Truth Social Stock Price Cut In Half. Crickets From Trump

I find it strange not seeing any news stories about it today, but just so you know at the closing bell on Friday, April 4 the stock price of Trump’s Truth Social was half of what it had peaked at during the last week of March. Oh was Trump feeling good back then. Even with being locked out of being able to sell off his shares for six months (and other conditions) Trump could use the “value” of his newfound wealth to ease his financial problems. Alas, when some required financial reporting was turned in and news got out how little Truth Social’s revenue was in the past year, and how much money it had lost by Monday the stock had dropped a couple of billion dollars in value. It got worse as we shall see.

At its peak back in the “good old days” (not so old since we’re talking the last week of March!) Truth Social price had shot up to $79.38 a share. People who know a lot more about stocks than I do said it was all an illusion, and that that price would never hold. It seems they were right to be skeptical of the “value” of Trump’s bigly new deal. I heard talk of fundamentals, the small number of subscribers and users compared to giants like FaceBook/Meta and Twitter/X Truth Social was, at least as Trump had claimed with great fanfare would replace. As this article from Newsweek shows those of us who paid attention to the experts were wise to do so.

Like I said, the two billion drop in overall value at the beginning of this past week was only the start. By the time trading closed yesterday (Friday) afternoon the price was $40.59 a share. (It had dropped at one point all the way to $40.10 at one point but “rallied a whole forty-nine cents a share) I wonder who got to tell Trump the news? Do they give the people who draw the short straw body armor?  And lock away the ketchup bottles?  Anyway that’s basically forty bucks a share down from when Trump was crowing about the “success” of his platform going public. In just over a week it’s worth half what it started out at.

I also can’t help but wonder if that Hankey guy who underwrote Trump’s $175 million bond is looking for an out. Part of the conditions for such matters including not being able to sell shares for six months is not using shares as collateral for loans and similar financial adventures. Hankey is actually worth more billions than Trump ever has been. He might not be an expert on stocks but he’s had to have developed some basic knowledge. And has people who he pays to provide him detailed, expert information.

I’m sure had he checked they’d have said the same things the TV pundits were saying. It was paper wealth and six months from now might not be worth more than a couple of bucks a share.  So much for him making good on any promises to come up with the difference between whatever cash he paid to Knight Insurance and the remaining balance of that $175 million if it came to that. Why Hankey would take Trump’s word in the first place is a whole different question but let’s leave that aside. A few days ago he was saying it was a good business deal. I doubt he feels the same way now. If he didn’t do some due diligence with his stock people before he’s done so by now. I have a feeling that if the Court rejects the bond that was submitted he’ll mind one bit. He’ll be happy to refund whatever cash Trump paid him, minus a couple of million for the trouble he went to. Wouldn’t you love to hear Trump’s reaction to THAT? To Trump saying “I’ll sue you” and Hankey saying “Go ahead.”

Entertaining as all this is there’s a bonus. Newsweek’s story has Michael Cohen weighing it which has to be driving Trump batshit insane. Cohen lives rent free in Trump’s head in normal times and with the criminal trial in Manhattan about to start (with Cohen set to be a significant witness) he’s in prime space upfront in Trump’s brain housing group. Having his former “fixer” Cohen trashing him and Truth Social has to hurt in a particularly painful way:

“I don’t understand this valuation at all. It makes zero sense,” Cohen said on his podcast. “As of February, there were a mere 5 million active daily users. Compare that to 245 million active daily users on X, formerly known as Twitter…Truth Social doesn’t even begin to compete. In fact, Truth Social is smaller than some people’s Instagram, TikTok or their X accounts.”

He added: “It’s never been profitable. And since 2021, the only thing that kept Truth Social alive was a series of emergency loans, get a load of this, provided in part by a Russian-American businessman who’s now under investigation for federal insider trading and money laundering.”

When I started writing this I hadn’t seen anything reported about Trump reacting to all this. The cutting in half of the value/amount of his new “wealth.” Or Cohen calling him out. Including the money laundering reference. Maybe his handlers went to full-control mode. Spray him in the face with a knockout gas. Tape oven mitts over both hands. Truss him up in a straightjacket, and put on leg irons and chain him to a bed bolted to the floor.

Then again, it’s Saturday night and sometimes Trump just stews before exploding in a late night rant(s) in the wee hours. We’ll see. What I think is safe to say is that more likely than not Truth Social stock will continue to drop in price. MAGA goobers have probably been the only reason it’s still got the “value” it still does. And investors that are working the system somehow to keep the price propped up so they can make some coin shorting the stock. It will be interesting to watch in the days and weeks ahead. And since he’s going to be sitting at the defense table during his criminal trial starting less than two weeks from now he’s literally be right there where the action is. Where the trading is taking place that continues to steadily erode his paper wealth.

Dare we hope that by the time the jury returns a verdict of guilty Truth Social will be trading at less than ten bucks a share?