Stock in Donald Trump’s media company hit its lowest level on Wednesday since being publically listed earlier this year.
Trump Media, the parent company of Trump’s Truth Social Network, was trading at $16.98 at closing on Wednesday, down more than 78 percent from the stock’s March high of $79.38 per share.
The slump means that Donald Trump, the company’s largest shareholder, has seen his personal, roughly 60 percent stake decline in value from $6bn to $2bn during that time.
A number of factors could be driving the crash of the stock price, which often serves as an unofficial barometer of how investors perceive Trump’s political and business fortunes at any given moment.
On September 19, Trump and other early investors will be allowed to begin selling their shares, which could further depress Trump Media’s share price, according to The New York Times.
Outside of a potential selloff on the horizon, Trump is also back on mainstream social media platforms like X, undercutting the appeal of Truth Social, which was for a time the main social media platform he used to connect with followers.
Then there’s the value of Trump Media itself, which retains, according to its stock price, a market value of $3.5bn despite pulling in less than $1m in second-quarter sales, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Last but not least, there’s the question of the future of the Trump campaign, with the Harris campaign retaining a modest lead in national polling since the end of July.
Trump Media has ranged all over the table, often in line with key moments in Trump’s public life, from a decline after his hush money verdict in May, to bumps up after Trump’s successful debate win against Biden and surviving an assassination attempt.