The Newest Tech Start-Up Billionaire? Donald Trump

from New York Times I'm Michael babbaro. this is the. [Music]. daily over the past few years Donald. Trump social media company truth social. was dismissed as a money losing. boondoggle today Matthew Goldstein on. how over the past few days it somehow. became a publicly traded company worth.

billions of. [Music]. [Applause]. dollars it's Thursday March. [Music]. 28th Matthew thank you for coming thank. you for having daily your debut yes do. you go by Matt I go by Matt I go by Matt. you're a Matthew by line CU my mother.

likes me using when I first started out. my mom says I named you Matthew you. should use Matthew for your bi because I. initially did use Matt and then she she. got it this is literally the tale of. right the Jewish mother yes yes the way. all journalism sort of starts you know. why did you go into journalism to begin. with though right you could have been a. doctor here we are at least use my name. okay so Matt I wonder if we could start. by having you tell us the current market. value of this new publicly traded.

company Donald Trump's social media. business okay so as we sit here 11:26. a.m. on Wednesday on Wednesday it's. trading right now for around $65 a share. if you work that out it's worth about. eight billion that's huge that is huge I. think it's bigger than the New York. Times actually I think the New York. Times is like around seven billion it's. bigger than a lot of companies you know. which is crazy when you think about it. yeah and what is Donald Trump's personal.

stake in that and what is that now worth. okay so he owns 79 million shares so. roughly doing the math and this changes. it's somewhere around 5.6 billion it's. been going up sometimes as high as even. $6 billion that's extraordinary that is. extraordinary because if you believe. what forbs had said last fall he was. worth about 2.6 billion so he's more. than doubled his net worth in basically.

a last few days with Trump media wow and. not a moment too soon right because as. we've talked about on the show Trump. owes about every last scent of cash he. has I think it's an estimated 500. million or so to various courts and this. would be very auspicious timing to. suddenly have an. extra5 billion in his life it's a. critical Lifeline for him right now. there of course are limitations to how.

he can tap that money but I think also. it should not be understated it's a huge. bragging point for him right which he. likes to go out and talk about being the. most successful businessman on the. planet he can say look I built a company. that's worth s billion dollar overnight. where have you done that Joe Biden or. where have you done that pretty much. almost anyone other than a very select. rarified group of tech startups. absolutely so tell us the story of how.

this company which I think a lot of. people candidly dismissed from the. beginning as Trump's little kind of. renegade corner of the internet somehow. became this a real Financial Behemoth in. a way what is that story so you have to. go back to January 2021 MH Trump is. kicked off of what was then Twitter. after the January 6 riots at the capital. and not just Twitter right Facebook inag.

he kicked off everything but Twitter was. really where he had lived as we all knew. right tens of millions of followers tens. of millions so Trump is at the slow. point he's out of the White House he's. sort of down there in maral Lago and all. of a sudden a blast from the. past he gets approached by these two. guys who had been contestants on his old. reality show The. [Music]. Apprentice.

and their names are Andy latinsky and. West Moss I'm no dummy no I know you. know TR they're not particularly notable. or famous people I don't know if the. word is stars on the show to be. perfectly honest I want to see Mr Trump. as much as possible latinsky was a. really young guy I chose to the men. dominating the. women West Moss came up sort of as like. almost like a frat boy type of character.

you're. fired Wes you're fired. also and they weren't particularly. successful but they go to Trump and what. exactly is their pitch to him their. pitch is basically forget about Twitter. forget about all these other platforms. create your own platform create your own. social media company it'll be great you. won't be censored you can say whatever. you want all your followers will come. here we make a lot of money will be huge.

what was Trump's response well he's. intrigued but he never really totally. commits to anything at that point Trump. is sort of taking a backseat on it he's. basically agreeing to lend his name if. nothing else right they sign an. agreement that they're going to go out. and sort of pitch the deal and The. Apprentice guys know that they're going. to need a lot of money to get this. company off the ground but they're not. not going to be able to turn to.

