Trump tumbles off world’s richest list amid media setbacks
12:19 PM EDT, September 10, 2024
Donald Trump has fallen off the list of the 500 richest people in the world, as compiled by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. This drop is attributed to the plummeting shares of Trump Media & Technology Group. The former U.S. president has lost billions of dollars. Analysts suggest that Kamala Harris may have played a role in this downturn.
At the end of March, Trump Media & Technology Group's stock price was $66.22. Since then, however, the value of Trump's company has decreased by almost three-quarters (72%), and the 7% increase in stock price recorded on Monday didn't help. The former U.S. president lost billions in this venture.
Technically, Donald Trump has not lost money in the formal sense. The concern lies in the valuation of the shares held by the former U.S. president. If he doesn't sell them, talking about an actual profit or loss is hard. However, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index is based on asset valuation.
As reported in May, Donald Trump's 114.75 million shares were valued at $6.2 billion. Their current value has dropped to $2.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, sufficient to remove him from the list of the 500 richest people in the world.
500 richest people in the world. who is number one?
According to Bloomberg, Elon Musk is number one on the list of the 500 richest people in the world, with a fortune estimated at $241 billion. Jeff Bezos is second on the list, worth $198 billion. Bernard Arnault rounds out the top three with $181 billion. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index is updated daily.
CNN emphasizes that "the wipeout reinforces concerns raised by experts who have repeatedly warned that Trump Media’s multi-billion-dollar price tag defies logic." This company controls the niche social platform Truth Social, which loses money and generates very little revenue. "If this wasn’t Trump, this thing would be trading at $1," assessed Matthew Tuttle, CEO of Tuttle Capital Management, in an interview with CNBC.
Weak fundamentals of Trump's business. "Geared towards his victory"
Analysts believe that Trump's company's plummeting stock prices result from weak fundamentals. Tuttle suggests that "an important impulse" is the polling data, in which Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are nearly neck-and-neck. Trump Media lost about half of its market value since President Joe Biden withdrew from running and endorsed Kamala Harris on July 21.
"This stock is entirely a Trump-gets-elected play. If Trump wins, this could be a viable company. But if he loses, I don’t know how this is a going concern," assessed Tuttle.
Trump Media still has over $300 million in cash and equivalents, which it can use to finance its operations and potential market acquisitions.
