In this illustration, a smartphone screen displays the logo for Donald Trump's Truth Social app on March 25, 2024 in Bath, England.
Anna Barkley | Getty Images
The share price of Donald Trump's social media company jumped more than 50% minutes after it began public trading under the ticker DJT on Tuesday morning.
Trading in Trump Media & Technology Group was briefly halted amid the rally due to volatility before resuming around 9:40 a.m. ET. More than 6.5 million Trump Media shares had traded hands as of 9:50 a.m
The index debuted on the Nasdaq nearly three decades after the former president used it to launch his publicly traded hotel and casino company to great fanfare in 1995.
This stock was ignominiously delisted from the New York Stock Exchange nine years later.
Trump Media & Technology Group's public trading news is seen on television at the Nasdaq Marketplace on March 26, 2024 in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
Trump Media's merger with the shell company Digital World Acquisition Corp has been completed. on Monday, allowing it to be publicly traded, and it has added nearly $4 billion in paper profits to Donald Trump's net worth.
Trump Media's market value could reach $6 billion at the opening bell on Tuesday, even though the company reported revenues of less than $3.5 million — that's a million, not a billion — through the first three quarters of 2023.
On the final day of trading Monday under the ticker DWAC, the company's shares rose more than 35% after a New York appeals court reduced from $454 million to $175 million the amount of bonds Trump will have to post to temporarily halt collections on the business fraud. Judgment during appeal.
The company's closing price on Monday was just under $50 per share.
Trump's notoriety helped make Trump Media's deal with DWAC the highest-grossing SPAC — special purpose acquisition company — merger ever.
The company's shareholders may have dreams that its Truth Social app platform will increase its market share significantly enough to enable the company to turn a profit. Perhaps its growth could accelerate if Trump is elected president in November.
But for now, Trump Media, just like the previous company whose stock trades under the ticker symbol DJT, is a money-losing company.
Trump Media reported losses of $49 million for the first nine months of 2023, more than 14 times what it brought in in revenue.
When Trump Hotels & Resorts went public at $14 per share in 1995 under the ticker DJT, it also made headlines.
Atlantic City, NJ: Donald J. Trump inside the casino of his new venture, the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey on March 16, 1990.
Newsday | Getty Images
It has generated money for Trump personally for years.
Trump received more than $44 million in salary from the company over a decade despite the company repeatedly failing to turn a profit, according to a 2016 Washington Post article about the company.
After losing $1 billion, Trump Hotels filed for bankruptcy protection in November 2004, the same year DJT was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.
“I don't think it's a failure, it's a success,” Trump told NBC News in a 2004 interview, after the bankruptcy filing listed $1.8 billion in debt and the stock was trading at about 50 cents a share.
“In this case, it was just something that worked better than other alternatives,” he said of bankruptcy.
“It's actually just a technical thing, but it came together.”
This is developing news. Check back for updates.
