We love losing money out the wazoo, don't we folks?
Art of the Steal
How are things going at former President Donald Trump's social media company? Money-wise: astoundingly bad.
Trump Media and Technology Group, which owns and operates the Twitter clone "Truth Social," posted a staggering net loss of over $327.6 million for the first quarter of 2024, according to its earnings report — perhaps taking some shine off its glitzy, multi-billion dollar valuation.
Yet, as stupefying an amount of money that is to piss away, that's somehow not even the most embarrassing figure to come out of the report. Trump Media's quarterly revenue was just $770,000 — practically peanuts — most of which came from advertising on Truth Social.
The company's shares fell about nine percent on the news. That's striking, because in the weeks prior, Trump Media's stock had been steadily recovering following a period of rapid freefall in April — a volatility that's a trademark of so-called meme stocks.
Sad!
This is the first clear look we've gotten at Trump Media's financials since it completed a merger with Digital World Acquisition Corporation in March. That saw the company go public, flushing it with $274 million in cash and funding it "for the foreseeable future."
The staggering quarterly losses would seem to call that outlook into question. About half of those expenses, the company claims, come from one-time payments related to its merger with Digital World. Its operating losses total $12.1 million, a figure which does not follow generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), the New York Times noted. Adjusted for GAAP, those operating losses look more like $98.35 million, Variety reported.
One-time costs or not, the venture doesn't have a history of being a money-maker. Trump Media has posted less revenue this quarter than it did in the same one a year before, which saw it rake in a barely better $1.1 million. Over that entire year, in fact, it only garnered $4 million in revenue while losing $58 million.
As bad as that all looks — and don't get us wrong, it's bad — Trump Media's valuation still towers at $7 billion. Donald Trump remains the largest shareholder, owning a near 65 percent stake in the company, and is probably the only clear winner of Truth Social's dubious practices.
Why is a venture that's seemingly incapable of covering its expenses worth billions? That, of course, may come down to the cultish following Trump commands from his legions of followers, many of whom are ardent shareholders. We wonder how they're feeling about those numbers right now.
More on Truth Social: CEO of Trump Media Trying to Figure Out Why Its Stock Keeps Falling
Share This Article