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Trump’s net worth slumps by as much as $2.4 billion amid DJT stock plunge
Trump Media & Technology Group has had a wild stock market ride this month. After quadrupling in price just days before, the stock on Thursday plunged as much as 39% since its intraday high on Tuesday. The two-day decline has shaved more than $2.4 billion from former President Donald Trump’s stake in the business, which trades under the ticker DJT, the same as his initials.
Trump Media, which owns the Truth Social app, shed $5.35, or 13.4%, to $34.68 in early afternoon trading on Thursday, after touching an intraday low of $33.41. That comes after a 22% tumble on Wednesday, which followed more than five weeks of market gains, sending the shares to a Tuesday intraday high of $54.68.
Because of their volatility, DJT has earned comparisons to meme stocks, or companies that trade on social media buzz rather than revenue growth or profitability, investors’ favored yardsticks. Despite Truth Social’s declining revenue and large losses, Trump Media shares surged for much of October as polls in the presidential race tightened and as betting markets such as Polymarket predicted odds in Trump’s favor to win.
It’s not exactly clear what sparked the two-day sell-off, but DJT shares have attracted a number of speculators and short sellers, with the latter betting the stock would fall. Some of the October surge in DJT shares could have come from short sellers forced to cover their bets, which requires them to buy stock and create a so-called short squeeze, which can send shares higher, according to research group S3 Partners.
“Trump and Media Group (DJT) stock, closely tied to Trump’s election chances, faces high squeeze risk due to limited float and elevated short interest,” S3 wrote on Tuesday. “Trump’s 57% stake and current short losses intensify squeeze potential.”
Trump’s stake in DJT
Trump owns about 115 million shares of Trump Media, making him the largest investor in the fledgling social media company. At its most recent intraday peak of $54.68 on Tuesday, his stake was valued at almost $6.3 billion.
But the two-day sell-off has whittled the value of that stake to about $3.8 billion, based on Thursday’s intraday low.
To be sure, those losses represents paper wealth, and Trump has vowed not to sell his shares after a lock-up period expired last month, which now enables him to liquidate his stake. Because Trump owns almost 60% of the company’s stock, selling even a portion of his stake could flood the market with available shares, potentially lowering its price.
Many of the other DJT shareholders are small investors who bought shares as a way to express support for the former president. On Thursday, as the stock tumbled for a second day, some of its shareholders vowed revenge in the months to come, with some blaming short sellers and others pointing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC.)
“I was happy to strap my investment dollars to @realDonaldTrump and take all the financial arrows with him,” wrote Chad Nedohin, a minister and shareholder who runs a DJT group on Truth Social. “The more they try to hurt DJT, the worse it’s going to be for them in 2025.”
Nedohin added #TrumpTheSEC at the end of his post.
A grand jury in Nevada has again indicted Nathan Chasing Horse on charges that he sexually abused Indigenous women and girls for decades, reviving a sweeping criminal case against the former “Dances with Wolves” actor.
The 21-count indictment unsealed Thursday in Clark County District Court, which includes Las Vegas, again charges the 48-year-old with sexual assault, lewdness and kidnapping. It also adds felony charges of producing and possessing child sexual abuse materials.
It comes after the Nevada Supreme Court in September ordered the dismissal of Chasing Horse’s original indictment, while leaving open the possibility for charges to be refiled. The court sided with Chasing Horse, saying in its scathing order that prosecutors had abused the grand jury process.
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson quickly vowed to seek another indictment.
The initial 18-count indictment charged Chasing Horse with more than a dozen felonies. He had pleaded not guilty.
His lawyer, Kristy Holston, had also argued that the case should be dismissed because, the former actor said, the sexual encounters were consensual. One of his accusers was younger than 16, the age of consent in Nevada, when the abuse began, according to the indictment.
Neither Wolfson nor Holston immediately responded Thursday to phone or emailed requests for comment.
Ty ONeil / AP
Best known for portraying the character Smiles A Lot in the 1990 movie “Dances with Wolves,” Chasing Horse was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, which is home to the Sicangu Sioux, one of the seven tribes of the Lakota nation.
After starring in the Oscar-winning film, authorities have said, he propped himself up as a self-proclaimed Lakota medicine man while traveling around North America to perform healing ceremonies.
He is accused of using that position to gain the trust of vulnerable Indigenous women and girls, lead a cult and take underage wives.
Chasing Horse’s arrest last January reverberated around Indian Country and helped law enforcement in the U.S. and Canada corroborate long-standing allegations against him, leading to more criminal charges, including on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana. Tribal leaders had banished Chasing Horse in 2015 from the reservation amid allegations of human trafficking.
The 48-year-old has been in custody since his arrest last January near the North Las Vegas home he is said to have shared with five wives. Inside the home, police found firearms, 41 pounds of marijuana and psilocybin mushrooms, and a memory card with videos of sexual assaults, CBS News previously reported. Police said that at least two of the women were underage when he married them: One was 15, police said, and another was 16.
When the Nevada Supreme Court ordered the dismissal of Chasing Horse’s indictment, the judges said they were not weighing in on his guilt or innocence, calling the allegations against him serious. But the court said that prosecutors improperly provided the grand jury with a definition of grooming without expert testimony, and faulted them for withholding from the grand jury inconsistent statements made by one of his accusers.
Chasing Horse’s legal issues have been unfolding at the same time lawmakers and prosecutors around the U.S. are funneling more resources into cases involving Native women, including human trafficking and murders.
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