Former president Donald Trump\u2019s social media company generated just $4 million in revenue last year \u2014 about as much as the average McDonald\u2019s franchise in the United States, according to a report last year by the fast-food industry publication QSR.<\/p>\n
But that hasn\u2019t stopped Trump Media & Technology Group, which runs Truth Social, from granting Trump a share package now worth billions of dollars \u2014 or from paying its leaders millions of dollars in salaries, bonuses and stock, according to documents it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.<\/p>\n
Trump Media, based in Sarasota, Fla., has only 36 employees and lost $58 million last year, the filings show. The online analytics firm Similarweb estimates that Truth Social\u2019s traffic is less than 1 percent of Reddit\u2019s, a platform that received $800 million in revenue last year.<\/p>\n
But a stock-market frenzy has supersized Trump Media\u2019s value to about $5.5 billion \u2014 more than the market values of Macy\u2019s, Columbia Sportswear and Alaska Airlines, which make billions in revenue a year.<\/p>\n
The Washington Post shared with Trump Media the numbers it intended to highlight in this report, all of which were taken from the company\u2019s filings. Trump Media spokeswoman Shannon Devine responded in a statement: \u201cTruth Social just successfully launched as a public company, with a committed and expanding audience of millions of users, so it\u2019s no surprise the partisan activists at The Washington Post \u2014 already the target of ongoing legal action for its defamatory reporting on us \u2014 would gin up this sort of ridiculous hit piece.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump Media sued The Post for defamation last year, saying the news organization had reported incorrectly on allegations concerning its financing. A federal judge in Florida recently dismissed the case but said Trump Media could amend its complaint if it believes it can state a viable claim.<\/p>\n
Trump is Trump Media\u2019s biggest shareholder, with 57.3 percent of the company, or 78.7 million shares \u2014 a stake worth about $3.2 billion based on the stock\u2019s closing price Friday.<\/p>\n
Through an \u201cearnout\u201d provision, Trump stands to receive another 36 million shares if the price stays above $17.50 for 20 days, which could happen as soon as April 26 and would raise his total stake to $4.7 billion.<\/p>\n
A six-month \u201clockup\u201d agreement says Trump can\u2019t sell or transfer his shares until Sept. 25 \u2014 or possibly a few days earlier, if the stock hits a certain price threshold. Trump could ask the company\u2019s board to waive that requirement but has yet to do so. The lockup also applies to company executives and board members.<\/p>\n
Three people on Trump Media\u2019s seven-member board of directors have been compensated with either stock or cash or both.<\/p>\n
Devin Nunes, Trump Media\u2019s chief executive and president, received 115,000 shares, worth about $4.6 million. He was paid a $750,000 salary last year that increased to $1 million this year.<\/p>\n
Nunes, a former Republican congressman from California, also will receive a $600,000 lump-sum \u201cretention bonus\u201d this month. A bonus agreement signed by Nunes said the money was designed to help \u201censure the continuity\u201d of Trump Media\u2019s business.<\/p>\n
Board member Eric Swider, who was chief executive of the special purpose acquisition company that merged with Trump Media, and Renatus, his consulting firm in Puerto Rico, received about 153,000 shares as part of the merger deal, a stake worth $6.2 million.<\/p>\n
Another board member, Kash Patel, a former Nunes aide who served on Trump\u2019s National Security Council, was paid $130,000 last year as part of a consulting agreement with his company, Trishul. A filing says Patel also serves as a \u201cnational security adviser to [Trump] as a private citizen\u201d and receives payment for that service from Trump\u2019s Save America political action committee.<\/p>\n
The other four board members \u2014 Trump\u2019s former trade representative Robert E. Lighthizer; Trump\u2019s former Small Business Administration leader Linda McMahon; the Louisiana attorney W. Kyle Green; and Trump\u2019s son Donald Trump Jr. \u2014 were not paid last year, though a filing said the board could give itself \u201cstock as non-cash compensation \u2026 from time to time.\u201d<\/p>\n
One former board member, Dan Scavino Jr., a longtime Trump aide who led his White House\u2019s social media operation and is now advising Trump\u2019s presidential campaign, was paid $240,000 last year through a consulting agreement with his company, Hudson Digital. Scavino will also receive a $600,000 retention bonus this month.<\/p>\n
