Trump-friendly Truth Social board to decide when he can cash in
Donald Trump needs cash, and starting today he will see a huge pile of shares he owns trading on the stock market. The question is, how soon can he tap his nearly $4 billion stake in social-media platform Truth Social? That is up to the board of Truth Social’s parent company. The group includes his son, three former members of his administration and the former congressman who took a leading role in defending the former president in his first impeachment trial.
Truth Social’s parent company is set to begin trading Tuesday under the ticker DJT, Trump’s initials. Its market value will be roughly $6.8 billion, making Trump’s approximately 60% stake worth nearly $4 billion. The timing couldn’t be better for Trump.
On Monday, a judge ruled that Trump can pay $175 million to put his $454 million civil fraud judgment on hold during his appeal. Trump hadn’t been able to get a bond to cover the whole judgment. The $175 million is a fraction of Trump’s newfound wealth, but his shares are just out of reach.
Typically people involved in the type of deals that brought Truth Social to the stock market aren’t allowed to sell or borrow against their shares for six months. The seven-member board would need to grant Trump a waiver if he wished to make such moves before then. That isn’t unheard of, but boards typically wait a month or more before letting a big owner sell.
They risk setting off a flood of selling that could cause big losses for independent investors. “Nobody really knows how it’s going to go, but it will definitely be fascinating to watch," said Kristi Marvin, founder of SPACInsider, a data and research provider that looks at special-purpose acquisition companies like the one taking Trump’s firm public. If the board grants
. Read more on livemint.com
