Donald Trump loses $1.5 billion in one day as shares tank

Donald Trump’s net worth has shrunk by $1.5 billion as investors reacted to bad news about one of his companies.

Donald Trump is a lot poorer than he was yesterday — on paper at least.

The former US president and presumed Republican nominee recently joined the ranks of the 500 richest people on the planet. His net worth jumped by $A5 billion on Thursday as his social media company Truth Media & Technology Group went public.

Mr Trump owns a whopping 78,750,000 shares and they reached a high of $US79.38 apiece, giving the company an astronomical market capitalisation of $US10 billion ($A15 billion).

However, a regulatory filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission by the company on Monday revealed that Trump Media lost $US58.2 million ($A90 million) in 2023 after making $US50 million in profit the year before.

The company generated just $US4.1 million in revenue, up from the $US1.4 million it made in 2022.

The filing stated: “TMTG’s independent registered public accounting firm has indicated that TMTG’s financial condition raises substantial doubt as to its ability to continue as a going concern.”

Donald Trump. Picture: AFP

Investors reacted negatively to the news, with the company’s stock price dropping 21.5 per cent. The stock price is still up 200 per cent for the year.

The plunge hurt Mr Trump’s overall net worth to the tune of $1.5 billion. It is currently estimated by Forbes to be $8.7 billion.

Experts have warned that the company is massively overvalued, likening it to a “meme stock”.

Trump Media & Technology Group owns Mr Trump’s social media company Truth Social, which has an estimated 5 million monthly users, and that number is dropping.

That’s a mere splash in the pond compared to the 1 billion people on Tiktok, 1.4 billion on Instagram and 2.2 billion on YouTube.

Facebook boasts a massive active user base of nearly 3 billion.

Truth Social is massively overvalued, experts have warned. Picture: Getty Images via AFP

Jay Ritter, a finance professor at the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business, told CNN that Trump Media was overvalued, and may only be worth $US2 a share.

“The underlying business doesn’t seem to be worth much. There is no evidence this is going to become a large, highly profitable company,” he told CNN.

“I’m reasonably confident the stock price will eventually drop to $2 a share and could even go below that if the company blows through the money it got from the merger.”

Mr Trump is barred from selling or borrowing against his shareholdings for six months.

Also making news today in the Trump world, the former president posted a $175 million ($A270 million) bond to appeal the decision in his New York civil fraud case.

Last week, a New York appeals court cut a $US454 million bond payment he was originally required to pay, reducing the sum to $US175 million and giving him 10 days to pay this smaller amount, AFP reports.

Insurance company Knight Specialty Insurance underwrote the bond and it’s unclear what collateral Mr Trump used to obtain it.