Sign up for Inside Washington’s daily email to get exclusive U.S. reporting and analysis delivered straight to your inbox
Get our free Inside Washington email
Get our free Inside Washington email
Investors in Donald Trump’s social media platform Truth Social are feeling the aftermath of Tuesday’s presidential debate against Kamala Harris: share prices plummeted when the stock market opened on Wednesday.
Shares of Nasdaq-listed Trump Media and Technology Group Corp fell as much as 17.6 percent to around $15.40 after trading began, just hours after Trump and Harris faced off on the debate stage in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
This is a stark contrast to Tuesday morning, when Trump’s social media company was up for the second day in a row, rising 3.2 percent and seeing its share price hit a high of $18.63 by 4 p.m.
Truth Social’s parent company is apparently feeling the effects of the former president’s loss to his Democratic rival on Tuesday night after he gave rambling answers on illegal immigration and the economy and made blatantly false claims about abortion and the 2020 election.
According to a CNN snap poll, 63 percent of registered voters who watched the ABC News debate believe Harris “won” the debate.
The situation became even worse when global star Taylor Swift announced on Instagram in the early hours after the debate: “I will cast my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.”
After its Wall Street debut in March, Trump Media and Technology Group Corp.’s stock performance partly reflected his prospects of returning to the White House.
The market value of Trump Media and Technology Group Corp is currently about $3.8 billion.
However, strategists say this has nothing to do with the business fundamentals: The company reported a loss of $16.4 million and sales of $837,000 in June.
Trump is the largest shareholder in Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. with a stake of around 60 percent.
The former president’s current stake in the company is around $2 billion. Before the merger with a listed shell company in March, the stake was $6 billion and has thus fallen dramatically.
The former president can begin selling his shares in Trump Media and Technology Group Corp on September 19, when a lock-up period ends that prohibits company insiders from selling newly issued shares for six months.
