Former President Donald Trump appears set to rake in a massive fortune thanks to the stock of his fledgling social media company Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG).
Barring a last-minute share price implosion before markets close Tuesday, Trump is on track to receive an additional 36 million shares in TMTG, the parent company of his Truth Social platform. At current prices, that stake would be valued at a staggering $1.3 billion.
The looming windfall stems from performance provisions in the deal that took Trump Media public last month via a merger with a SPAC company. If TMTG’s share price averages above certain thresholds over a defined period, more shares are issued to pre-merger stockholders like Trump.
Additionally, with the stock maintaining lofty trading levels since March 25th, despite nearly halving from its peak, experts believe the bar will easily be cleared for Trump to pocket his maximum 36 million bonus shares. That would bring his total holding to around 114 million shares, or 65% of TMTG.
“It seems almost certain to me that the earnout conditions will be satisfied at this point,” said NYU law professor Michael Ohlrogge. “Given how high the share price has been.”
However, the former president faces restrictions on actually selling this new stake anytime soon due to contractual lockup periods. Attempting to unload a position that large could also risk crashing TMTG’s already-frothy stock price.
At over 1,200 times trailing revenue, the meme stock-esque company is trading at valuations that analysts describe as highly speculative and divorced from fundamentals. TMTG itself recently advised shareholders how to prevent short sellers from betting against its shares.
While Trump stands to gain over $1 billion worth of TMTG stock this week, actually monetizing that holding could prove an epic challenge given the company’s minuscule operating business and extreme market volatility so far. For now, the purported windfall amounts to an eye-popping number unlikely to translate into realizable wealth anytime soon.
