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As Democrats rallied their supporters in Chicago, Donald Trump posted. On his social media page Truth Social, he made anti-Semitic remarks about Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and falsely accused Democrats of staging a coup. He posted dozens of times during Tuesday night’s session. And he’s just getting started: Trump announced to his supporters that he would show “LIVE coverage” of Kamala Harris’ speech tonight on Truth Social. But Trump’s extensive use of his own social media platform belies its limitations. With supposedly paltry user numbers in the single-digit millions, Trump’s Truth Social posts primarily reach an audience of his most loyal supporters.
About a year after he was banned from all major social media platforms following the Jan. 6 insurrection, Trump founded Truth Social and for a time focused all of his energy solely on the platform. The company’s finances have been turbulent since it went public in March. At the end of its first day of trading, shares of DJT – the ticker symbol for Truth Social’s parent company, Trump Media – were worth about $8 billion, and their value has fluctuated wildly since then. Since mid-July, the stock has lost nearly half its value, and earlier this week it fell to its lowest level since the company’s IPO.
The stock prices of companies are constantly falling for various reasons. But from the beginning, this price never seemed to be really tied to the real value. As financial columnist Matt Levine points out in his Bloomberg As Levine wrote in his newsletter last month, DJT is “a highly valued public company tied to a tiny operating business.” Investors are investing not because they “expect high future operating cash flows, but because Trump Media has ‘Trump’ in its name, is largely owned by Donald Trump, and represents a bet on his electoral chances and general headline-grabbingness,” Levine notes. Some investors have even gone so far as to say they view their shares primarily as a way to support Trump, not necessarily as a way to make money.
Trump Media falls squarely into the phenomenon known as “meme stock.” As James Surowiecki explains in The Atlantic Earlier this year, “Like GameStop and AMC before it, it trades not on fundamentals but on emotion.” And Truth Social is not thriving: The company’s most recent earnings report says it posted a loss of more than $16 million last quarter; its revenue was $836,900, reportedly down 30 percent from the previous year. It’s mired in litigation, and the company is spending many more millions than it’s taking in. The site also relies heavily on a limited group of Trump-aligned companies for advertising revenue.
Despite all its problems, Truth Social could still make Trump much richer. Trump owns about 60 percent of the company, which puts its book value at several billion dollars. Forbes estimated in May that most of his wealth now comes from the company. His stake is locked up until next month, when he could sell his shares to raise money (though such a sale could drive the stock’s value down again — and his camp has denied he would do so).
If Trump wins in November, all of this would create conflicts of interest even more extreme than the ties to hotels during his first term: Anyone who wants to show loyalty to the president or get his attention could theoretically buy shares in the company and increase Trump’s personal wealth. Historically, it’s the norm for presidents to give up or step away from their business interests after being elected. But Trump has been unwilling to comply in the past, and it’s unclear how he will handle this in the future.
Now, Trump has ventured back to his old stomping ground, X, where he has 90 million followers, compared to 7.5 million on his own page. Since his livestream on X with Elon Musk (who welcomed him to the platform with open arms) earlier this month, he has begun sharing videos and graphics on a regular basis. His longer rants are still aimed primarily at his loyal fans on Truth Social. But it seems that even as Trump single-handedly bolsters the value of his own page, he can hardly resist the lure of more attention on X.
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Latest news
- Vice President Kamala Harris will deliver a speech tonight at the Democratic National Convention accepting her party’s nomination as its presidential candidate.
- The Supreme Court has allowed the state of Arizona to enforce a provision in a Republican-backed state law that prohibits new voters from registering to vote in state and local elections unless they can show proof of citizenship.
- The FDA has approved an updated version of Pfizer and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines. They will be available within the next week.
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Evening reading
America could do without its Chief Wellness Officer
By Benjamin Mazer
Vivek Murthy, the Surgeon General of the United States, used to devote himself to the traditional problems of the national doctor. He led campaigns and wrote reports to promote physical activity, restrict vaping among youth, and improve treatment for alcohol and drug addiction. He reminded us to eat fruits and vegetables.
Today he talks more about friendship and Americans’ desperate need for more of it.
Read the full article.
More from The Atlantic
Cultural break
Regard. Gena Rowlands explored the many contradictions of romantic love in her work, and nowhere more brilliantly than in A woman under the influence (Streaming on Max), writes Christina Newland.
Read. Andrew O’Hagan’s new book, Caledonian Roadshows a vision of today’s England, dark and corrupt, writes Randy Boyagoda.
Play our daily crossword puzzle.
PS
At this week’s DNC, Democrats made a lot of noise about Tim Walz’s plaid shirt and baseball cap outfit (even though he wore suits for the event). Barack Obama praised the vice presidential candidate’s attire on the second night. And last night, Senator Amy Klobuchar said Minnesotans “love a dad in plaid.” The Washington Post Today, fashion journalist Rachel Tashjian examines how Walz’s wardrobe is “one of the Democrats’ best arguments that their party is not the party of the coastal elite,” noting that Walz is able to get his message across just by wearing his usual clothes. “It’s funny to imagine a political party that puts a woman’s down-to-earth wardrobe at the forefront: We just love the Senator for wearing these Lululemon leggings. To be taken more seriously at this political level, a man must dress casually and a woman must dress elegantly,” she writes.
— Lora
Stephanie Bai contributed to this newsletter.
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