Donald Trump can start selling his nearly $2billion worth of shares in his media company. But will he?
Donald Trump is now free to start selling shares in Truth Social’s parent company, worth nearly $2 billion, but he seems poised to hold onto them.
The GOP nominee and other large shareholders in Trump Media & Tech Group were released at 4pm on Thursday from a lockup agreement that barred them from selling their stock for six months after it was offered. The agreement has been in place since March, when the company went public following a merger, so long as shares traded at $12 or above, Forbes reported.
Trump owns nearly 57 percent of all shares in the company, traded under the ticker DJT. His stake is worth roughly $1.7 billion.
Last week, the former president made clear that he has no plans to sell his holdings. Trump said at a Friday news conference near Los Angeles: “A lot of people think that I will sell my shares, you know, they’re worth billions of dollars, but I don’t want to sell my shares. I don’t need money.”
He also praised his social media platform Truth Social: “I love it. I use it as a method of getting out my word.”
DJT stock prices had dropped by nearly 6 percent on Thursday, just ahead of the end of the lockup agreement. Shares were trading at $14.69, just above the $12 threshold stipulated in the agreement.
Looking at a bigger picture, DJT share prices have served as a political marker. By the end of its first day trading, the company’s shares were valued at $57.99.
The prices have tumbled since Trump’s Democratic rival Kamala Harris entered the 2024 presidential race at the end of July. Harris announced her candidacy on July 21, when shares averaged around $35, meaning it has dropped 42 percent in roughly two months.
The shares also fell nearly 4 percent on Monday, CNBC reported, after authorities arrested Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, for allegedly aiming an SKS-style rifle through the bushes at Trump National Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, while the former president was golfing.
Following the debate, the company saw another dip in price.
At the time, CNBC reported that the company’s price dropped to its lowest point since it began trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange in March. But it reached a new low on Thursday, just ahead of when Trump could sell his shares.