I THINK TRUTH IS AMAZING! First of all, it is very solid, having over $200,000,000 in CASH and ZERO DEBT. More importantly, it is the primary way I get the word out and, for better or worse, people want to hear what I have to say, perhaps, according to experts, more than anyone else in the World. My TV ratings are by far the highest, and my Rallies are not equaled, even close, anywhere or by anyone. Look, I had hundreds of millions of followers on various platforms, and could have them back again, but was cancelled for largely political reasons. Those platforms all want me back…They need me back! On Truth I have 7,000,000 followers……" –Donald Trump, on Truth Social
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"Last week Donald Trump's social media platform Truth Social went public with a value of $8 billion, which seems like a lot for a website whose business model is what Twitter was, just Nazis. And guess what? Turns out, it was. … Yeah, Trump, you lost a $1 billion yesterday, now you're only worth … $6 billion, ya broke … we got him, finally!
"Now, there's a bit of a disagreement over why the stock dropped so much. Analysts say it's because of huge losses and limited market upside, while Trump advisors argue it's because of woke gay trans DEI Hunter Biden's laptops. So who's to say?" –Desi Lydic, on the April 2 edition of "The Daily Show"
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"I mean, it's ridiculous. The company has no revenue. It's a scam, just like everything [Trump has] ever been involved in is some sort of con," IAC Chairman and Fox Broadcasting Company founder Barry Diller said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" on April 4.
He added that people buying the stock are "dopes" who are "buying it for other reasons, just like they bought theaters when there was no theater business or bought GameStop."
Responding to Diller's remarks, a rep for Trump Media told CNBC: "It is unsurprising to see die-hard Trump haters and leftwing flacks blow a gasket now that Truth Social has become a public company that, still today, refuses to suppress political expression that contradicts the narratives they want to enforce."
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"The downturn happened after Truth Social posted a lost $58 million in 2023. Coincidentally, Trump has just announced the release of the $58 million 'Kid Rock Badawitdaba Da-Bang Da-Bang Bible.' It's got the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Declaration of Independence and Kid Rock's family recipe for crystal meth.
"It's not getting better anytime soon. This morning the stock opened at $48 bucks, which is a 39% plunge from the stock's high of $79.38 on March 26. Truly, an historic failure. No one has seen a loss this big since the Trump Taj Mahal, the Trump Plaza Hotel, Trump Steaks, Trump Airlines, Trump University and Trump comma Eric." –Stephen Colbert on the "The Late Show"
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"The headlines today are all about Donald's plummeting stock prices, but that's just scratching the surface. The real story, the one that's buried beneath the sensational headlines, is far more intriguing: Truth Social could be a front for a campaign finance scam. Let me break it down for you:
Direct donations to political candidates are subject to FEC laws, which impose limits on the amount that can be donated and require transparency about the source of donations.
Now that Truth Social is a publicly traded company, however, supporters and even foreign entities have a new, surreptitious way to back Donald financially without having to make a direct political donation.
This is a cause for concern.
Still, today's developments offer some positive news: without a solid financial foundation, the company's ability to operate, let alone pose a threat, is significantly compromised.
One thing is certain: our eyes are open. And we're watching." –Mary Trump, on X
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"What a shock that the stock price of a company with no profits or success of any kind is falling. The way things are going, Trump is going to have to start selling a deluxe Bible with a dictionary attached." –Seth Meyers on "Late Night With Seth Meyers"
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"Truth Social stock tanked so fast, they're changing the name to Twitter … When he heard another one of his businesses was tanking, Trump was, like, '[imitating Trump] They blow up so fast.' … As a result of the stock tanking, Trump's net worth dropped $2 billion. Trump's so panicked, he's now selling copies of the Torah." —
Jimmy Fallon, on "The Tonight Show"
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"We are excited to be operating as a public company and to have secured access to capital markets. Closing out the 2023 financials related to the merger, Truth Social today has no debt and over $200 million in the bank, opening numerous possibilities for expanding and enhancing our platform. We intend to take full advantage of these opportunities to make Truth Social the quintessential free-speech platform for the American people." –Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes, in a statement on April 1
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"As I said to @nytimes … if Trump is re-elected he likely will help himself to profits by steering United States government communications to Truth Social, putting Truth Social's competitors at a disadvantage. And that's only the beginning." –Richard W. Painter, a former chief ethics lawyer to President George W. Bush, on X
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"When President Trump returns to the White House, he will continue to follow ethics guidelines," Donald Trump's rep Steven Cheung told CNBC in an email when asked about ethics concerns related to the DJT stock.
In the same CNBC report, Virginia Canter, the chief ethics counsel for the watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, cited "a number of concerns" on the matter.
"Obviously, I would be most concerned about foreign interests that make significant investments in his company with an expectation that they will be given some sort of favored treatment when the need arises — even if it would threaten U.S. national security interests and historical alliances," Canter said.
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Rep. Jamie Raskin, the Maryland Democrat who led an inquiry into Donald Trump's previous conflicts of interest while in office, also addressed the ethical issues that might arise if Trump becomes president while profiting from a publicly traded social media company.
"The emoluments clause right now has been reduced to nothingness," he told The New York Times, referring to the anti-corruption clause in the Constitution intended to prevent such conflicts of interest. "In order to breathe life back into it, Congress must develop a legislative machinery to enforce the principle."
