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Trump: ‘NO INTENTION OF SELLING’ $3.5B stake in Trump Media

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President-elect Donald Trump is doubling down on his plans to hold on to his roughly $3.5 billion stake in the parent company of Truth Social, just days after winning back the White House.

In a social media post, Trump, who is the company’s majority shareholder, said Friday he has “NO INTENTION OF SELLING” his nearly 115 million shares. He added that there have been “fake, untrue, and probably illegal rumors and/or statements made by, perhaps, market manipulators or short sellers, that I am interested in selling shares of Truth,” which he rejected.

“THOSE RUMORS OR STATEMENTS ARE FALSE,” Trump said on Truth Social. “I hereby request that the people who have set off these fake rumors or statements, and who may have done so in the past, be immediately investigated by the appropriate authorities.”

Now a major source of his estimated $5.6 billion fortune, Trump’s stock in the company — Trump Media & Technology Group — poses a new and potentially complicated element of the president-elect’s business empire as he prepares to head back to Washington.

The stock has drawn concern from ethics watchdogs, who worry that corporate interests or foreign actors could try to use Truth Social to curry favor with Trump by either buying ads on the platform or investing in the stock.

Trump Media has struggled to generate much business, despite its hefty valuation of $6.5 billion. On Tuesday night, before polls closed across the country, the company reported a $19.2 million net loss for the three months ended Sept. 30. Trump Media generates its revenue from advertising on Truth Social.

Spokespeople for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment about how Trump plans to handle the stock once in office.

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Congress

Key GOP centrist Rep. Don Bacon will not seek reelection

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Rep. Don Bacon will not seek reelection and plans to retire at the end of his term, according to two people familiar with his plans. The announcement is expected Monday.

Bacon is a key GOP centrist in the House and represents one of only three Republican-held districts that Kamala Harris won in the 2024 presidential election.

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Rep. Dusty Johnson to announce a bid for South Dakota governor Monday

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Rep. Dusty Johnson will announce a bid for South Dakota governor Monday, according to two people granted anonymity to speak about private conversations.

Johnson has served as South Dakota’s sole House representative since 2019. He’s been a key player in major deals on Capitol Hill in recent years as the head of the Main Street Caucus of Republicans.

Johnson, long expected to mount a bid for higher office, will make the announcement in Sioux Falls.

Johnson is the eighth House Republican to announce a run for higher office in 2026. Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Byron Donalds of Florida, Randy Feenstra of Iowa, John James of Michigan and John Rose of Tennessee are also seeking governor’s offices; Reps. Andy Barr of Kentucky and Buddy Carter of Georgia have announced Senate runs.

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Senate slated to take first vote on megabill Saturday

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Senate Republicans are planning to take an initial vote at noon on Saturday to take up the megabill.

Leadership laid out the timeline during a closed-door lunch on Friday, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.) said after the lunch. A person granted anonymity to discuss internal scheduling confirmed the noon timeline but cautioned Republicans haven’t locked in the schedule yet.

During the lunch, Speaker Mike Johnson pitched Senate Republicans on the tentative SALT deal, according to three people in the room. He said the deal was as good as Republican can get, according to the people.

Johnson noted he still has “one holdout” — an apparent reference to New York Republican Nick LaLota, who said in a brief interview Friday that if there was a deal, he was not part of it.

Leaving the meeting, Johnson was asked by reporters whether he thought Senate Republicans would accept the SALT deal. “I believe they will,” he replied. “They’re going to digest the final calculations, but I think we’re very, very close to closing that issue.”

In the meeting, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Johnson laid out details of the fragile agreement, telling Senate Republicans the House SALT deal would be cut in half, to total roughly $192 billion. They restated it would raise the SALT cap to $40,000 for five years under the current House-negotiated SALT deal, and snap back to the current $10,000 cap after that.

In related matters, Kennedy and Hoeven also said the Senate will keep its provider tax proposal but delay its implementation, which Republicans believe will help it comply with budget rules. and Johnson also told Senate Republicans that he wants to do another reconciliation bill — which senators took to mean they would get another opportunity to secure spending cuts or provisions passed that have been squeezed out of the megabill.

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