Trump’s Truth will go public as DWAC shareholders approve merger

On Friday, a merger involving Donald Trump’s social media company and Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC) got the green light from DWAC shareholders. This merger could potentially earn Trump a hefty profit of around $3 billion.

The approval follows about two and a half years after DWAC, a special purpose acquisition company, disclosed its plans to merge with Trump Media & Technology Group, which owns Truth Social app.

Interestingly, this decision coincides with the looming threat of New York Attorney General Letitia James pursuing a substantial $454 million civil fraud judgment against Trump.

Shares of Trump Media, the new entity resulting from the merger, are anticipated to be publically tradeable next week. The stock symbol DJT, synonymous with Trump’s previous casino and hotel business, will represent these shares.

Despite a 12% drop in DWAC’s share price post-vote, it had mostly regained the loss by noon ET. Any further fluctuation in DWAC’s share price could influence the value of Trump’s shares in the merged enterprise.

FactSet data indicates that 11% of DWAC’s tradable shares are being short-sold, hinting at anticipations of further price drops.

Several recently filed lawsuits questioning the merger terms did not influence the voting schedule. However, they could affect share distribution to key people involved in the late 2021 merger.

With nearly 80 million shares allotted to Trump in the merged company, their value could touch $3 billion or more depending on DWAC’s opening share price on Friday.

While the potential profit for Trump is sizeable, not all of it is immediately accessible due to the current deal’s terms that prevent Trump from selling his shares for at least six months. There is no surety that the trading price level of Trump Media shares will stay at the same level that DWAC shares did before the merger.

Yet, the board of directors could vote in favor of Trump selling his shares earlier. Potentially, the board could comprise people close to Trump, such as his son Donald Trump Jr., former wrestling company executive Linda McMahon, and ex-trade representative Robert Lighthizer.

If the board releases the share lockup period, Trump could quickly gain access to substantial funds, something he might need as he is expected to be this year’s Republican presidential nominee.

Currently, Trump is grappling with substantial legal bills from various criminal and civil cases and judgments amounting to over half a billion dollars across three separate civil cases.

Earlier this week, Trump asked a New York appeals court for a stay of the $454 million fraud judgment while he tries to overturn the case verdict. The court’s decision is pending.

Although Trump’s lawyers stated in a court filing that Trump lacked sufficient cash to use as collateral for a bond to secure the judgment and halt James from collecting, Trump declared in a Truth Social post on Friday that he presently has “almost five hundred million in cash.”