With news all over the place last week, you may have heard that Donald Trump is suddenly multi-billion dollars richer on paper after his social media site, Truth Social, went public on Tuesday. .
And you might want to get in on the new stock action that has inspired so many. Is it even irrational? – Market boom.
But be careful here, because the former one-term president has a very long history of business and personal misfortune, and a future that bodes well for even more misfortune.
Don't just take my word for it.
The warning follows two filings about Trump that Truth Social filed last month with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which is charged with protecting investors, maintaining market order and “facilitating capital formation.” It comes directly from.
Among the immediate threats raised against the Republican presidential nominee are that he is owed more than $500 million in civil judgments, has four pending criminal cases, and has a wealth of corporate bankruptcy protection filings. It has a proven track record, with some entrepreneurial efforts ending in complete failure.
Oh, and SEC filings state that Truth Social's reach with users is so limited that even President Trump used Hell, formerly known as Twitter, to gain a larger audience. It states that it may move to another social media site like X.
“If President Donald Trump's popularity declines, Truth Social's value could decline,” the SEC filing said.
A Pew Research Center poll released on March 19 found that 60% of Americans have a negative view of President Trump.
You probably shouldn't bet your 401(k) on this.
Truth Social's own numbers aren't that good.
Trump currently owns 60% of Truth Social, according to a Feb. 14 SEC filing, and the licensing agreement says he can post “nonpolitical” posts there and then wait six hours. You are obligated to post elsewhere. “There is a limited amount of time to benefit from his posts, and followers may not feel the need to use Truth Social to read his posts so quickly,” the site said.
The company also said President Trump has “sole discretion” to use social media websites for “politically related” posts. “If President Trump minimizes his use of Truth Social, he may lack meaningful redress,” the company said.
So you could say that the thrice-married former real estate developer, who is known for demanding paychecks from contractors and infuriating and firing political allies, is famous for just walking away.
President Trump's money problems:Both Biden and Trump are in a world of hurt. But Biden has the money to solve his problems.
Truth Social notes that to be successful, “millions” of users will need to “register and regularly use” the site.
The company cited a 2021 Hill-HarrisX poll that found 54% of registered voters said they would not use Truth Social, 30% said they would use it, and 16% said they would probably use it. No surprises here. These results vary by party affiliation. 78% of Democrats and 58% of independents did not want to join Truth Social, while 54% of Republicans wanted to log on.
Twitter (now X) had 215 million monthly active users when it went public in 2013, but Truth Social noted on Wednesday that it had just 5 million monthly active users when it went public on Tuesday. Earlier this month, X announced that it has 550 million monthly active users (although X doesn't say how many of those are fraudulent bots trying to sell fake cryptocurrencies).
The current business model has been reversed, with Truth Social generating $3.3 million in revenue and a $49 million loss in the first nine months of 2023.
The stock has been on a roller coaster ride over the past week, starting Tuesday at $70.90 per share, soaring to $79.38, before falling to $61.96 by Nasdaq close on Thursday. (The market was closed for Good Friday.)
Trump's own business history weighs against him in Truth Social's application
Truth Social also detailed to the SEC the long and strange history of failures of Trump's ventures, while insisting there was “no guarantee” the company would not follow the same path.
Remember Trump Shuttle? The airline was founded by President Trump in 1989, defaulted on its debt a year later, and was “defunct by 1992,” according to filings.
Trump University opened in 2005, but the lawsuit continued until Trump's first presidential election in 2016 and ended in 2018 with a $25 million settlement from Trump, who was then living in the White House. It disappeared in the year.
Trump Vodka was produced by a company that licensed his name and lasted for six years. Two businesses he started in 2006, Trump Mortgage and GoTrump.com, disappeared a year later. Trump Steak was also poorly aged and was only available for two months in 2007.
Americans want a religious president.They just don't see Trump or Biden that way.
Truth Social's SEC documents reveal a history of Trump's six casino and hotel bankruptcy protection filings in Atlantic City and New York from 1991 to 2009. There's also a breakdown of his many lawsuits, referenced in a 2016 USA TODAY compilation of those lawsuits.
Trump sues and is sued so often that Truth Social told the SEC that the warning “is not meant to be an exhaustive list” of those incidents.
Then Trump has very real legal issues.
President Trump's recent legal entanglements are similarly summed up.
A New York case goes on trial next month for allegedly paying hush money to a porn star to silence talk of an affair during the 2016 election, and a Georgia case accused of trying to overturn the 2020 election The case is being prosecuted in a federal case in Florida. The federal lawsuit charges him with storing and concealing classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, and his actions before and during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Truth Social said that since President Trump is “the subject of numerous legal proceedings, the scope and scale of which are unprecedented for a former president,” there is “no possibility of President Trump's death, imprisonment, or incapacitation.” ” could have an adverse impact on its business, it said in an SEC filing. United States and current candidates for the position. ”
President Trump also seeks $88.3 million in two libel judgments for accusing author E. Jean Carroll of sexual assault and $454 million in damages for operating a fraud-riddled New York business. It is being
Trump relishes the fact that Truth Social is the one place where nothing he says or does can be used against him.
The company told the SEC that even if it could harm Truth Social's “reputation or brand or be deemed offensive, dishonest, illegal, immoral, unethical, or harmful,” President Trump's license agreement cannot be invalidated because of “personal or political conduct.''
This sounds like a deal tailor-made for someone like Trump, given his history. But does that mean Truth Social is a good bet for savvy stock marketers? That's for you to decide.
Don't say you weren't warned.
Follow USA TODAY elections columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ChrisBrennan
