This has to be a tough start to the week for Donald Trump.
After a flurry of Hail Marys failed to delay District Attorney Alvin Bragg‘s case, the former president now sits in a New York City courtroom as his hush money/election interference trial gets underway. To make matters worse, his beloved social media company, Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT), is getting pummeled in the stock market.
Three weeks ago, DJT began trading, and anyone — from MAGA supporters to foreign sovereign wealth funds — could buy shares of the company.
Anyone — from MAGA supporters to foreign sovereign wealth funds — could buy shares of the company. And they did.
And they did. The stock skyrocketed to a record high of $79.38 during the second day of trading (never mind that Barry Diller called it all a “scam” or that the company only made $4 million last year and lost $58 million). For many people, it seemed buying a share (or shares) was a way to show their support for the former president.
The Washington Post caught up with some of these true believers earlier this week, several of whom have lost hundreds or even thousands of dollars as the stock tanked. “This isn’t just another stock to me,” Oklahoma tree cutter and DTJ investor Jerry Dean McLain told the Post. “I feel like it was God Almighty that put it in my lap.”
Well, financial fundamentals are a little bit like gravity: Eventually, they catch up with you — and on Monday, DJT was down 66% from that record just a few weeks ago.
In fact, Monday was a particularly bad day after the company announced that possibly millions of shares could be sold — including the former president’s shares, which account for nearly 58% of all stock out there. While he and other insiders can’t sell until September, the prospect of millions of additional shares sent the price down to close at $26.61.
Then, on Tuesday, the company announced plans to launch a live TV streaming platform to feature a mix of news, religious programming and even “content that has been cancelled” (“Arrested Development” lives again!)
The response? The stock fell even more, ending the day at $22.84.
While it may not be taught at Wharton School, where Trump attended, this latest move is sometimes known as “grasping at straws” or (checking Biz 101 notes) “throwing spaghetti at the wall.” Think about it: Disney is a very profitable media company, and it loses money on streaming even though it has thousands and thousands of hours of content that all kinds of people want to watch, not to mention its cable and TV networks.
Trump TV? Will it be livestreaming Trump rallies? How will that work when he’s in court? When the stock hit its record high, his stake was worth around $5.2 billion on paper. Today, it’s about $1.8 billion, and he didn’t spend a dollar or lift a finger. But keep this in mind. While people may be smirking about DJT falling like a stone and suggesting that Trump is losing his shirt or getting “crushed,” he’s not. When the stock hit its record high, his stake was worth around $5.2 billion on paper. Today, it’s about $1.8 billion, and he didn’t spend a dollar or lift a finger to get those shares, except maybe to type out something on Truth Social. That’s $1.8 billion for doing very little. In fact, on Monday we learned that Trump stands to receive as much as another 36 million shares that today would be worth over $800 million. For Trump, the goal is to get as many shares as he can and then convert them to cash or a loan as soon as possible, before people lose even more interest in the stock and the party ends. Trump’s stock might be sliding, but he can still cash in.
Stephanie Ruhle
Stephanie Ruhle is host of “The 11th Hour” at 11 p.m. ET on MSNBC and senior business analyst for NBC News.
Charlie Herman
Charlie Herman is coordinating producer for “The 11th Hour” on MSNBC. 