traditional Wall Street sources because. Trump at this. pointx yeah he's a toxic guy so the. solution for The Apprentice guys to. raise this money was to do something. called a spack h which is these. companies that have come into Vogue. during the pandemic they're basically. shell companies that go public raise. hundreds of million dollars from. investors and essentially their sole. purpose is to go out and look for. another company to buy kind of shell.

companies shell company right it's. basically money in a bank account that's. just sitting there to be transferred. over to the private company that you buy. so for the private company that ends up. merging it's a great deal because they. get tons of cash where they had nothing. the day before MH and the other. advantage of a deal with the spec is. that beyond the cash the private company. becomes a public company and that gives. it the ability to sell stock to. investors and go out and raise more.

money that way and then through that. merger eventually the two companies. coming together the company that Trump. is going to be ostensibly heading that. social media company would get. everything the spa could raise from. investors so all that cash is going to. come flooding into the company The. Apprentice guys Invision so if I'm. understanding his plan correctly The. Apprentice guys Envision a plan where. they go off they find a back that has.

raised a bunch of money and eventually. it will merge with the Trump social. media company they Envision building and. when that marriage is consummated their. work will be over and they will. hopefully have a lot of money basically. that's exactly what their goal was yeah. so The Apprentice guys are out there in. the market looking for a spack but given. the lack of really any kind of business. plan they don't go to like the Top. Flight guys out there they end up at the. bottom of the barrel okay and so they.

end up with essentially a very no-name. sounding spack called Digital World. acquisition Corporation digital world. has its IPO in September of 2021 raises. $300. million lo and behold like a month after. a press release comes out late at night. Donald Trump and trp media are merging. with digital world acquisition Corp I. remember people pinging me is this a.

joke because most people I'm sure had. never heard of digital world and even. more people had no idea that Trump was. even doing a social media company. because while all this is going on and. they're trying to put a deal together. the social media platform that will. become truth social hasn't even launched. and it won't do so for months later huh. but there's trouble right away the. Securities Exchange Commission comes in. announces it's open an investigation.

into how this deal came together looking. into whether Digital World violated. securi laws by engaging in merger talks. ahead of time which technically is in. kosher in the way spacks are supposed to. work but this investigation just drags. on and on and on and it's going to delay. everything so this is turning out to be. a pretty big mess very big mess it looks. like this Deal's never going to happen. happen mhm and finally when they.

launched truth social in early. 2022 it's a little bit of a joke it's. like this sort of very early version of. Twitter when it's sort of clunky and how. Cluny you you were on it yeah I actually. think I was one of the first people to. get in which I thought was sort of funny. because I said I was from the New York. Times they actually verified me ma there. was very little traffic it was almost. like you'd post something and like the.

you could literally hear the. Crick um Trump never posted for 3 months. Trump never posted on Truth social that. three months exist for his and I. remember writing a story and like you. couldn't get an answer from them why is. he not posting perhaps because he has. his own doubts and also it wasn't a. place no one was there I mean they had a. few million users there's like a few. million dollars in advertising on Truth. social a lot of them the equivalent of. almost late night TV advertising that.

you would see it's losing tons of money. which is In fairness it's not unusual. for a startup company to lose money but. it was not clear where it was ever going. to make money and where the money was. going to come in and we're looking at. this thing is it even going to happen. your deal is in trouble because of. regulators and also the company's in. trouble because there's just nothing. there so everyone I think for the most. part of counts this thing out for them.

it was a desperate situation. mhm and then last summer a bunch of. things started to go right all of a. sudden for Trump. media and it really started to raise the. prospects that this deal actually could. [Music]. happen we'll be right back. [Music].

so about how is it that things start to. turn around for this real mess of a. social media company that Donald Trump. has founded okay so the single biggest. thing was Last Summer the SEC settles. its investigation with digital world. with the spack that it was merging with. MH and and that basically at that point.

