Chris Kleponis/POOL/Abaca/Sipa USA
Donald Trump took to Truth Social Monday night to offer support to his most important political ally, promising to buy a “brand new Tesla” as a “show of confidence.” Elon Musk’s electric car company has been rocked by protests in recent weeks, and its share price has fallen by more than 50 percent since its post-election peak in mid-December.
But Musk isn’t the only member of the administration with a company that is plummeting in value: Trump’s own business has been suffering, as well.
A week before the election last fall, the stock price for Trump Media & Technology Group—which operates Truth Social— spiked to $51.51. But thanks to an unrelenting string of bad news about the company’s business prospects—along with the consequences of Trump’s economic policies, which have sent nearly all stocks plunging—the company’s shares briefly fell below $19 on Tuesday.
In some ways, Trump’s business predicament appears more significant than Musk’s. Tesla is confronting steeply declining levels of consumer interest, but it still earns substantial revenue and owns major assets. Truth Social’s financials, by contrast, have since the very beginning been bad—and downright inexplicable for a company that is said to be worth $4 billion (even at the greatly reduced share prices of late). For a company that, in theory, has the eyes of the world on its biggest user, Truth Social had just $3.6 million in revenue in 2024.
To put that in context, according to a recent review of fast food restaurant chains, Trump’s entire social media operation had less revenue than the average Chik-Fil-A, Raising Canes, What-a-Burger, or Shake Shack location—and just barely more in sales than your typical McDonald’s. If that’s an odd comparison to make, it’s because it’s almost impossible to compare Truth Social’s revenue to other social media companies—Facebook and Instagram owner Meta booked $164.5 billion in revenue in 2024. That’s about 45,500 times more revenue than Truth Social.
Those lousy revenue numbers would suggest that the company’s profitability is also lousy—and that’s absolutely true. In its 2024 year-end filings, Truth Social reported losing more than $400 million.
But it’s not just the fact that the company has scant advertising sales and few users. It also seems to be spending money in odd and unhelpful ways—it paid Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., $813,000 (or almost a quarter of its revenue) just for showing up at board meetings. And company CEO Devin Nunes has made at least $6.3 million running the company since 2022, a stunning figure for a firm that is struggling to earn any money.
Investors might be able to forgive that pay arrangement if there appeared to be real innovation happening at the company. But in the last month, some of company’s press releases have trumpeted rather mundane accomplishments, including:
Paying tribute to former Florida congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart, who passed away last week.
Paying lawyers to join a lawsuit in Brazil, in support of Rumble, a MAGA-friendly video-hosting site meant as an alternative to YouTube.
Filing paperwork to move the company headquarters to Florida (where it has been physically based since the beginning).
Since Trump’s Truth Social post Monday, Tesla’s stock has seen a small rebound—up about 4 percent, as of Tuesday afternoon. Truth Social was down slightly for the day. Based on its current price, Trump’s stake in the company is now worth about $3 billion less than it was in October.