On the morning of March 26, former President Donald Trump’s net worth surged by more than $5.5 billion after his social media platform, Truth Social, was acquired by Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC), a publicly traded company that trades on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
The deal, which resulted in Trump holding approximately 79 million of the 135 million shares in the company — giving him majority ownership — resulted in a new stock being created. The new stock is trading under the ticker name “DJT.”
Just hours after the stock began trading it was up a whopping 59 percent and continued to climb.
The deal comes just days before Trump is required to pay a $175 million bond in a civil fraud case. However, it is unlikely that the former president would be able or even need to access these new funds to post the bond.
Under the deal with DWAC, Trump is not allowed to sell his shares or use them as collateral for the next six months. In order to do so, he would need approval from the Trump Media board.
Success
You are now signed up for our newsletter
Success
Check your email to complete sign up
The former president was previously on the hook for upwards of $464 million, but a state appeals court ruled on Monday (March 25) that Trump would only have to come up with $175 million. The court also gave him an additional 10 days to post the bond.
While leaving a New York court house on Monday, Trump said, “I greatly respect the decision of the appellate division and I’ll post the $175 million in cash or bonds or security or whatever is necessary very quickly within the 10 days, and I thank the appellate division for acting quickly.”
READ MORE:
- Chinese-American Artists Targeted in Planned NYT Piece That Would Misrepresent Falun Gong, Shen Yun Performing Arts
- Shen Yun Artists Face Discrimination from Pro-CCP Official at US Customs Upon Return From European Tour
- How Netflix’s ‘3 Body Problem’ Irks the CCP By Mirroring China’s Political Dynamics
‘A practical impossibility’
Last week, before the appellate court’s ruling, Trump’s legal team said paying the nearly half a billion bond that was originally required was “a practical impossibility.” It would have meant that Trump would have had to liquidate a number of his assets at “fire sale prices.”
Trump’s legal team said they had approached 30 surety companies through separate brokers trying to negotiate the bond, however were unsuccessful.
Bond companies will not “accept hard assets such as real estate as collateral,” but “will only accept cash equivalents (such as marketable securities),” his lawyers said.
Trump recently told Fox News that he will be appealing his fraud case “all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.”
The original $464 million ruling against Trump was blasted as an “unprecedented assault on democracy” by independent journalist Michael Shellenberger.
Schellenberger told his over 885,000 followers on X, “The government must fine Trump $464 million because his crimes were so serious, say the media. But if they were crimes, they were victimless. As such, this effort to bankrupt the presidential front-runner is an unprecedented assault on democracy and psychopathological in nature.”
READ MORE:
- US Supreme Court Hands Trump a Major Victory, Rules States Can’t Remove Him From the Ballot
- Trump vs. Biden: How the 2024 Election Will Affect Energy, Tech Giants, and the Automotive Industry
- New House Bill Targets TikTok
Truth Social valued at $9.6 billion
With shares in Trump’s new stock soaring, trading of them was briefly halted on Tuesday (March 26) after the opening bell due to volatility.
“At $70.46, the company’s market capitalization was $9.55 billion on an undiluted basis,” Reuters reported on Tuesday.
Thomas Hayes, Chairman of Great Hill Capital told Reuters, “The valuation of the business is rich relative to its underlying fundamentals, but I would not get in front of it in the near term.”
“This valuation may be more of a proxy on the enthusiasm of supporters for Trump than a reasonable estimate of underlying business prospects,” he added.