sort of clears the gates for them to. start to really move forward with the. merger what kind of settlement was it. they had to pay $18 million and they had. to rewrite all their disclosures to make. it consistent to reveal every all the. early talks they had had with Trump. media got it the other thing is Elon. must buys Twitter now X and one of the. first things he does is he says Trump. you can come back start posting again we. want you we love you. everyone thinks Trump's going to do that.

but then he. stays he continues to post on Truth. social and it's clear he's sticking with. his own platform and if anything he. starts ramping up his postings on TR. social and they become increasingly as. we know with the way Trump is bombastic. inflammatory attacking all the judges. and all the cases going on the. prosecutors political opponents and he's. been doing it with increasing.

frequency and this is a key ingredient. of last Summer's turnaround cuz it's. clear at this point Trump is sticking. with truth social he's not going. anywhere he's leaning into it and it's. become his. [Music]. platform but we shouldn't lose sight. that maybe the most important thing is. the Loyalty of shareholders and I'm not. talking about big hedge funds big. institutions wealthy people I'm talking.

about ordinary Trump supporters many of. them who are posters on TR social and. happen to be. stockholders of this cashr spack that's. eventually going to merge with Trump. media and they're the ones who have kept. this thing going to some degree as. investors as investors because there. were many points where the spack deal. itself could have just failed but they. really want to make sure this company. succeeds it's almost like a a religious.

kind of thing for some of them and I can. tell you one guy's been very vocal is. actually sort of a Christian minister. good evening dwac stock he has his own. streaming video show on Rumble which he. called dwac live named after the shares. Lord we ask in the name of Jesus that. you help the executives finish this. strong and that you protect them from. all the forces that would try to stop. the merger and in their person where. they talk about the stock and the merger. and it's got his own following. just all show up at Mar Lago knock on.

the door and be like hey uh president. Trump we'd like to come party with you. because uh we we all own little bits of. your company and we love you let's just. check on the price one more time before. we uh we head out for the night so in. some way Trump really owes a lot to the. his small shareholders who made this. possible cuz if it wasn't for them there. would be no merger and when they talk to. you about why they have have bought.

shares in this business in this spack. even when it's at its least successful. and most imperil how do they talk about. why it's worth their hard-earned money. first of all they view their building. something and they've all believed that. right or wrong whatever you may think. about it that truth social is free from. censorship that allows Trump and others. to say what they want and they really. believe that as like founding principles.

they're the original owners essentially. going to be of this company and they're. helping it flourish and build so this. has become a real personal thing for a. lot of them more so than I think I've. ever seen with any other publicly traded. company before so the folks who are. investing in this spack anticipating it. will eventually get together with truth. social and who as you have just said. sustain this through its dark chapter.

they aren't really there because they. see this as a highly profitable business. you just said Matt that it was losing. money they're doing it as a statement. and I guess a measure of their fervor. for Trump for the movement he represents. buying the stock is a way for them to. put their money where their mouth is. when it comes to manga right right for. them this is about supporting Trump and. supporting this company with which they. view as critically important and keeping.

its message out there alive so I think. that more or less brings us to this week. right when this turnaround you're. describing results in this crazy takeoff. of the stock price but just walk us. through the mechanics of it what. happened was there's the shareholder. vote and the way it works is digital. world shareholders have to vote to. approve the merger with Trump media it. was at this point it was a 4one. conclusion but it's a vote so you never.

know what's going to happen though and. they get the vote on Friday it's. overwhelming I think it was 29 million. shares voted in favor and 200,000 voted. against I mean you just don't see that a. landslide a landslide yes like electoral. Landslide so the deal goes through on. Monday the deal is actually. closed and we have our first day of. trading on Tuesday of this week ticker.

symbol DJ DJ Donald John Donald J Trump. former president Donald Trump's newly. merged social media company has begun. trading and shares are soaring it opens. for trading but around4 something dollar. a share more than 6.5 million shares in. Trump media had changed Hands by 950. this morning they have to actually halt. trading briefly because the volume the. level of trading is off the charts in. the stock currently you take a look at. where Shares are they're up about 40% at.

