President Trump’s Truth Social profile page. Photo: Anna Barclay/Getty Images
President Trump’s social media company on Wednesday filed papers with securities regulators that would allow Trump’s trust to sell almost 115 million shares of the company’s stock.
Why it matters: Truth Social may be hoping for a halo from Newsmax, the conservative media company that went public Monday and saw its stock rise from $10 to $233 in two days.
Driving the news: Trump Media & Technology Group, which operates Truth Social, filed a registration statement with the SEC allowing a variety of shareholders to sell stock from time to time.
- Included are 114,750,000 shares held by the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, the entirety of the trust’s holding. (Registering the shares for sale does not guarantee if or when they will be sold, however.)
- Donald Trump Jr. oversees the trust, per the filing.
- The company issued a statement saying the filing was routine and did not indicate an intention to sell.
- “To be clear, these shares were already registered last June on an S-1 form, and today TMTG submitted a routine filing that re-registers them on an S-3 form in order to keep the Company’s filings effective. In fact, there currently is no open window for any affiliate to sell shares.”
By the numbers: Shares in Truth Social fell 6.5% to $18.93 in early trading on the news. They’ve lost more than half their value since Trump took office in January.
- If the shareholders in the registration all sold their stock, it would more than double the public float, the company said, massively diluting existing holders.
- At Tuesday’s closing price of $20.26, Trump’s registered shares would have been worth $2.3 billion.
Flashback: Last September, Trump said he had no intention of selling his shares in the company, noting that he didn’t need the money.
Disclosure: In 2023, TMTG sued 20 media organizations, including Axios, for defamation. That suit in Florida is ongoing.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with TMTG’s statement.
