In an apparent rebuke of Donald Trump’s outlandish debate performance, shares of his social media company plummeted Wednesday morning to a record low for the stock.
Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, dropped 17 percent to below $15.75 shortly after the market opened, pushing aside the previous record low set earlier this month of $16.70.
The shares recovered only slightly to close at $16.68, down 10 percent.
ADVERTISEMENT
The drop brought Trump’s majority 60 percent stake in the company— 114.75 million shares—to about $1.9 billion, down from a high of $6.2 billion earlier this year.
The share price of the volatile stock has acted this past year as a gauge of the public’s fluctuating confidence in Trump’s ability to win the 2024 presidential election.
Since opening in March at $78 a share, a debut that brought the company’s valuation to $7.85 billion, the stock has plunged more than 74 percent, but got a 4 percent boost following a shaky debate performance from Joe Biden in June. According to SEC filings, Truth Social lost a staggering $58 million in 2023 before going public.
Wednesday’s drop came as even Republicans agreed that Kamala Harris won Tuesday night’s debate, with Harris baiting Trump into going on rambling, nonsensical rants that were fact-checked sharply by ABC News moderators.
Trump, however, took to Truth Social to declare himself the winner.
