Trump's new company is an invitation for bribes and corruption.
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While Donald Trump was probably not thrilled that his new media venture was already tanking on Monday, with share prices down more than 20 percent after it was revealed that the former president’s Truth Social platform was a tremendous loser, oligarchs from across the globe were probably rubbing their hands because this provides them with yet another opportunity to bribe Trump if he gets back to the White House.
This will take a minute to unravel, so bear with us.
Last week, the Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) was taken public following a merger with another company. On paper, that increased the former president’s net worth by billions of dollars since he holds a majority of the group’s shares.
In reality, however, these shares are about as worthless as one of Trump’s promises to spend his own money on his presidential campaign or that he would testify under oath in one of his upcoming criminal trials.
That became very clear on Monday, when TMTG posted a financial statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which revealed that, to say it politely, Truth Social is about as profitable (and as good of an investment) as a lemonade stand with a marketing budget of $10 million.
The filing showed that the social media platform generated a whopping $4 million in revenue in 2023 against losses of $58 million.
You don’t need to have “earned” a business degree from the Wharton School of Finance to know that this makes Truth Social and TMTG a big loser.
Plenty of investors certainly came to that realization when they dumped their shares on Monday, which caused the stock price of the company to plummet from nearly $62 to $48.
Unfortunately for Trump, he is not allowed to sell any of his shares for six months. At the current rate, they will then be worth as much as a ham sandwich.
On paper, where most of the former president’s wealth can be found, he lost about $1 billion Monday.
And that is great news for anybody who wants to curry favor with Trump. Six months from now, some rich media mogul, a Saudi Prince, or anybody else who wants to bribe Trump can invest in the company and prop up the price of its shares. If he sells then, that would potentially make the former president billions of dollars, which is still chump change for the Elon Musks of the world… and even less for the House of Saud.
And, because the system and its guardrails are not designed with this type of high-level corruption in the presidency, there is nothing to stop them from shoveling piles of cash into Trump’s open pockets… and then waiting for him to win the election before calling in a favor or two.
