During a discussion this Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” financial analyst and journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin pointed to serious questions around former President Donald Trump’s media company that recently debuted in public trading on the stock market. A predecessor to the company’s current set-up was already publicly traded, but the Trump-branded operation then merged with that “blank check firm,” and there was another debut.
The stock price has slumped dramatically since initial surges around the newly merged Trump company first showing up in trading, but there is still uncertainty. Trump, absent either additional months or special action by company leaders, remains restricted from financially benefiting from the majority in the company’s shares that he holds, effectively making the ex-president just an audience member — for now — to this volatility ensnaring his financial holdings as well.
“And, does it start to go up again?” Sorkin remarked on the air, discussing the Trump media company’s future. “Meaning, does the value of it go up again — because if that were to be the case, it would probably indicate that there are more people out there that are effectively doing this not as an investment but as a way to funnel money, campaign finances, to him. We’ve never seen anything like it. […] And of course, it raises all sorts of questions, including national security questions about who, in fact, is investing in this stock and again, how that money effectively could — potentially — in the future get to him, if it does at all.”
For now, the Trump media company lost (as of a recent point) all its gains in stock price following the debut, gains compared evidently to the price level at which the predecessor company, Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC), was trading. Trump supporters already started investing in that company as the merger plans linking it with the then-private, Trump-branded firm became clear, and investments in Trump’s business remain seemingly popular among his political supporters.