Trump Media also issued a $2.2 million \u201cexecutive promissory note\u201d to Scavino. The company gave similar promissory notes to other executives, which automatically converted on the day of the merger into stock. The filings do not specify whether Scavino\u2019s note was converted.<\/p>\n
Trump Media\u2019s chief financial officer, Phillip Juhan, received 490,000 shares, worth $19.8 million. He was paid $337,500 last year, and his salary jumped to $365,000 when the merger closed. He last worked as the finance chief of a chain of fitness clubs.<\/p>\n
Chief operating officer Andrew Northwall received 20,000 shares, worth $812,000. He was paid $365,000 last year. Previously he worked at Parler, the social network that was popular among pro-Trump rioters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.<\/p>\n
Juhan and Northwall also will receive $600,000 retention bonuses this month.<\/p>\n
Other executives will receive a total of $1.24 million in bonuses. They include chief technology officer Vladimir Novachki, who also received 45,000 shares, worth $1.8 million, and general counsel Scott Glabe, who received 20,000 shares, worth $812,000. Glabe served as an associate White House counsel under Trump.<\/p>\n
Trump Media co-founders Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss, who met Trump on \u201cThe Apprentice\u201d and helped launch the business in 2021, received a combined 7.5 million shares through their partnership, United Atlantic Ventures, a stake worth about $304 million.<\/p>\n
Arc Global Investments II, the biggest founding investor in Digital World Acquisition, the company that merged with Trump Media to take it public, said in a filing it received 13.3 million shares, worth about $539 million. A previous filing by Trump Media said Arc would receive 9.5 million shares.<\/p>\n
Arc and Digital World are involved in a legal dispute regarding how many shares Arc is owed. Arc is managed by Digital World\u2019s former chief executive Patrick Orlando.<\/p>\n
Trump Media said it had helped fund its operations by issuing 19 convertible notes since 2021 in exchange for loans with a total face value of more than $40 million. The holders of those notes, most of whom the filings do not identify, can convert the unpaid principal into stock. The company said several of the notes had been amended or extended since they were issued, and that it had an \u201congoing disagreement\u201d with one noteholder over their \u201cdiffering interpretations of certain terms.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company also said it had issued convertible notes to unnamed investors for \u201cworking capital purposes\u201d during the last quarter of 2023, and that more than $1 million of the notes remained outstanding by the end of the year.<\/p>\n
The Trump Media deal sits at the center of four ongoing lawsuits, all of which were filed within the last two months:<\/p>\n
Trump Media and Digital World sued Arc and Orlando in Florida, saying their \u201cirrational and disturbing behavior\u201d had \u201cimposed massive costs\u201d and caused \u201cextensive reputational harm.\u201d<\/span>Litinsky and Moss\u2019 United Atlantic Ventures sued Trump Media in Delaware, saying Trump had pushed a \u201clast-minute stock grab\u201d that would dilute their shares. Trump is scheduled to be deposed in that lawsuit this month.<\/span>Arc sued Digital World, its chief executive and three board members in Delaware, saying they had worked to deprive Orlando of millions of shares.<\/span>Trump Media sued Moss, Litinsky and Orlando in Florida, accusing the co-founders of mismanaging the company with a \u201ctoxic corporate culture\u201d and seeking to force the forfeiture of their shares. The Delaware judge in the United Atlantic Ventures lawsuit said at a hearing April 1 that he was \u201cgobsmacked\u201d that Trump Media filed this suit when the dispute was already playing out in his court.<\/span><\/p>\n Digital World said it spent $19.6 million on \u201clegal investigations\u201d last year, mostly due to its $18 million settlement with the SEC, a Trump Media filing shows.<\/p>\n Trump Media also agreed last year to pay an unnamed law firm $500,000 for services, the filing said. In November, the firm was issued a $500,000 convertible note with a conversion price of $10 per share; that stake is worth $2 million today.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Former president Donald Trump\u2019s social media company generated just $4 million in revenue last year \u2014 about as much as the average McDonald\u2019s franchise in the United States, according to a report last year by the fast-food industry publication QSR. But that hasn\u2019t stopped Trump Media & Technology Group, which runs Truth Social, from granting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2857,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}