Dem
49
GOP
51
In three weeks, on Sept. 25 specifically, Donald Trump will be allowed to start selling his 115 million shares of DJT stock, although under certain conditions, he might be allowed to start selling as soon as Sept. 20. Insiders are like rats leaving a sinking ship. They are selling off their stock before it collapses completely. The company's CFO, Philip Juhan, just sold $1.9 million worth. DJT's CEO Devin Nunes, general counsel Scott Glabe, COO Andrew Northwall, and CTO Vladimir Novachki have all sold substantial amounts of DJT stock recently, as well.
The stock closed at $16.98 yesterday, down from a high of $99.03 in Feb. 2022 and $61.96 in March 2024. This is lower than it has been at any time since the merger with the special purpose acquisition company was completed and the stock was listed on the NASDAQ:
At the current price, Trump's stock holding is nominally worth $2 billion (down from $6 billion in May), but there is no way he will ever be able to cash in at that level, unless he wins the election and some rich foreign dictator, say MBS of Saudi Arabia, wants to take the stock off his hands to curry favor with him (even though MBS knows it is actually worthless).
One problem is that trading is very thin, usually under 8 million shares a day. If Trump were to try to sell even 10% of his holdings (11.5 million shares), that would more than double the average daily trading volume and with so many shares for sale and no legitimate buyers, the price would tank instantly. If word got out among Trump's supporters that he was dumping the stock, even they would be smart enough to realize this is not a buying opportunity if Trump does not have faith in his own company, whose only asset is a social media site he posts to. The ones who bought the stock at $30, $40, or $50 a share would not be happy to see him driving it to under $10.
Another problem, which will bother any rational investor, is that the company is losing money hand over fist. In 2023, the company had an income of $4.1 million and lost $58 million, with little prospect of improving its performance. If Trump loses the election, it will rapidly head toward $0.
So, who will win and lose if the stock implodes? Trump will probably be able to salvage something if he isn't too greedy and sells off slowly enough to avoid tanking the stock instantly. Other investors will probably take a beating. The taxpayers will also lose, because the people who bought the stock back at $50 and end up selling at $10 will have a tax-deductible loss they can use to cancel out any profits they made on actual investments. This will cost the IRS (and thus the government) money. (V)