Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump walks away during a commercial break as U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris takes notes during a presidential debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 10, 2024.
Saul Loeb | Afp |
The share price of Trump media fell more than 10% on Wednesday, a day after majority shareholder Donald Trump appeared against Vice President Kamala Harris in a widely criticized presidential debate.
The company's share price closed at its lowest level since the Truth social app owner began public trading on the Nasdaq as DJT in late March.
Investing in Trump Media stocks is often seen as a way to bet on the political fate of Trump, the former president and current Republican candidate.
Trump Media has said its business depends at least in part on Trump's popularity, and analysts expect the company's value to rise or fall with Trump's electoral prospects.
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Trump Media (DJT) share price
Wednesday's drop in stock prices could be a sign that some Trump supporters were unhappy with what they saw at Tuesday night's debate in Philadelphia.
Liberal and conservative political commentators said Harris appeared more prepared, more articulate and more poised than Trump, who repeatedly took the bait she threw at him to try to distract him from the issue.
Harris' team exuded confidence and challenged Trump to another debate immediately after the end of the first one.
Trump said he might not agree to that, and in a Truth Social post on Wednesday he repeated his claim that Harris only wanted another debate because she had been “badly beaten.”
“Why should I participate in a rematch?” he wrote in the post.
Trump Media shares rose as much as 10% in trading on Tuesday, possibly indicating optimism about Trump's performance in the debate.
The company's gains on Monday and Tuesday were a respite from a weeks-long slide that saw its stock price fall as much as 75 percent from its daily high in late March, when the then-privately held Trump Media merged with a blank-check company.
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This decline coincided with the withdrawal of US President Joe Biden from the presidential race, who supported Harris as his successor at the top of the Democratic candidate list.
In addition, the transaction took place shortly before the date on which Trump and other company insiders can begin selling their shares.
Trump owns nearly 57 percent of the company's shares, which were worth about $1.9 billion at Wednesday's closing price.
It is unclear whether Trump plans to begin selling his shares when a lock-up period ends on September 19.
Correction: Donald Trump owns nearly 57% of Trump Media stock. An earlier version misstated the percentage.
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