The value of Donald Trump's majority ownership in the conservative social media platform, Truth Social, has experienced a substantial decrease by $900 million following Vice President Kamala Harris's decision to run for the White House, which saw Trump Media & Technology Group's share price plummeting by approximately 23%. Prior to President Joe Biden's endorsement of Harris and exit from the race in late July, Trump's stake in the company was valued at just over $4 billion, a figure that has since dropped to around $3.1 billion amid the recent stock market selloff.
As polls indicate a close competition between Trump and Harris, the stock value of Truth Social has become a crucial indicator for Wall Street traders speculating on the likelihood of Trump's return to the presidency, with the platform potentially serving as a communication hub if Trump were to win the election. Despite experiencing brief increases in share price following events like Biden's poor debate performance and a failed assassination attempt on Trump, Truth Social has struggled to gain significant traction in the social media landscape, evident in a 38% decrease in unique visitors year-over-year in June and consecutive months of decline in user engagement.
Since going public in March, Trump Media's share price has been subject to extreme volatility and speculation, characterized by experts as a meme stock driven by hype rather than underlying fundamentals. With Trump's presence as the face of the company and the most prominent user on Truth Social, his net worth estimated at $5.9 billion by Bloomberg adds significant weight to the fluctuating stock value. Despite the recent drop, Trump Media still holds a valuation of $5.1 billion, leading some analysts to caution that the company may be significantly overvalued given its minimal revenue and limited presence in the social media sphere compared to larger players like JetBlue, which generated substantially more revenue than Trump Media despite having a lower market value.