Trump Media investors lose more than $2.2 billion as stock hits record lows

A steep decline for shareholders

Trump Media shares have fallen 32% since the November 3 midterm elections, according to Reuters. Democrats won control of the House and Senate as President Donald Trump's approval ratings reached all-time lows.

The stock's intraday decline was even sharper. Forbes reported that shares reached a record low of $3.80 on the morning of November 5, down more than 15% after a nearly 25% drop the day before. At that low, the stock had lost more than 36% from its Election Day closing price. Its year-to-date decline was about 70%.

Trump's own holding still had substantial value. He received 114.75 million shares without paying cash in the 2024 merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp. At the November 5 closing price of $4.02, those shares were worth about $460 million, compared with a paper value above $6 billion when the stock traded near its high.

Forbes put Trump's ownership at 41% and estimated his overall net worth at $6.3 billion on the morning of November 5. That was a decline of $219 million since the midterms, from an estimated $6.5 billion two days earlier.

Political loyalty meets investment losses

For Ske Jarzenske, a 52-year-old in Austin, Texas, the investment was a bet that Trump's return to the presidency would pay off. The three-time Trump voter committed 20% of his net worth to Trump Media. A Charles Schwab statement he shared with Reuters showed an 88.5% loss; he asked that the dollar amount remain private.

"It's been very disappointing and difficult to watch," Jarzenske said. He still supports Trump but wants the family to do more for shareholders. Trump Media did not answer Reuters' questions about his concerns, and the White House directed questions about the story to the company.

Reuters spoke with more than a dozen shareholders. Apart from one Canadian resident, all had voted for Trump three times. Among them was Hugh Baron, a 63-year-old California retiree who bought more than 1,000 shares, paying as much as $53.54 for some. He said his holdings had fallen 88.5%.

Patricia Spoerl, a 64-year-old nurse in Colorado, paid an average of $45.32 per share and reported a loss of about $28,000. She had expected the investment to help fund her retirement.

Investors interviewed by Reuters blamed mismanagement and alleged naked short selling, in which traders sell shares short without first borrowing them. Reuters found no evidence of that practice in Trump Media stock. It also reported that short interest was below the level analysts typically see at similarly sized companies.

How Reuters calculated the losses

Reuters based its estimate on shares sold to the market by Trump Media, predecessor entities including Digital World Acquisition, and insiders such as founders and managers. Company filings and court records supplied the details of the share issuances and sales.

Filings identify dozens of equity transactions dating to 2021 that generated $2.7 billion. Reuters compared the current trading price with the issue price for each group of shares, calculated the resulting gain or loss, and adjusted the total for share buybacks.

The news agency said this follows the mark-to-market accounting approach fund managers are required to use when measuring performance. Three finance professors reviewed the method and described it as a generally accepted way to measure investor gains and losses.

Trump Media challenged that approach, saying: "Your dubious, biased calculations misrepresent the facts, market dynamics, and TMTG's public filings." The company did not identify specific errors in the calculation. Its general counsel, Scott Glabe, argued that millions of shares trade daily and that whether an individual seller made or lost money is "unknowable."

Weak revenue and cryptocurrency losses

Trump Media's social media operations have struggled to attract customers while consuming cash. Annual revenue has stayed near $4 million for three years, Reuters reported. Forbes separately reported a $238.1 million net loss for the second quarter of 2026, when revenue totaled $1.7 million.

The company spent more than $200 million developing its Truth Social streaming service. Regulatory filings show that the service brought in only $630,000 from its August 2024 launch through June 2026.

Audience figures also weakened. According to Forbes, the Washington Post reported Similarweb data showing that Truth Social web visits were down 30% from a year earlier as of September 2026.

The company's move to hold cryptocurrency as a major reserve asset added another source of losses: it bought bitcoin near a price peak, before a steep decline. Its regulatory filings also warn that damage to Trump's popularity could reduce the value of the brand.

A pending move into fusion energy

Responding to Reuters, Trump Media said it had built a strong balance sheet and was working to create value for shareholders, citing its proposed TAE Technologies merger. The companies signed the agreement on December 18, 2025, for an all-stock transaction valued at more than $6 billion.

The agreement calls for the two sets of shareholders to each hold about half of the combined company on a fully diluted basis. It assigned a value of $53.89 to each TAE common share, using Trump Media's trailing 30-day volume-weighted average share price as of December 17, 2025. Trump Media also agreed to make up to $200 million in cash available to TAE at signing, with another $100 million available upon the initial filing of the Form S-4 registration statement.

In their December 2025 announcement, the companies said the combined business planned to select a site and begin construction in 2026 on what they described as the world's first utility-scale fusion power plant, with 50 MWe of capacity. That plan required approvals. Further plants were planned with capacities of 350 to 500 MWe.

The announcement described TAE, founded in 1998, as having raised more than $1.3 billion in private capital, including investments from Google, Chevron Technology Ventures, Goldman Sachs and Sumitomo Corporation of Americas. TAE said it had built and safely operated five fusion reactors. It reported more than 400 employees, including 62 Ph.D. holders, and over 1,600 patents.

As of November 5, 2026, the SEC had declared the merger's Form S-4 registration statement effective, according to a release from the companies. Trump Media scheduled a special shareholder meeting for December 14 to vote on the transaction. The companies expected to close by year-end, subject to the required shareholder votes and other approvals.