The stock hit a new low this week as Harris gains in the polls, Trump makes an ostentatious return to X/Twitter, and the date on which Trump can sell his shares looms.
RAHEL SOLOMON: Well, former President Donald Trump could be in for a huge financial windfall in coming days if he can manage to cash in on his multi-billion dollar social media fortune. But it may not be so easy to get a hold of that money. The restrictions that prevent him from selling or borrowing against his stakes in Truth Social owner Trump Media are set to expire. But they aren’t the only thing that could keep him from selling shares. Let’s bring in CNN’s Matt Egan, who joins us now to walk us through some of the obstacles here, Matt.
MATT EGAN: Yeah. Well, there are a lot of obstacles. Look, I’ve been covering this Trump Media story for years, and it has been so fascinating on so many different levels. One of the big ironies here is that Trump has been sitting on this Truth Social, multibillion dollar fortune that could help him meet some of his cash requirements, but he hasn’t been able to touch it.
Right. Because like deals, other deals like this, there are these lockup restrictions, right, that prevent insiders from selling right away. Now those restrictions are set to lift in the next few weeks.
If the stock price stays above $12 it’ll lift as soon as September 20th. If not, it’ll still left by September 25th. And at that point, Trump can really do whatever he wants in theory, right?
He could sell this to pay legal bills. He could fund his presidential campaign. He could, I don’t know, buy a sports team, whatever he wants.
Of course, practically, as you know, Rahel. It’s always hard for major, major shareholders to quickly dump their stock. And it’s even harder in this case, right? I mean, how would that look?
Trump is not just the dominant shareholder. He is the most popular user on the only product Truth Social.
RAHEL SOLOMON: He’s essentially the face!
MATT EGAN: He is the face. I mean, the ticker symbol is DJT. Right. That’s why NYU professor Michael Robey told me that it would be all but impossible for Trump to liquidate his whole stake, or even just a third of it, without completely tanking the stock price. It would create a crisis of confidence. And look, the stock price is already tanking. It fell another 4% yesterday, briefly dropping below $20 a share for the first time since this deal closed in the spring.
And it’s now down 70% from late March! That’s the selloff that has accelerated as Vice President Harris has gained in the polls as this lock up restriction lifting looms, and also has these concerns about whether or not this company is dramatically overvalued continue.
And now his stake in the company, it was worth $6 billion in May. It’s now down to $2.3 billion. Still a lot of money, but a lot less than it was.
One last point here is, even though it’s going to be hard for Trump to sell a major part of his stake here, there is another way he could tap this fortune. He could borrow against the value of those shares.
If, of course, he can find someone a bank or a wealthy individual or some other entity to lend to him.
RAHEL SOLOMON: Yeah, that’s a big if!
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