Donald Trump's Truth Social Goes Public

1. KSKara Swisher0:00

   He's being called Don Corleone on social media, but Donald Trump's finances are about to get a big boost. Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, will likely become a publicly traded company this week following Digital World Acquisition Corp's approval of a merger last Friday. As we record this, Trump just got a lifeline for that judgment in his civil fraud case. The bond was reduced from $454 million to $175 million by the New York Appeals Court. Trump now has 10 days to post that bond. Um, I don't know why he gets a break, but... What do you think about this deal? The Trump Media and Technology Group has a market value of around $5 billion based on a $37 share price of Digital World Acquisition Corp. Tr- Trump owns 60%. His overall net worth will increase by about $3 billion. That said, you know, this is a meme stock no matter how you slice it. There's also a lockup provision in the merger agreement that would, in theory, prevent Trump from selling his shares for at least six months. He can, um... The lockup agreement could be waived by the board, which includes his son, um, his son, uh, Don Jr., Devin Nunes, the CEO, and Linda McMahon, who, who used to run WWE or whatever she did over there. Uh, they're all friends of. But if he sells, y- you know, the price will go down. If he sells, there's gonna be lawsuits aplenty. Um, it's obviously a meme stock or way to get... to funnel him money somehow. I'll say the l- last thing, two last things. DWAC, the SPAC that merged with, um, Trump's company was already a meme stock to start with. Um, as Fast Company put it, "Donald Trump's True Social could be the memiest meme stock that ever memed." And, uh, once again, Republican mega donor Jeff Yass was the biggest institutional shareholder of DWAC according to a report in the New York Times. He's also a major investor in TikTok's parent company ByteDance, as we discussed last week. Uh, I don't know. This is a just a... It feels like a lawsuit, like a securities lawsuit waiting to happen. But your thoughts, Scott. This is your area of expertise.

2. SGScott Galloway1:52

   So, i- i- say you were running for president and you needed a bond of half a billion dollars and you knew someone who was the largest shareholder in TikTok and you said, "If I become president, I'll make sure it isn't banned," or whatever it is. Y- y- y- you could get someone by virtue of the White House. You could get them billions of dollars in shareholder value.

3. KSKara Swisher2:12

   Yeah.

4. SGScott Galloway2:12

   You met with them on a golf course and you said, "Oh, and by the way, there's a very small float in this SPAC that I have a large interest in. If you were just to throw, say, $10, $20, $30 million, maybe $50 million at this thing and keep the stock price elevated, that would make me very happy."

5. KSKara Swisher2:27

   Mm-hmm.

6. SGScott Galloway2:28

   Because when you look at Digital World Acquisition Company, the SPAC that's, I think, de-SPACing to take over Trump's Truth Social, Truth Social, the numbers I've seen were that year-to-date it's done three and a half million in revenue.

7. KSKara Swisher2:41

   Something like that, yeah.

8. SGScott Galloway2:42

   The hottest AI companies' stocks in the world are trading at, like, 60 or 70 times revenue, but, but Donald Trump's Truth Social, which has five million active users, which is-

9. KSKara Swisher2:54

   They lose money?

10. SGScott Galloway2:55

    ... literally nothing-

11. KSKara Swisher2:57

    Mm-hmm.

12. SGScott Galloway2:57

    ... made three and a half million dollars.

13. KSKara Swisher2:59

    Revenue.

14. SGScott Galloway2:59

    It was run by a former congressman turned social media CEO, Devin Nunes. That's worth 600 times revenue. So, something... And maybe it's just a meme stock, but-

15. KSKara Swisher3:11

    Does it feel like a fl- a way to give him money? Like it just totally does. It's like this is gonna be so investigated. I can't even-

16. SGScott Galloway3:17

    Well, okay.

17. KSKara Swisher3:18

    ... stand it.

18. SGScott Galloway3:18

    Let me be clear. There's corruption all over Washington. Nancy Pelosi, it ends up, is the greatest-

19. KSKara Swisher3:22

    This is corrupting. I get it.

20. SGScott Galloway3:23

    R- uh, Speaker Pelosi or former Speaker Pelosi is a god... has godlike stock-picking capability, as do a bunch of other members of Congress. There is corruption on both sides of the aisle here. This seems... This, this one really stinks. He has the right to start a company as a private citizen. He has the right to merge it with a SPAC. They have the right... He has the right to sell it after six months. I'm just speaking purely... I have never seen a company that feels like a better short. And this isn't financial advice because you have non-economic interests in this thing and it could go to 100 if he's elected president. But this is a company with three and a half million in revenue that's trading for billions of dollars in value. He, he has the right to start it. He has the right to sell that stock. It's not going to happen in time unless maybe he can borrow against it. I don't know.

21. KSKara Swisher4:12

    Who's gonna take-

22. SGScott Galloway4:12

    The whole thing stinks.

23. KSKara Swisher4:12

    I mean, it's gotta be donors that take... Y- yeah, it's just, ugh. Ugh, I just... This is, like, so legal.

24. SGScott Galloway4:18

    The, the president-

25. KSKara Swisher4:18

    This is... I wanna file a lawsuit right now.

26. SGScott Galloway4:21

    The president should be paid $10 million a year.

27. KSKara Swisher4:24

    Oh?

28. SGScott Galloway4:24

    Every senator should be paid $1 million a year, if not $2 million a year.

29. KSKara Swisher4:29

    And they can't take money?

30. SGScott Galloway4:29

    Every representative, every representative should be paid $1 million a year for the following. All of your stocks go into a blind trust and they're held there for five years after you leave office, and you cannot go to work for anyone, anyone that's gonna benefit for a government contract. Pay these people a shit ton of money so they don't have to paint their fence while they're in office for when they get out of office. It's just... The corruption here is just, it's just-

Episode duration: 6:36