Trump earns $1.6 billion in additional Trump Media shares

Former U.S. President Donald Trump has recently acquired an additional $1.6 billion in shares of Trump Media, as revealed in a recent regulatory filing.

This new allotment, triggered by the company’s stock reaching certain price targets, added 36 million shares to Trump’s holdings, raising his total to over 114 million shares. As of the last reported stock closing price on Wednesday, these shares are valued at approximately $5.2 billion.

It’s important to note that this valuation represents potential, or “paper wealth,” as Trump is barred from selling any shares for six months post-public offering unless he obtains a special waiver from the board of Trump Media.

Trump now controls nearly two-thirds of the company’s shares, following a surge in the stock price in recent weeks which closed at $49.93 on Tuesday. The stock had to maintain a price over $17.50 for 20 consecutive trading days for Trump to qualify for the additional shares.

However, the company’s stock experienced a significant drop of 9.6% on Wednesday, closing at $45.13.

Trump Media entered the Nasdaq through a merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), which typically provides a faster, more streamlined path for companies to go public.

The merger concluded on March 26, and on the first day of trading post-merger, the stock price soared to nearly $80 during the day, eventually settling at $57.99.

Following this initial success, Trump Media reported a substantial loss of nearly $58.2 million for the year, a sharp contrast to the previous year’s profit of $50.5 million, as stated in another filing. This disclosure caused a steep 21% fall in the stock price. The stock later dropped to around $22 before recovering in mid-April.

Trump Media, which owns the social media platform Truth Social, was launched in February 2022 after Trump was banned from major platforms like Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) following the January 6 insurrection. Despite being reinstated on these platforms, Trump has primarily used Truth Social for his communications.