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Re:

How the Approved Truth Social Deal Could Give Trump Billions in Paper Wealth

The completed 2024 DWAC merger took Truth Social’s parent public. The billions attributed to Trump were estimates of his expected shares at particular market prices, not guaranteed cash.
From TheFinanceBase Team3 min to read
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The 2024 deal that took Truth Social’s parent company public could give Donald Trump a multibillion-dollar stake on paper. It did not hand him billions in cash: the headline figures were estimates based on the market price of shares he was expected to own, and selling those shares was restricted after the merger closed.

What deal was approved?

The transaction was a SPAC business combination between Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC), a publicly traded acquisition company, and Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), the parent of Truth Social. DWAC’s shareholders approved the combination in March 2024. TMTG became a public company, with its common stock trading under the ticker DJT, as identified in its 2024 annual filing.

The merger is completed, not merely proposed. TMTG’s later June 2026 filing describes Truth Social, Truth+ and Truth.Fi, and separately refers to a pending merger with TAE. That later proposal is a different transaction from the 2024 DWAC deal.

Why SEC effectiveness was not the shareholder vote

On February 14, 2024, DWAC announced in an SEC-filed release that the SEC had declared its Form S-4 registration statement effective. That allowed the proxy process to proceed; it was not the decision by DWAC shareholders to approve the merger. DWAC said it would later announce the special meeting at which shareholders could vote, and the vote took place in March.

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In the same announcement, then-TMTG CEO Devin Nunes described Truth Social as created “to serve as a safe harbor for free expression and to give people their voices back.” That was the company’s own description of the platform, not an independent finding.

How the deal produced a “billions” estimate

The headline value came from multiplying the number of shares Trump was expected to own by a quoted share price. The Associated Press reported that Trump was set to receive nearly 79 million shares. Using DWAC’s March 22, 2024 closing price of $36.94, AP estimated the stake’s value at close to $3 billion.

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That calculation is an illustrative market value at one date, not a promise that Trump received $3 billion in cash or could sell the shares for that amount. A shareholding’s quoted value can change with the stock price, and a large holding’s actual sale proceeds depend on the price available when shares are sold.

The Washington Post reported an earlier estimate of nearly $4 billion in its February 15, 2024 article, based on the share price at that time. It was a different price snapshot from AP’s later calculation, not a second payment or a figure to combine with the March estimate.

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Why a large paper stake was not immediately spendable cash

The Washington Post reported that Trump and other key holders were subject to a six-month lockup after closing, absent a waiver. University of Florida finance professor Jay Ritter called the shares “paper wealth … with the emphasis on ‘paper,’ since his [Trump Media] shares cannot currently be sold,” as quoted by the Post in February 2024. That statement described the restrictions and circumstances at that time; it should not be read as a claim about current ability to sell.

More generally, an estimated stake value and realized cash are different things:

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  • Implied value: share count multiplied by a specified market price, producing a dated estimate.
  • Realized proceeds: cash received only if shares are sold, at the price available for the sale and subject to applicable restrictions.
  • Potential gain: not established by the headline valuation alone; calculating it would require relevant cost-basis and sale information.
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Is “bailout” an accurate description?

“Bailout” captures the idea of a potentially large financial benefit, but it is not a precise description of the deal’s mechanics. The transaction was a corporate merger, not a government rescue or a cash transfer to Trump. The billions figures in the 2024 coverage described the market-based value of an expected shareholding, which could rise or fall and was not automatically money available to spend.

How to keep the later TAE deal separate

TMTG’s June 2026 Form 10-Q refers to a separate pending merger with TAE. The companies’ December 2025 SEC-filed announcement described that proposed deal as an all-stock transaction valued by the companies at more than $6 billion. As of the June 2026 filing, closing remained subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals. That stated value belongs to the later TMTG–TAE proposal; it is not the value of the completed 2024 DWAC combination.

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