one point it reaches $70 a share uh this. is the highest profile back we've seen. in quite a while really I'd say ever. Katie I mean and on the end of trading. on Tuesday it closes around $60 or so MH. and that's how we get this 78 billion. valuation for the company in the paper. gain of 5.6 billion for Trump for Trump. but for now quote unquote djt is the. mother of all meme stocks with the stock.

up 32% up as much as 58% today hard to. disagree I just want to make sure I. understand why this company is now. valued so highly and I guess what I'm. really getting at is is there an actual. business case for it given what folks in. your calling would describe as the. fundamentals of the business or is this. just a measure of these Trump supporting. investors deep affinity for him is this.

basically a bubble or is there maybe a. true Financial justification that can be. laid out here okay so if we go pure. fundamentals it's crazy this company is. not a s or8 billion doll company it had. $3.3 million in revenues for the first. nine months of last year it lost about. $49 million yeah that is not the makings. of an8 billion doll valuation no no no I.

mean the one good thing it got going it. got $300 million in cash from this. merger not for Trump for the company so. that's good they can use that cash to go. out and buy something bring in more. people hire influencers on Truth social. but even then they have 10 million. downloads of Truth social I mean Twitter. is what like hundreds of millions of. users I sorry X has 100 millions of. users where's it going to go for that. kind of growth just ify that but this is.

what Wall Street is I mean you know we. call them our meme stocks they're. fantasy stocks they take on a life of. their own we had this during the. pandemic with GameStop in AMC the shares. run up to ridiculous levels driven. largely by retail investors and just to. remind people those were stocks where. retail investors were buying shares it. felt like because they wanted to send a. message large anti-establishment message.

they were mad at a hedge fund that had. shorted it in one case I remember they. wanted to make a point they wanted to. Stick it to the Man right and also it. becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy it. becomes a Mania then others sort of see. this and get in because you feel like if. you keep buying it's never going to fall. it's never going to go down and that can. work for a while but eventually gravity. will always take hold at some part I'm. not saying that Trump media is going to. collapse but at some point something.

will happen that will trigger the stock. to sell off right whether it's fragile. it's fragile right it's not sustainable. at this level but when it's happening. it's hard for me or anyone to give you a. rational reason and that's why there's. this old thing IR rational. exuberance it's not necessarily unusual. it's just that it's unusual because you. have a very loyal investor base to him. personally. that is driving a lot of these surges in.

the stock I'm really curious how Trump's. position in this presidential campaign. factors into what you just described. because it feels like this irrational. exuberance has to be linked somewhat to. the reality that he is the now lead. candidate in the polls for reelection. but I'm curious what investors think. about that how they link his chances of. becoming president. with the Financial Health and future.

promise of this company it's definitely. I think going to be a barometer sort of. trump in his political fortunes I mean. just by way of example the spa stock. started to sore this year when Trump was. on the verge of locking up the. nomination it was around the time Des. santis dropped out right in New. Hampshire the stock surged like 60 70%. overnight go was really because people. think hey Trump is going to be the. nominee and we're going to be going.

forward but can you just explain that. what does one have to do with the other. in theory it doesn't have anything to do. with it but it's like a proxy for him. okay it's also the idea that as long as. Trump is still politically viable Trump. media is viable truth social is viable. and presumably a president 2.0 Trump is. the best possible situation for this. stock price if he wins I think it. probably will be a high watermark for.

the stock and I would just think given. the dynamic with the election right now. it's hard to see the stock not. continuing to rise at least until. November okay I want to turn now to. Trump's access to this very valuable. stock at a time when as we all know he. seems to need money how and when could. he tap into this money okay so at the. moment he actually can't can he can't. there's what's called a lockup a.

restriction it's not just for him it's. for any major shareholders they can't. sell for 6 months it's actually not. unusual in these kind of circumstances. the logic is you don't want important. people to the company important. shareholders to bolt as soon as a deal. goes through but there are other ways he. can get around that one way is for the. board it's a seven member board they're. all loyalists for the most part they. could allow him to sell shares early I.

