Trump Media merger approved, gives former president as much as $3B in fresh cash
Donald Trump’s Twitter clone Truth Social is slated to make its stock market debut as early as next week — giving the cash-strapped ex-president a potential windfall of more than $3 billion as the 2024 election season heats up.
Shareholders of blank-check acquisition company Digital World Acquisition Corp. on Friday approved a merger with the social media app’s parent company, Trump Media & Technology Group. Trump’s 58% personal stake in the publicly traded entity will be worth as much as $3.3 billion.
The deal comes as the presumptive Republican 2024 presidential nominee faces a Monday deadline to cover a $454 million penalty in a civil fraud case in New York.
Should the 77-year-old businessman-turned-politician not be able to cough up the multimillion-dollar penalty, New York Attorney General Letitia James will be free to start going after Trump’s prized properties.
Trump still faces stiff hurdles, as he wouldn’t be allowed to sell any of his shares in the new company for at least six months.
Trump is also barred from using his stake in DJT as collateral for a loan to pay off the penalty, though he could ask the board of the merged company to waive that rule, according to reports.
Although the board members are Trump supporters, granting the waiver could prompt other investors to sell their shares and dent the stock price, according to the Wall Street Journal.
There are also possible limits on how much stock Trump can sell over a three-month period tied to the weekly trading volume or number of shares outstanding, the paper reported Friday.
The merger is coming as Trump sorely trails President Biden in campaign fundraising as the rivals ramp up a second contest for the White House. The deal also comes as Truth Social needs cash to attract more users and advertisers.
DWAC shareholders’ vote Friday makes them shareholders of Trump Media after pumping more than $300 million into the firm, which will trade under the stock symbol DJT, a nod to the ex-president’s monogram.
Upon Trump Media’s initial public offering, DWAC will cease to exist, as happens with blank-check mergers.
The new company is anticipated to make its Nasdaq debut with a market value of more than $5 billion, based on DWAC’s stock price of $44 per share just before the results of the vote were announced.
Trump Media’s board of directors will include Donald Trump Jr. and several former members of the Trump White House, while former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) will serve as CEO, according to Axios.
Representatives for Trump Media did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Trump, who goes by @realDonaldTrump on Truth Social, has upwards of 6.7 million followers on the app, which he created after being suspended in 2021 from Twitter — where he boasted more than 88 million followers — in the wake of the Capitol riot.
Elon Musk — who has since purchased Twitter and renamed it X — said in November 2022 that Trump was reinstated on the platform after polling users about whether the controversial politician should be allowed back after renewing his bid for the White House.
In the end, more than 15 million people voted, with those choosing to reinstate Trump taking 51.8% of the vote.
