By Jack Phillips
Trump Media & Technology Group, which owns Truth Social, will begin trading on the Nasdaq stock market on March 26, the company said in a March 25 regulatory filing.
Shareholders of Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC), a publicly traded shell company, approved a deal to merge with President Donald Trump’s media business in a vote this past week.
The common stock of Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which is led by former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), will trade under the ticker symbol “DJT,” the former president’s initials, according to a statement.
The new ticker symbol is the same one that was used by the former president’s resorts and casino firm, which used to trade on the New York Stock Exchange in the mid-1990s and early 2000s.
DWAC shares rose by 23 percent on March 25 in the afternoon following the Nasdaq announcement. So far in 2024, shares of DWAC have increased by more than 130 percent, and revenue was $3.4 million for the first three quarters of last year, according to a DWAC regulatory filing.
“As a public company, we will passionately pursue our vision to build a movement to reclaim the Internet from Big Tech censors,” Mr. Nunes said in the statement. “We will continue to fulfill our commitment to Americans to serve as a safe harbor for free expression and to stand up to the ever-growing army of speech suppressors.”
President Trump is set to own most of the combined company—or nearly 79 million shares. Multiply that by DWAC’s closing stock price on March 22 of $36.94, and the total value of his stake could be nearly $3 billion.
“Today marks a pivotal moment not only for DWAC and TMTG as a combined entity, but for the broader media and technology landscape,” Eric Swider, director of TMTG, said in a statement, noting that it’s an “extraordinary opportunity to shape the future of media and technology.”
On March 22, shareholders of DWAC voted to approve a merger with TMTG—of which President Trump is chairman— according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
DWAC is what’s called a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), also known as a “blank-check company.” SPACs raise cash and then hunt for companies to merge with. Such deals give the target companies a potentially quicker and easier way to get their stocks onto the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq.
The arrangement lets them avoid some of the paperwork associated with traditional initial public offerings of stock. For investors, SPACs offer a way to get into hyped, potentially faster-growing companies such as TMTG, DraftKings betting service, or SoFi banking.
It comes as the former president faces a massive $455 million civil judgment after a New York judge ruled this month that he and his real-estate company defrauded banks and insurance companies for at least a decade.
President Trump has denied the allegations, saying the judge is engaging in a partisan witch hunt designed to harm his 2024 presidential chances.
Bond Amount Cut
On March 25, a New York court cut the bond amount that the former president needs to post in order to appeal the fraud verdict to $175 million. The court also set a new deadline, giving him more than a week to pay.
The office of the New York attorney general, who brought the fraud case, responded to the ruling by saying that the former president is “still facing accountability for his staggering fraud.”
“The court has already found that he engaged in years of fraud to falsely inflate his net worth and unjustly enrich himself, his family, and his organization,” the office said in a statement. “The $464 million judgment—plus interest—against Donald Trump and the other defendants still stands.”
President Trump’s two eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and two company executives from The Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg and Jeff McConney, also face penalties in the judgment. This past week, New York Attorney General Letitia James’s office filed the judgments in Westchester County, New York, suggesting that she might take action to seize the former president’s assets in the county.
There has been speculation that the former president could use some of the Truth Social acquisition cash to help pay off his legal expenses, which include attorney fees amid four criminal cases. The former president also has to pay a judgment in a defamation case that was brought against him by writer E. Jean Carroll.
But under the agreement, he cannot sell his shares in the company easily for at least six months. Major TMTG shareholders will be under what’s called a “lock-up” provision, a common restriction on Wall Street that keeps big, early investors from immediately dumping their shares. Such sales could tank the stock’s price.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
