Donald Trump has been booted from Bloomberg’s daily list of the 500 top billionaires after the stock price of his Truth Social platform plummeted.
On Tuesday, the former president was nowhere to be seen on the list of the world’s richest people, going from Bernard Arnault, the CEO of LVMH, the world’s largest luxury goods company, at $223bn, to John Sall, a businessman and computer software developer, in spot 500.
Trump Media, the parent company of Truth Social, began trading at $78 and finished its first day at $57.99, allowing Mr Trump to join the list of the world’s 500 richest people. But by Wednesday morning, the stock was trading at just above $36 – a likely cause of Mr Trump’s removal from the list of the top billionaires.
Shares in the company went down by 12 per cent on Friday and eight per cent on Monday, USA Today noted.
Compared to its peak late last month, the stock, going under the ticker “DJT”, has now dropped more than 50 per cent. On Tuesday, the stock went below $35.50 for the first time after the merger between Trump Media and the public shell company Digital World Acquisition Corp. It began trading under DJT on 26 March.
After hitting the market, the stock was valued at $8bn, but it has since lost billions in value.
Mr Trump owns 78.75 million shares, or about 60 per cent, of Trump Media. His stake was worth around $6bn shortly after the firm went public, prompting his appearance on the billionaires’ index. On Tuesday, his stake was worth around $3bn. Mr Trump needs the approval of the board of Trump Media if he wants to get rid of any of his shares before September.
On Tuesday afternoon, Forbes had Mr Trump as the 653rd richest person in the world with a net worth of $4.8bn.
Wall Street initially valued Trump Media at about $14bn, but experts have said that number is deeply flawed.
“This is a very unusual situation,” Jay Ritter, a finance professor at the University of Florida, told CNN last month. “The stock is pretty much divorced from fundamentals.”
Mr Ritter added that the closest comparison would be so-called meme stocks such as GameStop and AMC, which rose during the pandemic amid a push from retail traders. He said Trump Media is likely worth about $2 a share.
“The underlying business doesn’t seem to be worth much. There is no evidence this is going to become a large, highly profitable company,” Mr Ritter told CNN at the time.
“I’m reasonably confident the stock price will eventually drop to $2 a share and could even go below that if the company blows through the money it got from the merger,” he added.
However, executives at the company still stand to have a good payday, SEC filings revealed.
Trump Media shares have been slipping in recent days. So has Donald Trump’s net worth.
Trump is no longer listed on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the world’s 500 richest people, after the stock price for Trump Media – the parent company behind the former president’s social media company Truth Social – took a nosedive.
Shares dipped 12% on Friday and 8% Monday. After sliding as much as 4.8% on Tuesday, the stock rallied to close at $37.47, up 0.8% for the day but down more than 50% from its peak in late March.
Tuesday was the first time the stock fell below $35.50 since Trump Media merged with the public shell company Digital World Acquisition Corp. and started trading under the ticker DJT on March 26.
The price dip over the last two weeks has wiped out billions of dollars from the company’s market value, after being valued at nearly $8 billion after its stock market debut.
How much is Donald Trump worth?
Trump Media’s stock has been volatile since its launch, which means the former president’s net worth has also seen some major swings in recent weeks.
Trump – who owns roughly 60% of Trump Media with 78.75 million shares – saw his stake worth as much as $6 billion after the company went public, earning him a spot on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
DJT stock hits turbulence: More volatility ahead for Trump’s high-flying Truth Social
As of Tuesday, the value of his stake was closer to $3 billion – at least on paper. Trump cannot offload his shares until September without approval from the Trump Media board.
Forbes listed Trump’s net worth at $4.8 billion on Tuesday afternoon, making him the 653rd richest person in the world. The lowest net worth included in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index ‒ which measures personal wealth based on changes in the market, the economy and Bloomberg reporting ‒ as of Tuesday was $5.81 billion.
How much is Trump Media worth?
While the company’s value has dipped in recent days, $5 billion is still a high price tag for a company that lost more than $58 million with a revenue of $4 million in 2023.
Experts have said the company is overvalued compared with other social media platforms, thanks in part to investments by Trump supporters. Shortly before the company went public, an auditing firm warned that Trump Media’s operating losses “raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.”
Trump defended the company on Truth Social last week, writing that he believes the company is “very solid” and “growing fast.”
“If it didn’t work, or properly get the word out, I wouldn’t use it – But it does work, and work really well – And the fun is just getting started!!!” one post reads in part.
