(New York) Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump assured Friday that he would not sell the shares he holds in his media group, causing the stock to soar.
“I don’t want to sell my shares,” the former head of state declared during a press conference organized on the site of the Trump National Golf Club, one of his golf courses, in Oceanside (California).
“I’m not going to sell them,” he insisted. “I don’t need that money.”
In the process, the shares of his media group Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) were catapulted and ended the session up 11.79%.
Created in 2021, parent company of its social network Truth Social, TMTG was introduced on the stock market in March 2024, through a merger with an already listed vehicle.
The former president wanted to bypass the dominant social networks Facebook and Twitter, which had suspended his accounts after the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Both have since lifted this suspension.
The Wall Street listing triggered a six-month “lock-up” period, during which investors who held shares before the IPO cannot sell them.
Starting in late September, Donald Trump will be able to sell all or part of his shares on the market. He currently controls about 57% of TMTG shares.
Many investors feared that he would sell his stake at that time.
With the stock’s plunge, it is now worth only around $2 billion, down from more than $9 billion just after the IPO.
The stock also fell on the emergence of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, which reduces the likelihood of Donald Trump winning on November 5.
Investors also turned away from the stock after Donald Trump resumed posting messages on X (formerly Twitter), a rival platform to Truth Social.
The former president even agreed to an interview with X’s main shareholder, Elon Musk, in early August.
On Friday, Donald Trump announced that he would be showcasing his new cryptocurrency platform World Liberty Financial exclusively on Spaces, X’s streaming space, rather than Truth Social.
“I didn’t do this for the money,” the former New Yorker argued of TMTG and Truth Social, “but because I wanted a platform for expression and this is one.”