Retirees who support Trump have heavily invested in Trump Media, despite the stock’s volatility.
One user, known only as @DTLjohnny, revealed on Trump Media-owned Truth Social that he invested 98% of his retirement savings in the stock. By September, he estimated a 60% loss in his investment but expressed confidence in the company’s future.
“I anticipated this moment when the Deep State would resort to desperate measures, leveraging counterfeit shares. It’s clear to everyone what they are up to. I believe this is part of the larger plan for complete exposure,” the user wrote in September. “Trump won’t let them bankrupt his company! Have faith. He and [Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes] have a hidden strategy. They must keep it under wraps…for now.”
Although the shares surged over 300% from late September to late October, they have since fallen by about 40%.
Another investor, John Viaud from South Carolina, expressed worry over the stock. After losing $600,000 on Trump Media investments, he stated, “My entire pension is at risk.”
“If we don’t see positive results tomorrow, I might need to bail,” he wrote in a Truth Social post in September.
Responding to Truth Social’s criticism of the Washington Post‘s previous coverage, Viaud stated that he continued to invest in Trump Media and managed to recoup most of his losses due to the stock’s success.
Fortune was unable to verify the investment portfolios of the Truth Social users. The users did not respond to Fortune‘s interview requests, and Trump Media did not provide comments to Fortune.
Supporting Trump’s media and technology company has become a way for his followers to demonstrate their unwavering support for the president-elect. However, retirees who heavily invested in Trump Media before the election may face challenges if they continue to pour money into the stock after Trump’s victory on Nov. 5. Despite a 6% increase in the stock the day after the election, share prices have since dropped by 13%, erasing the initial gain.
The stock has followed a similar pattern of volatility seen in a broader “Trump bump” of stock surges right after the election, which helped the S&P 500 achieve a 3.5% gain in the second week of November, its best post-election performance ever, but has since stabilized.
Trump Media has always been subject to fluctuations. Since its first day of public trading on March 26 after its special purpose acquisition company merger, it has lost over 53% of its value. Executives like CFO Phillip Juhan and company director Eric Swider have sold a combined 536,000 shares since the election. Trump, on the other hand, remains the largest shareholder with a 54% ownership stake, valued at approximately $3.2 billion.
Trump’s victory paradox
The tumultuous journey of Trump Media post-election signifies that Trump’s win hasn’t resolved the stock’s instability or Truth Social’s financial challenges.
Recent filings show that Trump Media is losing money, primarily due to Truth Social’s limited conservative user base and a reliance on advertising revenue, which totaled only $2.6 million in the first nine months of the year and declined by 23% from the previous year. The company reported a $363 million loss during the same period. Trump Media is contemplating launching a cryptocurrency payment platform called TruthFi to generate additional revenue.
Trump’s Truth Social platform was initially created in early 2022 as a space for Trump to express his ideas after being banned from Twitter and Facebook following the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack. However, Elon Musk’s X, which boasts 70.4 million monthly active users compared to Truth Social’s 698,000 as of September, has become a prominent platform for disseminating conservative viewpoints since Musk acquired the app in October 2022. Trump rejoined the platform in August 2023. With speculations of a partnership between the two sites, the value proposition of Truth Social as a platform for Trump and his followers has diminished.
“Trump Media’s fundamental argument was to provide a space for unrestricted expression, something that had been lacking for years,” commented Mike Stegemoller, a finance professor at Baylor University, to the Washington Post.
Trump’s return to presidency and an international stage observed by global leaders, supporters, and critics further diminishes the appeal of an app designed specifically to amplify his voice.
“This doesn’t bode well for a company with meager revenue streams,” Stegemoller added.
