Donald Trump transfers £3 billion of Trump Media shares to trust
Shares of Trump Media and Technology Group slid in midday trading on Friday after US President-elect Donald Trump transferred all his shares into a revocable trust, according to a regulatory filing.
Mr Trump transferred all of his nearly 115 million shares — worth around four billion dollars (£3.2 billion) on paper — in the parent company of social networking site Truth Social as a “bona fide gift” to the Donald J Trump Revocable Trust, the Securities and Exchange Commission filing on on Thursday said.
Mr Trump’s shares amount to more than half of the company’s stock.
It is not clear why Mr Trump transferred the stock. Donald Trump Jr is the sole trustee and has sole voting and investment power over all securities owned by the trust.
Trump Media shares were down about 2% at midday, to 34.68 dollars each. At one point on Friday, they were down around 6%.
Trump Media shares have been volatile since the company began trading in March.
They reached intraday highs close to 80 dollars (£63.70) on the first day of trading, then slumped to all-time lows in September when Mr Trump and other insiders were finally allowed to sell shares after standard lock-up agreements expired. Mr Trump has not sold any shares in the company.
The company’s stock price has fluctuated wildly on news — good and bad — related to Mr Trump. They tumbled after Mr Trump’s conviction in a hush money trial in May, then surged after the first assassination attempt on him in July.
They surged again after he won re-election in November, even as the company reported a 19.2 million-dollar (£15.29 million) third-quarter loss.
Mr Trump created Trump Media after he was banned from Twitter and Facebook following the January 6 2021 Capitol riot.