Donald Trump’s social media company lost a whopping $58 million in fiscal 2023 – a result likely to fuel skepticism about a wild public trading debut that led experts to dub it another “meme stock” like AMC and GameStop.
The Truth Social parent also generated just $4.1 million in revenue over the 12-month period, according to regulatory filings released Monday. That was an improvement on its $1.47 million in sales from 2022. The company’s sales stem from ads displayed on the social media app.
Trump Media & Technology Corp., which began trading under the ex-president’s initials “DJT” last week, plunged as much as 10% to roughly $55.79 per share after the opening bell on Monday — after surging nearly 60%, to almost $80 a share, at one point following the IPO’s launch last Tuesday.
Trump, the Republican nominee for president, owns a majority stake in the company but is facing a slew of indictments that could keep him off the ballot in November.
In its filings, the company admitted that its success “depends in part on the popularity of our brand and the reputation and popularity of President Trump.”
“The value of TMTG’s brand may diminish if the popularity of President Trump were to suffer,” one filing said. “Adverse reactions to publicity relating to President Trump, or the loss of his services, could adversely affect TMTG’s revenues, results of operations and its ability to maintain or generate a consumer base.”
Last week, experts told The Post that Trump’s company was “untethered from fundamentals” and trading much higher than its performance would suggest — raising the risk for retail investors who put their hard-earned money into the stock.
Despite its weak sales and small user base, Trump’s company is currently worth nearly $7.5 billion – a shocking figure that pushed the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee into the top 500 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Truth Social had an estimated base of just 494,000 monthly active users for its mobile app in February, according to data from analytics firm Similarweb. By comparison, Facebook had 142.4 million users, Elon Musk’s X had 75 million users and even little-known Threads had 7.2 million.
Trump Media’s initial success prompted speculation that the former president could seek to dump some of his holdings to pay for his mounting legal bills, such as a $175 million bond payment due this week in connection to his civil fraud case in New York.
For now, the filings showed that a six-month lock-up agreement preventing Trump and other shareholders from selling shares is still in effect. In order to bypass the agreement, the company’s board of directors would have to grant Trump a special waiver.
Axios was first to report on the filings.
Source
