Donald Trump’s biographer says election loss could shrink his net worth

Former President Donald Trump’s biographer said Saturday that if the Republican presidential candidate loses the November election, it could shrink his net worth..

Speaking to MSNBC’s Alex Witt on Saturday afternoon, Tim O’Brien, author of the 2005 biography, said: Trump Nation: The Art of Being Donald Explaining why Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, is in decline and how losing the election could make things worse.

When Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which owns Truth Social, went public in late March, its stock was priced at $66.22. By Friday, it was down to $22.81. In the most recent quarter, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) reported a loss of more than $16 million and revenue of less than $1 million.

Meanwhile, TMTG said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that “the success of the Company depends in part on the popularity of our brand and the reputation and popularity of President Donald J. Trump. The value of TMTG’s brand could decline if President Donald J. Trump’s popularity suffers,” adding that “TMTG’s business plan depends on President Donald J. Trump bringing his former social media followers to TMTG’s platform.”

Trump’s stake in TMTG is “probably about half of his net worth now — at least, I think,” O’Brien told Witt, adding that his stake is worth about $2.7 billion.

“We are in a very unusual position where we have publicly traded stock that is actually a measure of Trump’s political fortunes because Truth Social’s business model is nothing more than a cult of Donald Trump’s personality and his social media presence,” O’Brien said.

Stephen Cheung, the Trump administration’s communications director, said, Newsweek Via email Saturday evening: “President Trump has had tremendous success throughout his career — starting businesses, building iconic buildings, creating one of the greatest TV shows in history, and then becoming President of the United States. He will be returning to the White House again.”

Newsweek We reached out to TMTG and O’Brien’s agents via email for comment Saturday evening.

The biographer explains how recent political events have contributed to the successes and failures of Trump’s media company.

He said TMTG shares “jumped” in the first few days after Trump was shot in the right ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13 in what the FBI is investigating as an assassination attempt.

Besides President Joe Biden’s poor performance in a debate with Trump in late June, the former president had “a lot of momentum at that point in time and came to the Republican Party [National] “The conference has that kind of momentum,” O’Brien said.

“Since the Republican convention, all the momentum has gone to the Democrats… and you’ve seen Truth Social’s stock start to weaken again,” he added.

On July 21, Biden dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, who later became the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. Harris has been a huge success, raising about $500 million since joining the race at the top of the ticket, according to Reuters sources.

Her campaign has also amassed 4.7 million followers on TikTok and 1.3 million followers on X, formerly known as Twitter. Meanwhile, Trump rejoined X earlier this month, where he has 89.8 million followers. He has just 7.6 million followers on Truth Social.

Whit O’Brien asked what would happen to the value of TMTG if Trump loses the next election and if he wins.

If Trump loses the election, the value of his media company “will be very small,” O’Brien told Witt. “I wouldn’t necessarily say it will go to zero, but it will go much more dramatically than where it is now.”

He added that if Trump wins the election, the value of his company will rise again.

Asked if Trump “diminished the financial side of Truth Social” when he rejoined X, O’Brien said, “Of course he did,” however, he said Trump “realized he wasn’t able to reach the political audience he wanted to reach.”