Mr. Raskin and other Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability estimated that Mr. Trump’s businesses garnered at least $7.8 million from foreign governments or their leaders while he was in office, mostly from China and Saudi Arabia. The Trump Organization donated only about $459,000 to the Treasury, they said.
Perhaps even more than with his hotels, golf courses and other enterprises, Mr. Trump’s personal involvement in the social media company is considered critical to its success.
In filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Digital World Acquisition Corporation, the company behind the merger, tied the operation’s hopes directly to Mr. Trump. Were Mr. Trump to divest of his financial interest, or no longer devote a substantial amount of time to Truth Social, the business could suffer, the filings stated.
Mr. Trump created Truth Social in 2021 after Twitter barred him from its platform, citing the risk of violence. Mr. Trump has fewer than seven million followers, compared with about
87 million on X, formerly Twitter. He continued to post almost exclusively on Truth Social even after X reinstated him in November 2022, a sign of his commitment to the platform.
During the first nine months of last year, Trump Media took in just $3.3 million in revenue — all from advertising on Truth Social — and had a net loss of $49 million. But after concluding the merger, Trump Media closed its first day of trading on Nasdaq under the ticker DJT, with an estimated market value of close to $8 billion. That is more than 2,000 times its estimated annual revenue and more than the valuation of corporations like Alaska Airlines and Western Union.
