Former President Donald Trump‘s former biographer said on Saturday that if the GOP presidential nominee loses November’s election, it could decimate his net worth.
While speaking with MSNBC‘s Alex Witt on Saturday afternoon, Tim O’Brien, author of the 2005 biography TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald explained why Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, is declining and how an election loss could make things worse.
When Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which owns Truth Social, went public in late March, its stock price was at $66.22. As of Friday, it is down to $22.81. Last quarter, TMTG reported over $16 million in losses and less than a million dollars in revenue.
Meanwhile, TMTG said in a report to the United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) that the company’s “success depends in part on the popularity of our brand and the reputation and popularity of President Donald J. Trump. The value of TMTG’s brand may diminish if the popularity of President Donald J. Trump were to suffer,” adding that “TMTG’s business plan relies on President Donald J. Trump bringing his former social media followers to TMTG’s platform.”
O’Brien told Witt that Trump’s stake in TMTG makes up “probably about half of his net worth now—at least, I would think,” adding that his stake is worth around $2.7 billion.
“We’re in the very unusual position of having a publicly traded stock that is actually a barometer for Trump’s political fortunes because Truth Social’s business model is nothing more than the cult of Donald Trump’s personality and social media presence,” O’Brien said.
Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, told Newsweek via email on Saturday evening: “President Trump has been massively successful throughout his career— starting businesses, building iconic buildings, creating one of the biggest television shows in history, and then becoming President of the United States. He will return to the White House once again.”
Newsweek reached out to TMTG and O’Brien’s agents via email for comment on Saturday evening.
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The biographer explained how recent political events contributed to the successes and failures of Trump’s media company.
He said that TMTG’s stock “jumped” in the first few days after Trump was shot in the right ear at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13 in what the FBI is investigating as an assassination attempt.
Along with President Joe Biden‘s weak showing at a debate with Trump in late June, the former president “had so much momentum at that point in time and he came to the Republican [National] Convention with that kind of momentum,” O’Brien said.
He added: “Since the Republican convention, all of the momentum has gone to the Democrats…and you’ve seen Truth Social’s stock start to weaken again.”
On July 21, Biden exited the presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris who later became the Democratic presidential nominee. Harris has hit the ground running, raising about $500 million since joining the race at the top of the ticket, according to Reuters’ sources.
Her campaign has also amassed 4.7 million followers on TikTok and 1.3 million followers on X, formerly Twitter. Meanwhile, Trump joined X again earlier this month where he has 89.8 million followers. He only has 7.6 million followers on Truth Social.
Witt asked O’Brien what would happen to the value of TMTG if Trump loses the upcoming election and if he wins it.
O’Brien told Witt that if Trump loses the election the value of his media company “becomes negligible. I can’t say necessarily that it goes to zero, but it declines even more dramatically from where it is right now.”
He added that if Trump wins the election, the value of his company will go back up.
When asked if Trump “weakened the financial upside of Truth Social” when he joined X again, O’Brien said, “Of course, he did,” however, he said Trump “realized that he couldn’t have reached the political audience he wants to reach.”
