Tesla's stock price slide since the post-election highs gets all the headlines, but Donald Trump's social media platform is trading under $20 again, having lost about a third of its value in the last couple of weeks.
A week before the election last fall, the stock price for Trump Media & Technology Group—which operates Truth Social— spiked to $51.51. But thanks to an unrelenting string of bad news about the company's business prospects—along with the consequences of Trump's economic policies, which have sent nearly all stocks plunging—the company's shares briefly fell below $19 on Tuesday.
Tesla at least manufactures and sells a functional product: the sedans, all but obscured by the conspicuous Cybertruck and the CEO's endless antics. Trump Media is just a money-losing Twitter clone made obsolete by Elon Musk's purchase of the real thing.
But it's not just the fact that the company has scant advertising sales and few users. It also seems to be spending money in odd and unhelpful ways—it paid Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., $813,000 (or almost a quarter of its revenue) just for showing up at board meetings. And company CEO Devin Nunes has made at least $6.3 million running the company since 2022, a stunning figure for a firm that is struggling to earn any money.
Whatever "buying into the Presidency" vibes Truth Social had had last year have evaporated: why "invest" when you can just give them the money?
