Trump Media has said that it is ‘highly dependent on the popularity and presence’ of former president Donald Trump. Photograph: AP Photo/Yuki IwamuraFormer US president Donald Trump’s social media start-up climbed as much as 58 per cent in its first session as a publicly traded company, after the most high-profile blank-check deal in years added billions to his fortune – at least on paper.
The company’s post-merger performance on the Nasdaq under the symbol DJT will test Trump’s ability to capture the attention of individual traders and momentum investors who use it as a way to bet on his push for re-election. Its operations have so far struggled to generate a profit, losing $49 million in the nine months through September while delivering just $3.4 million in revenue.
After two years of snags on the way to a listing, however, including investigations from the Justice Department and the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the money-losing company may have difficulty convincing some investors focused on the long term. The SPAC soared 185 per cent this year through Monday’s close in anticipation of the merger, mirroring Trump’s electoral fortunes as he bulldozed his way toward the Republican presidential nomination.