Dem
51
GOP
49
When Donald Trump's media company merged with a shell company and went public as DJT, the stock hit a high of $79.38. On Friday, it closed at $32.59. So if you bought $10,000 worth of DJT at the peak after the merger, your stock would now be worth $4080. The trajectory during the past month doesn't look encouraging (unless you're rooting for the stock to do poorly, in which case it looks fantastic):
But some people bought the shell company, DWAC, earlier. Tree-remover Jerry McLain of Oklahoma didn't want to miss out, so he bought DWAC at $90/share 2 years ago. He put his life savings into it, expecting that he would make a killing, thanks to his orange hero. McLain is not worried. He said: "I know good and well it's in Trump's hands, and he's got plans." Market analysts are not so optimistic. The company has lost $3.5 billion of its capitalized value since its debut a month ago, mostly because it reported a loss of $58 million in 2023 on revenues of $4 million, less than the average Chick-fil-A franchise, while paying out millions in executive salaries and bonuses.
The long-term prospects are terrible since it has only a tiny number of users and advertisers are avoiding it like the plague. For many Trump supporters, losing half of your life savings or more is a small price to pay to allow Trump to make an extra $2.5 billion—assuming he can sell his 58% share of the company without causing the bottom to drop out, which is unlikely. After all, he needs the money more than they do.
Many of the 400,000 retail investors in TMTG, the underlying company that trades as DJT, are still optimistic, despite market experts saying it is still grossly overvalued since the company doesn't even have a plan to ever make a profit. Todd Schlanger, who works at a furniture store in West Palm Beach, not far from Mar-a-Lago, says he has invested $20,000 in DJT stock so far and is buying new shares every week. He posts on Truth Social and encourages people to buy a share every day. He recently asked: "Do you think we have hit bottom?" (Hint: the answer was "no" because it dropped another 10% after his posting.) He thinks liberals are trying to knock it down. We suspect he doesn't know it is nearly impossible to short the stock because nearly all the publicly available stock is already shorted and the fees people are charging to borrow it in order to short it are gigantic. Truth Social users keep trying to pep each other up. @BaldylocksUSMC wrote: "The fight has been long and hard on most of us and that this stock is not for the weak, but that one day they would triumph over critics who were brainwashed beyond repair."
Billionaire media mogul Barry Diller called the stock a scam bought by dopes. User @Handbag73 replied that Diller "didn't get it." Diller is not the only one who doesn't get it. User @Bill7718 wrote: "Come on DJT, every time I buy more, the price drops more." User @manofpeace123, who bought the stock at $65, about double Friday's closing, said investing in DJT was a way of telling Trump: "I believe in you and I stand with you through good times and bad." User @realJaneBLONDE posted: "NOT panicked NOT worried," but two days later demanded that Congress make short selling illegal. When user @seneca1950 asked whether anyone was concerned about the company's plans to issue tens of millions of new shares (converting the redeemable warrants would sink the stock even more), the user was criticized as spreading FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt). User Rabistol wrote: "You must be short with no way out." Of course, the more DJT drops, the better the people holding a short position do.
For many DJT investors, it's not really about the money. Carol Swain, a conservative commentator in Tennessee, said she invested $1,000 in DJT at $48, over the objections of her financial adviser who (correctly) predicted it would dive. She said: "If I lose it, fine. If I make a profit, wonderful. But at the end of the day, I wanted to show my support." But she suspects there is stock manipulation. She is worried that the company leaders are so silent now, but she figures they are busy working on something new and amazing. Like getting the rubes to give them more of their retirement savings.
Here are typical comments on The Washington Post Website relating to the article linked to above:
Nearly all were like this, or worse. (V)