Trump Media stock dips just before lockup period expires
Shares of Trump Media plunged to a new low Thursday — the day that former President Donald Trump and other major investors were finally allowed to sell their shares in the parent company of social media platform Truth Social.
The company closed down nearly 6%, at $14.70, as the six-month lockup period preventing insiders from selling the stock expired after Trump Media merged with blank-check company Digital World Acquisition Corp to take it public.
Trump, the majority owner with a 57% stake now valued at around $1.7 billion, said last week that he has no intention of selling his position — a move that would effectively devalue the stock.
The Republican presidential nominee and other large investors, who collectively own more than 20 million shares, were free to sell the stock after the closing bell.
Trump Media debuted on the Nasdaq to great fanfare in March, with the share price soaring to more than $60.
But It has suffered volatile swings during his run for the White House as incumbent Joe Biden dropped out and Kamala Harris got the Democratic nomination.
The latest polls show Trump and the Vice President are virtually tied in the major swing states.
Trump launched Truth Social in February 2022 after he was banned from major sites such as Facebook and the platform formerly known as Twitter following the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol.
He’s since been reinstated to both — and endorsed by X owner Elon Musk — but he still mostly posts on his own platform.
While Truth Social sought to capitalize on the outrage over Trump’s bans, it has struggled gaining traction.
The platform had less than 1 million daily active users as of April, according to data from Similarweb.
With Post Wires