--- title: "Trump Is Making a Fortune Off His “Truth Social” Disaster While Investors Are Losing Their Shirts" description: "Trump and other Trump Media executives are already getting payouts, while investors are losing their shirts." date: "2024-04-11" modified: "2024-04-11" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/trump-media-enrichment" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "donald trump" - "the digest" - "truth social" --- # Trump Is Making a Fortune Off His “Truth Social” Disaster While Investors Are Losing Their Shirts ![Trump and other Trump Media executives are already getting payouts, while investors are losing their shirts.]() *\Image: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images\* ## Get Rich Quick Former president Donald Trump's Truth Social bid is continuing [its decline](). Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which owns the far-right social media platform, have slid almost 30 percent over the last five days, wiping out even more of Trump's personal stake. The group merged with a blank check acquisition company last month, allowing it to be publicly traded on the stock exchange. Despite initially rallying after the merge, the stock has plummeted over the last couple of weeks, [wiping out any gains](). Today alone, it's already lost around four percent of its value since markets opened. That means Trump, who holds an almost 58 percent stake in TMTG, has [seen his net worth drop]() precipitously. However, as [*CNBC* reports](), the former president and other company executives are likely already being financially rewarded for the disastrous merger — while those foolhardy enough to invest in the meme stock are losing out. In short, it's playing out [exactly as analysts have expected]() — yet another one of Trump's scams, designed to line his own pockets. ## Personal Enrichment According to the report, Trump could receive around 36 million "earnout shares" over the next three years. At the current price, that would amount to roughly $1.2 billion. There are plenty of reasons to stay far away from the meme stock apart from sending cash straight into the pocket of the former reality TV host. For one, Truth Social made a [measly $4.1 million in revenue]() for all of 2023, despite having lost more than $58 million over the same period. Bizarrely, Trump isn't even on TMTG's board. "It sounds like more of a contract that you give to an executive than to a controlling shareholder," University of Southern California business professor Kevin Murphy told *CNBC*. "The former president is not an executive of the company." According to filings, top executives at TMTG already received legally binding IOUs called promissory notes before the company merger, accounting for millions of dollars in payouts. These promissory notes were then converted to stock to allocate shares to executives during the merger. "We don’t even know why these promissory notes were issued," Murphy told *CNBC*. Meanwhile, TMTG flung up its arms when asked why they were issued, resorting to Trump-like rhetoric. "Although we’ve only been a public company for about a week, we’ve already come to expect this buffet of false insinuations and outright lies from the politicized shills at *CNBC*," a spokeswoman told the broadcaster. **More on TMTG:** *[Trump's "Truth Social" Stock Crashes as Soon as Market Opens]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()