Trump takes near-$4 billion hit on Truth Social since May — and the stock faces a fresh selling spree

• The value of Donald Trump's Truth Social stake has tanked by about $4 billion since May.

• The ex-president may face further declines when stock-selling restrictions ease later this month.

• Trump's social-media platform has been hit by Kamala Harris' momentum and his use of its rival X.

Donald Trump has seen about $4 billion wiped off the value of his Truth Social stake since May — and could suffer further losses once selling restrictions on the stock are lifted later this month.

The former president owns about 115 million shares of Trump Media & Technology Group, Truth Social's parent company. It went public in March after merging with a special-purpose acquisition vehicle.

TMTG shares hit an intraday high of $79 on their market debut and traded at about $54 on May 9, but they've crashed 68% since then, hovering around a record low of about $17.

The heavy sell-off has cut the right-wing social-media company's market value from about $10 billion in May to below $3.5 billion. It has slashed the value of Trump's roughly 60% holding from about $6 billion to $2 billion over the same period.

The downturn reflects a shake-up in the presidential race, with Vice President Kamala Harris replacing President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee. Harris is widely seen as a greater threat to Trump's reelection chances — the pair are virtually tied in recent polls, while Trump held a steady lead over Biden.

And after a yearslong hiatus, Trump has resumed posting on Elon Musk's X, which is perhaps the biggest rival to Truth Social. The ex-president's use of his own social-media site instead of the platform formerly known as Twitter was seen as one of its biggest strengths — especially if he regained office.

Fast fall

Trump's TMTG stake briefly catapulted him into the top 300 of the world's 500 wealthiest people as measured by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The rich list estimated his net worth above $7 billion in late March, ranking him above the likes of George Soros, Mark Cuban, Giorgio Armani, Reed Hastings, and Bernie Marcus.

But the Republican presidential candidate quickly fell off the index once TMTG shares sank. Forbes pegs his current net worth below $4 billion — and Trump is not rich enough to still make the Bloomberg list.

Trump's fortune could shrink further as the lock-up period on TMTG insiders selling shares expires later this month.

The real-estate mogul might cash out some of his shares, but Trump faces constraints on how fast he can sell and will have to make public regulatory filings when he reaches certain thresholds.

Read the original article on Business Insider