personally think that's unlikely because. it shows a lack of faith you know just. like if he had jumped from trud social. onto Twitter this would be the same kind. of message being sent got it what they. could do is allow him to pledge those. shares meaning he can go out and get a. loan use it as collateral the shares. don't get sold but you're giving them to. some other like a bank or probably more. likely a hedge fund so that would be a. way for him to monetize. his stock without actually selling it so.

if Trump really wanted to he could find. a way working through this board of. loyalists to tap into this money pretty. quickly if he so chose to if he asked. the board to do it I think there's. probably a good chance the board would. do it but if he doesn't really need the. money that desperately I think he. probably won't and I think the board. would be reluctant because it doesn't. really help anyone to have lots of stock. coming out into the market that only.

will probably depress the price of the. shares and it doesn't help to have the. face of the company the man whose. initials are on the ticker selling the. stock because that suggests he doesn't. have a tremendous amount of faith in the. business and that might trigger a. sell-off which would undermine the value. of the rest of his stock it's a pretty. bad cycle to start it's a bad right. that's like the event that starts to. send the sell off and even at that point. even your most loyal shareholders may. say well I don't want to be left the. last one holding in the back right I.

want to step way back for just a minute. and think about the larger meaning of. what has happened with truth social I. mean I've covered a lot of Trump's. businesses Through The Years. investigated them when he was a. candidate in 2016 and it really strikes. me that of all the businesses he's been. in real estate casinos Trump University. selling Trump steaks Trump wine whatever. you. know those made money. this in some ways feels like the least.

Sound business of all and yet it has. made him the richest by far that's a. little bit weird to wrap your head. around what is that tell you about the. nature of trump and these investors who. believe in this it is weird I'm not a. politics reporter but from a business. perspective this has given me a little. bit better insight into his seemingly.

unending kind of popularity and. support there's the old adage on Wall. Street never fall in love with the stock. but the reality is a lot of his. shareholders here are in love with the. stock they have fall in love with it and. they're in love with him to a large. extent and when you have that sort of. mix there it allows a stock to soar to. sort of unreal levels that we're seeing. now and who knows where it goes from.

here but for the moment it's clearly. working for Mr. Trum well Mt thank you very much thank. you for having. [Music]. me when the stock market closed on. Wednesday afternoon shares of Trump's. New Media Company reached $66 a share up. 14% % from the previous day as of this.

morning the company is worth. $9.4. billion we'll be right. back here's what else you need to know. today authorities said that the six. missing workers who were on the Francis. Scott Key bridge when it collapsed are. now presumed dead the workers were. members of a construction crew who were. repairing masonry and potholes when a.

massive container ship plowed into the. bridge on Tuesday morning this is no. ordinary. bridge this is one of the cathedrals of. American infrastructure experts say that. rebuilding the bridge which carried. 30,000 Vehicles a day will probably take. years and cost hundreds of millions of. dollars a reality acknowledged by the. Secretary of Transportation Pete budic. so the path to normal noraly will not be. easy it will not be quick it will not be.

inexpensive but we will rebuild. together and the first ever congestion. pricing system in the United States. crossed a major Milestone on Wednesday. when New York officially approved tolls. for cars driving through the busiest. sections of Manhattan the system modeled. on those in London and Singapore is. designed to significantly reduce traffic.

and air pollution the tolls $15 for most. Passenger cars and as much as $36 for. large trucks are expected to raise $1. billion a year for mass. transportation the new system could. still be blocked by several lawsuits. seeking to derail it but if those cases. fail the tools will begin in mid. June.

today's episode was produced by Will. Reed Mary Wilson and AA chv it was. edited by Lexi di contains original. music by Maran lazono and Dan Powell and. was engineered by Alyssa Moxley our. theme music is by Jim brunberg and Ben. Lanser of. [Music]. wonderlake. [Music].

that's it for daily I'm Michael Boro see. you. [Music]. tomorrow.