Trump's $2B decision: Former president vows to hold onto social media venture stock

Donald Trump is days away from what could be a massive windfall of some $2 billion.

He swears he's not taking it.

The GOP presidential nominee on Friday said he will not cash out of his majority stake in Trump Media & Technology Group — the beleaguered social media venture behind his favorite online bullhorn, Truth Social. Trump’s comments came less than a week before he will finally get the chance to start selling his nearly 115 million shares in the company for the first time.

“I don’t need money,” Trump said during a press conference in California, in response to a question. “I have absolutely no intention of selling.”

He added: “We built this platform, and the reason I built it was I don’t want to have my voice shut down.”

The $2 billion question of whether Trump will sell has hung over Trump Media for weeks, dragging down the stock price as investors have fretted about the possibility of the former president dumping his shares. Trump, along with several other major investors, has been barred from selling under a so-called lock-up agreement since Trump Media debuted on Wall Street earlier this year. The prohibition is now likely to end on Sept. 19.

Cashing out would net Trump a huge payday that could prove critical for his continuing legal troubles, his own wealth and, of course, his campaign for the White House. Several former Federal Election Commission officials told POLITICO that he would be perfectly able to donate any proceeds from selling his shares to the campaign, as long as he followed the proper disclosure requirements.

Yet the lock-up’s looming expiration also posed a risky gambit for him: Selling even a fraction of his shares could send the price tumbling further, leaving the MAGA faithful who have bought into the stock and the company itself out in the cold.

Trump Media shares surged following his comments Friday, rising nearly 30 percent at one point. The stock closed trading up by about 12 percent.

Launched nearly three years ago, Trump Media was supposed to mark a new chapter for the Trump empire. The share price jumped shortly after it hit the market, and at one point his stake was valued at $6 billion.

The company was dreamed up as a conglomerate that would compete with Silicon Valley giants in the social media, streaming and podcast industries. But Trump Media is far from a finished product today.

The company has continually reported losing money and only recently branched outside of traditional social media with the launch of a streaming service. Usage of Truth Social is growing but remains a fraction of what other social media platforms boast.

Data from Similarweb, an analytics tracking company, show Truth Social had about 790,500 monthly active users on its iOS and Android apps in August.

X, the site formerly known as Twitter, had 73.5 million.

Trump himself is no longer exclusively posting on Truth Social. The former president recently returned to X, which had kicked him off following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. But Trump does reserve most of his posts for Truth Social, despite a relatively small following compared to his X account, where he has more than 90 million followers. He has 7.7 million on Truth Social.

Widely viewed as a proxy for betting on the former president, Trump Media shares have often moved in conjunction with headlines on Trump and his quest to win back the presidency. After the attempted assassination on him in July, the share price spiked more than 30 percent. But the stock has dramatically fallen in recent weeks as the end of the lock-up period loomed and Vice President Kamala Harris entered the race and rose in the polls.

The company may still not be in the clear, either. While Trump has said he is not planning to sell, other major investors who wield significant stakes themselves could still cash out when the lock-up ends next week. Trump and the others could also use their shares as collateral for loans, when the lock-up ends.

What's more, how long Trump is planning to hold his shares is still unclear following his comments Friday.

“If he says he’s not selling, it just depends on how much you believe him,” Accelerate Financial Technologies CEO Julian Klymochko said. “What sort of duration does that comment cover? Is it a month? A year? Forever?”

A Trump Media spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.