Trump defends Truth Social as media company’s skeptics grow, stock price whipsaws

Donald
Trump
on
Thursday
defended
his
social
media
platform
Truth
Social
as
a
growing
chorus
of
critics
—
and

short
sellers
—
view
its
parent
company
as
a

meme
stock
with
a
vastly
overinflated
share
price.

Trump,
in
two

lengthy

posts
on
Truth
Social,
accused
the
platform’s
detractors
of
being “Radical
Left
Democrats”
who
are
trying
to
convince
others “that
TRUTH
is
not
such
a
big
deal
and
doesn’t ‘get
the
word
out’
as
well
as
various
others,
which
they
know
to
be
false.”

“I
THINK
TRUTH
IS
AMAZING!”
Trump
wrote,
echoing
a
statement
earlier
this
week
from

Devin
Nunes,
CEO
of
the
app’s
parent
company,


Trump
Media
&
Technology
Group,
that
it
has “no
debt
and
over
$200
million
in
the
bank.”

“More
importantly,
it
is
the
primary
way
I
get
the
word
out
and,
for
better
or
worse,
people
want
to
hear
what
I
have
to
say,”
Trump
wrote.

In
addition
to
being
a
megaphone
for
the
presumptive
Republican
presidential
nominee,
the
platform
is
Trump’s
path
to
a
potentially
massive
financial
windfall.

Trump
owns
78.8
million
shares
of
the
company,
a
57.3%
stake
worth
more
than
$3.6
billion
at
the
firm’s
share
price
of
$46
on
Thursday
morning.
Trump
has
to
wait
until
a
six-month
lockup
period
expires
before
he
can
sell
any
shares.

But
it’s
far
from
clear
how
the
volatile
stock
will
fare
during
that
interval,
and
Trump
Media’s
long-term
business
plan
has
spurred
scores
of

skeptics.

Trump
Media
has
become
by
far
the

most
expensive
stock
in
the
U.S.
to
sell
short,
according
to
data
firm
S3
Partners.
The
annual
financing
costs
required
to
borrow
DJT
shares
to
short
were
between
750%
and
900%
of
the
stock
price
as
of
Wednesday,
S3
reported.

The
company,
trading
under
the
stock
ticker
DJT
after
completing
a
lengthy
public
merger,
shot
up
by
as
much
as
50%
in
its
Nasdaq
debut
last
week.
But
the
stock

plunged
by
21%
on
Monday,
after
the
company
reported
a
$58.2
million
net
loss
on
revenue
of
just
$4.1
million
in
2023.

DJT
was
down
more
than
5%
as
of
10:30
a.m.
ET
on
Thursday.
Still,
the
company
boasted
a
market
cap
of
about
$6.2
billion.

The
company’s
cachet
is
inextricably
tethered
to
the
status
and
continued
relevance
of
Trump,
its
founder
and
public
face.
Trump
on
Thursday
morning
even
seemed
to
identify
himself
as
Truth
Social’s
main
draw.

But
the
former
president
faces
several
political,
legal
and
financial
challenges,
all
of
which
could
diminish
his
standing
as
a
public
figure,
and
in
turn,
erode
the
value
of
Trump
Media.

Meanwhile,
the
company
said
in
a
recent
regulatory
filing
that
it
is
not
divulging
key
performance
indicators
—
such
as
signups,
average
revenue
per
user,
ad
impressions
or
active
user
accounts
—
because
those
metrics
could
distract
the
company
and “might
not
align”
with
its
long-term
goals.

Trump
Media
said
it
might
eventually
change
its
mind
and
report
that
data,
but
it
also “may
never
collect,
monitor,
or
report
any
or
certain
key
operating
metrics.”

Trump’s
own
posts
acknowledged
that
his
following
on
Truth
Social
is
vastly
diminished
from
those
he
once
enjoyed
on
much
larger
rival
platforms,
such
as
X,
where
he
had
more
than
87
million
followers.

That
company
and
others
banned
Trump
in
the
wake
of
the
Jan.
6,
2021,
Capitol
riot
by
a
violent
mob
of
his
supporters,
which
followed
months
of
Trump
using
social
media
to
spread
false
claims
of
election
fraud.
X

reinstated
Trump’s
account
after


Tesla
CEO

Elon
Musk
bought
the
company,
but
Trump
has
not
resumed
regular
tweeting.

Trump
said
his
roughly
7
million
followers
on
Truth
Social
is “very
good
for
a
startup,
and
growing
fast.”

Truth
Social
saw
roughly
5
million
visits
in
February,
according
to
an
estimate
by
research
firm
Similarweb
reported
by
the
Associated
Press.
Facebook,
in
comparison,

reported
more
than
3
billion
monthly
active
users
as
of
the
end
of
2023.

If
the
platform
didn’t
work,
he
added, “I
wouldn’t
use
it
–
But
it
does
work,
and
work
really
well
–
And
the
fun
is
just
getting
started!!!”