Friday, April 12, 2024

Truth Social shares hit grim milestone as price sinks again

Brad Reed
April 12, 2024 

Truth Social App (AFP)

Share prices for the Trump Media and Technology Group Corporation sank yet again on Friday, marking the fifth straight day this week that the value of former President Donald Trump's social media venture has continued to slide.

CNBC reports that shares in Trump Media dipped below $30 on Friday, a grim milestone for the company that signals it has lost more than half of its market cap since the company went public.

Although prices have moderately recovered since going below $30 on Friday, as of noon E.T. they were still trading at roughly 4 percent lower than on Thursday's closing price.

And in just the last week, shares in the Truth Social parent company have fallen by nearly 25 percent, erasing billions of dollars off what was once a market cap north of $7 billion.

CNBC notes that this ongoing crash has had a major impact on Trump's net worth given that he "is the biggest shareholder in the company, owning nearly 60 percent of its stock."

Despite all of that, Trump on Friday posted a message on his personal Truth Social account hyping the value of the network, which lost $58 million last year and generated a paltry $4 million in revenues.

"I am so proud of Truth Social, because I believe it represents the Make America Great Again Movement, and it shows the Spirit and Love of our Country," wrote the former president, who goes on trial Monday for allegedly falsifying business records to cover up hush-money payments to an adult film star.

"If people who believe in putting America First and want to Make America Great Again, support TRUTH, we will be your Voice like never before, and a Real Voice is what our Country needs, because we are in decline, and must bring America to Greatness. Think of this as a Movement, the Greatest Movement in the History of our Country. We are going to Save our Country, and Make America Great Again, GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE!"

'Poor Marge': MTG mocked after report suggests she lost $32K by investing in Trump Media

Sky Palma
April 12, 2024
RAW STORY

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 30: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) speaks during a hearing with the House Committee on Homeland Security on Capitol Hill on January 30, 2024 in Washington, DC. The committee met to mark up Articles of Impeachment against U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. 
(Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

The media company with ties to Donald Trump's Truth Social platform is seeing its value tank more each day. Now, years after she purchased shares in the company, Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is not willing to talk about the state of her stocks.

Greene wouldn't respond to questions from CNBC or NBC News about her holdings in Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC), which merged with Trump Media and saw its share price drop at least 45 percent to date, NBC News reported.

Greene, along with Indiana GOP Rep. Larry Bucshon, revealed they bought stock in the company in October 2021 — the same month it announced the merger with Trump Media.

Just days after the announcement, Greene bought shares of DWAC ranging from $15,000 to $50,000. As NBC News points out, if Greene is still an investor in the company, she would have lost up to $32,000. Bucshon could have lost up to $8,900.

A spokesman for Bucshon responded to inquiries and revealed that the lawmaker is still an investor in the company, but Greene has chosen to stay mum and public disclosures have not shown that she's sold any stock related to DWAC or Trump Media. Greene spokesman Nick Dyer told NBC News that Greene “holds no stocks at this time as reflected in her financial disclosure.”

When asked by NBC News on Wednesday what happened to her Trump Media stock, Greene replied, “This is a waste of time. I think you can read my reports and see what I own."

But according to Campaign Legal Center general counsel Kedric Payne, if the value of Greene's stock drops below $1,000, she's not required to disclose any information.

Experts say another possibility is that Greene recently sold her stock, giving her a period of up to 45 days where she doesn't have to disclose anything. As NBC News points out, lawmakers "aren’t prohibited from trading or holding individual stocks and other investments. But under the STOCK Act, members of Congress must report any trades within 45 days."

But the news elicited little sympathy online.

"Awwwwe—poor Marge," wrote an X user called Pink Freud. And ctwin wrote: "Hoping like @mtgreenee the stock has no low to which it can sink."


Trump shares post slamming stock market for not getting his 'Michelangelo'-level genius




Kathleen Culliton
April 12, 2024 


Former President Donald Trump Friday made a new addition to his list of institutions that are conspiring against him: the stock market.

Trump shared this viewpoint on Truth Social, the social media site whose parent company has seen its value plummet after news hit it lost $58 million in 2023, in the form of an editorial from a writer whose credentials include “Author of President Trump's favorite Substack.”

“The Trump brand should be worth tens of billions of dollars more than what it is currently being traded at on the Nasdaq, given its uniqueness as combining the best of politics and business,” writes Paul Ingrassia.

“In the same vein in which DaVinci’s paintings and Michelangelo’s sculptures would be valued in the billions if ever sold on the open market today, Donald Trump’s creative visions equate to exceptional valuations — because of the rarity of his skillset and gifts.”

Ingrassia's online profile shows he is a communications director for a nonprofit that positions itself as “the answer to the useless and radically leftist American Civil Liberties Union,” a New York Young Republican Club member, and a recent graduate of Cornell Law School.

The common thread of his substack does not appear to be financial analysis, but commentary on the multiple legal woes facing Trump

Titles published by Ingrassia include, “MAGA Beauty Isabella DeLuca’s Arrest Is Proof Positive That Biden’s Weaponized Justice System Has Become Outright Despotic Against Political Dissidents.”

Ingrassia opens his think-piece by deriding New York civil court Justice Arthur Engoron and Attorney General Letitia James — the judge and prosecutor in Trumps’ $464 million civil fraud case — both of whom he accuses of fraud.

“The fraud is found in the courtrooms – and it is a fraud on the American public, as well as the rule of law – not just in New York, where the dangerous precedent is being set by radical and illegitimate operatives like Letitia James and Judge Arthur Engoron,” he writes.

“The people who increasingly hold the levers of power, like James and Engoron – and by extension, Joe Biden and Merrick Garland.”

ALSO READ: A criminologist explains why keeping Trump from the White House is all that matters

It’s worth noting that both Engoron and James were elected by the people of New York and their state-level positions are not connected to the federal Justice department.

This may be why Ingrassia next takes aim at all “institutions” he blames for the ruling in the Trump Organization civil fraud case.

“No matter how otherwise communistic our institutions may become, fortune, nature, (and God) invariably favors bold, original thinkers – especially in our age that suffers a pandemic of unoriginality and laziness,” he writes.

“Obviously, with the public listing of President Trump’s media company, his net worth is higher than ever before, placing him on Bloomberg’s list of the world’s top 500 billionaires, for the first time.”

Since the publishing of the Hill report Ingrassia shared, Trump has been bumped from the list.

As final proof to his billion-dollar value theory, Ingrassia points to the quality of Trump products.

“President Trump’s eye for discernment is why he has been able to build some of the most stunning golf courses seen anywhere in the United States,” writes Ingrassia.

“The Trump Brand is one of if not the world’s most recognizable brands. Whether pertaining to real estate, or politics, or media and entertainment, the Trump namesake is ubiquitous the world over, and is demarcated for its luxury and quality of content.”

Other Trump-branded items have included Trump Vodka, Trump Steak, Trump Magazine and Trump Mortgage, all of which appear in a round-up of the former president’s failed business ventures.

Trump shared Ingrassia’s analysis the same day financial experts reported Trump Media’s stock had lost half their value since hitting the market in late March, and followed it up with a post about Truth Social.


“If people who believe in putting America First and want to Make America Great Again, support TRUTH, we will be your Voice like never before, and a Real Voice is what our Country needs,” Trump wrote. “Because we are in decline.”On Friday, Trump Media stock values dipped below $30, Yahoo Finance data show.

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