Former president Donald Trump’s social media company posted major losses in its first quarter as a publicly traded company.
Trump Media and Technology Group had earnings of $770,500 and a net loss of $327.6 million in the first quarter of this year ending in March, according to a disclosure filed on Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company owns Trump’s Truth Social platform.
“After an unprecedented, years-long process, we have consummated our merger and dispensed with the vast bulk of merger-related expenses, leaving the Company well-capitalized and supported by a legion of retail shareholders who believe in our mission to provide a free-speech beachhead against Big Tech censorship,” Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes said in a press release.
Nunes is a former Republican congressman from California and a staunch Trump ally.
“TMTG is well-positioned at this early stage to grow quickly and fulfill our mission,” Nunes added. The company plans on launching a streaming service in a three-part rollout and developing other long term products.
Shares of DJT, the company’s Trump-inspired stock ticker, dropped by 10 percent on Tuesday because of the losses. Trump Media incurred $311 million of non-cash expenses tied to its merger with a special-purpose acquisition company created specifically for the Trump Media merger. Its revenue came primarily from advertising initiatives.
The company’s stock soared upon its merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp. and its public debut in late March, temporarily ballooning Trump’s wealth to an estimated $6.4 billion because of his ownership stake in the firm.
Trump posted his reduced $175 million bond for his civil fraud case in New York City at a time when his net worth was surging to new heights. An appellate court reduced the figure when it was uncertain whether Trump would be able to post the original $464 million bond, which consisted of Judge Arthur Engoron’s civil fraud judgment and interest payments.
When the DJT trading craze settled, the stock’s price dropped precipitously to just over $22 per share in mid-April. Over the past few weeks, the stock rallied to over $50 per share before its latest drop.
Earlier this month, the SEC charged former Trump Media auditor BF Borgers CPA and its owner with “massive fraud” impacting over 1,500 SEC filings.
“Ben Borgers and his audit firm, BF Borgers, were responsible for one of the largest wholesale failures by gatekeepers in our financial markets,” said Gurbir Grewal, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.
Trump Media is suing two of its founders for allegedly damaging the company through mismanagement and bad decision-making.
Trump is the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee, and his “hush-money” criminal trial in Manhattan is ongoing.