Truth Social Takes $6B Hit As Shares Plummet Amid Donald Trump Hush Money Trial
April 15 2024, Published 4:20 p.m. ET
One of Donald Trump's companies took another nosedive in the stock market as the former president's historic hush money trial begins, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Trump Media & Technology Group took a nearly 18% hit by Monday afternoon, with shares priced at just under $27. The dip came amid the stock's decline since it went public last month and peaked at $70.90 per share.
The company, which operates the former president's alternative social media platform Truth Social, fell nearly 20% last week alone.
Trump's hush money trial began in New York on Monday.
The 77-year-old regularly uses Truth Social as his sounding board. He often posts several times a day about his campaign events, his various trials and the upcoming election.
He took to the platform ahead of his criminal trial in Manhattan on Monday morning to vent about the "crooked judge" and the gag order aimed at squelching his social media attacks on witnesses.
Prosecutors have asked the judge to hold Trump in contempt for his posts, which have included attempts to discredit witnesses like Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen.
Daniels, an adult film star, has claimed that Cohen, Trump's former lawyer, paid her $130,000 in exchange for her silence about an encounter she had with the former president in 2006.
The market value of Trump Media has seen roughly a $6 billion drop as a result of Monday's downturn, leaving it at about $3.7 billion. Trump's stake in the company — nearly 60% of its shares — dipped to just over $2.2 billion.
Court documents obtained by CNBC also revealed that Trump Media moved to issue millions of additional shares just before the stock plummeted.
Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to pay alleged hush money to Stormy Daniels.
A preliminary filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) outlined a plan to offer more than 21.4 million shares, which can be obtained through warrants that allow holders to buy at a set price within a specific timeframe.
The filing said Trump Media may receive “up to an aggregate of approximately $247.1 million from the exercise of the Warrants."
The new shares can only be issued once a registration statement goes into effect, however. Trump is also not able to sell his 78.8 million shares until after a six-month waiting period related to Trump Media's merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp.
An SEC filing revealed Trump Media planned to offer millions of additional shares just ahead of its downturn.
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The stock surged when it first hit the Nasdaq in March. The decision to go public was seen as a potential financial lifeline for Trump as he pays various legal expenses, penalties and funds his campaign.
Earlier this month, CNBC contributor Herb Greenberg called it "the most overhyped meme stock since the meme stock mania," and said that "in any other world with any other sort of name or person associated with it, this would be a penny stock."
The stock first plummeted in late March after an SEC filing revealed the company lost $58 million alongside $4.1 million in revenue. As the news spread, the price of shares tumbled by more than 21% in a single day and Trump's net worth took a $1 billion hit.
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