Amid early market turmoil on Wednesday, April 9, 2025, shares of Trump Media (DJT) suddenly spiked 8%. The reason? It just might be a post from the man himself.
President Donald Trump took to his own platform, Truth Social, that morning to say: “This is a great time to buy!!! DJT.” Conveniently, DJT serves as both the stock ticker for Trump Media and Technology Group and, well, the president's own initials.
Here's how it played out: DJT shares started the day at $16.60 per share when the market opened at 9:30 a.m. ET. Seven minutes later, Trump hit “post”. Just three minutes after that — 9:40 a.m. ET — the stock jumped to $17.47.
Adding fuel to the fire was news that Trump would pause most tariffs for 90 days, which seemed to give investors a dose of optimism. The stock kept climbing, hitting $20.32 by 2:40 p.m. ET.
Earlier that day, Trump had also dropped a characteristically confident message on Truth Social: “BE COOL! Everything is going to work out well. The USA will be bigger and better than ever before!” Seems like the market, or at least his followers, took it to heart.
Trump Media, the parent company of Truth Social, boasted a market cap north of $4 billion around that time. This valuation had previously landed Trump a spot among the world's 500 richest people, with estimates pegging his fortune as high as $6.5 billion the year before. Forbes' Real-Time Billionaires List estimated his net worth around $4.5 billion back in April 2025.
Things got even more interesting when a regulatory filing surfaced around that time, suggesting a trust overseeing Trump's massive stake in the company could potentially offload up to 115 million shares.
Axios first reported that Trump Media filed with the SEC to register up to 142.5 million shares and warrants for sale. This included a hefty 114.75 million shares held by the trust controlled by Donald Trump, Jr.
Of course, the SEC needed to give the green light before stockholders like Trump's trust or ARC Global (the SPAC sponsor) could actually sell anything. Trump Media quickly tried to pour cold water on the speculation, putting out a statement denying that the filing meant Trump or other insiders were about to cash out.
“To be clear, these shares were already registered last June on an S-1 form, and today TMTG submitted a routine filing that re-registers them on an S-3 form in order to keep the Company's filings effective,” the company stated, adding, “In fact, there currently is no open window for any affiliate to sell shares.”
Just routine paperwork, apparently.
–William Gavin contributed to this report.