Trump Media stock slumps 4% after Donald Trump moved all his DJT shares to a trust
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Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT-2.62%) slipped almost 4% in pre-market trading Friday, after regulatory filings showed President-elect Donald Trump moved the entirety of his stake in the company to a revocable trust.
Trump shifted all 114.75 million of his shares in Trump Media, the company behind his social media platform Truth Social, to the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, according to a recent securities filing.
Trump was not compensated for the move. Given a closing price of $35.41 per share Thursday, the transferred stock was valued at more than $4 billion.
Following the transaction, Trump does not directly own any shares of Trump Media, making his revocable trust the sole holder of more than 50% of the company’s stock. A member of the president-elect’s “immediate family” — identified in a separate filing as Donald Trump Jr. — is the trustee of the trust and has sole voting and investment power over all securities it owns.
A revocable trust is a legal instrument that allows someone to manage and distribute their assets after death, with the ability to change or revoke the trust at any time. According to the filing, the trust was established in 2014.
It’s not immediately clear why Trump transferred his shares of the company, which trade on the Nasdaq (NDAQ+0.57%) under the ticker DJT, at this time.
Although he stood to gain billions of dollars from a share sale, it would have been difficult to carry out without tanking the value of the stock. And while Trump can legally hang onto his shares while in office, the whole situation is “messy,” said Michael Ewens, professor of finance at Columbia Business School.
As president, Trump will have control of government agencies that regulate the company and its competitors, including the Federal Communications Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Trump recently tapped Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes to chair the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board — a position that doesn’t require Senate confirmation. He said Nunes will continue heading Trump Media.
