Trump Media & Technology Group — the parent company for Truth Social — will begin trading on the stock market on Tuesday, after closing a merger deal with the shell company Digital World Acquisition Corp.
The company will trade under former President Donald Trump's initials: DJT.
As of Monday afternoon, Digital World stock prices had surged to $51 a share. While Trump's stake in the company is worth an estimated $4 billion, he will likely be unable to sell any shares in the coming months, due to "lock-up" provisions, a common Wall Street restriction preventing early investors from immediately unloading their shares.
The deal is still expected, however, to boost Trump's net worth at a moment when he is required to come up with at least $175 million within 10 days to meet the bond in his New York civil fraud case.
Trump founded Truth Social in 2022, a year after he was banned from major mainstream social media platforms in connection with the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot. Though Meta and X, formerly Twitter, subsequently reversed the bans, the former president still prefers using his own platform.
Former U.S. Rep. and current Trump media CEO Devin Nunes said that the merger and public option will "reclaim the Internet from Big Tech censors."
"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," said Nunes, according to CNN.
Even with the former president's backing, however, Truth Social has struggled to establish itself as a major player in social media. While it has more active users than other right-wing social platforms, like Gettr, it still trails industry giants like TikTok and Facebook, the Associated Press reported.
The company also reported a net loss of $49 million in the first nine months of its existence while its user base continues to shrink.
