MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle discussed former President Donald Trump potentially cashing in on his Truth Social platform with New York Times reporter Susanne Craig and NBC News financial reporter Brian Schwartz on Monday night.
Ruhle, a veteran business reporter herself, asked Schwartz and Craig about the billionaires helping Trump and zeroed in on hedge fund manager Jeff Yass, who has been linked to both Trump’s flip-flop on TikTok and his ability to finally get the company behind Truth Social to be listed on the stock market.
“It is official, DJT begins trading on the Nasdaq tomorrow. The big question will the newly formed Trump media stock actually be worth billions of dollars, and will it be enough to help him post his now $175 million bond for the civil fraud penalty? We’re about to find out,” Ruhle began, introducing the segment.
“This acquisition company’s share price tanked on Friday. At one point, it lost 14%. The next day, Trump posted, I love Truth Social in all caps. It’s truly like Donald Trump the meme stock is being created right before our eyes. What do you make of this?” Ruhle asked Craig.
“I’m not surprised by the fluctuations. And who knows where it’ll be six months from now. But right now, this looks like a pretty attractive play for him. I mean, his stake in it as, you know, I think tonight was about 4 or $4 billion. I
“And he might, I mean this board as you said it’s his son. It’s his it’s his closest buddies. But Brian it’s exactly what Trump wants. Right. It’s about when you look at where this thing could trade, it’s about the value of his brand but not the fundamentals. Because if you look at the fundamentals, how on earth would this thing be worth $3 billion? Right. That would imply a cash flow of more than 300 million bucks. They are not even remotely close to that,” Ruhle followed up.
“Yeah. You’re right. I mean, the question is, once this thing starts trading tomorrow on the Nasdaq, what exactly is going to happen? Not only for the stock, but as we start learning more about the company itself, you know, they’re going to have to, you know, file to the SEC. We’re going to have to be seeing more and more disclosures about investors,” Schwartz replied, adding:
I mean, these are things that, you know, this is what happens when
you go public. And this has happened before with Donald Trump, with a variety of other companies. He’s, you know, tried doing stuff in the stock market before, and things did not go so well at that time — years ago. So the reality is, is that there’s still a long way to go to figure out how much the company is worth and what exactly is it going to do, and what’s it going to mean for shareholders.
As the conversation continued, Ruhle asked Schwartz, “What do you make of this guy Jeff Yass? His involvement. Right. His investment firm is one of the biggest shareholders in this SPAC vehicle that’s being used to take DJT public. He’s also a huge investor in TikTok. And we all know Trump changed his tune on banning TikTok after he met with Yass in Florida. He’s the richest guy in Pennsylvania. What can you tell us?”
“Well, you know, this is somebody that’s being, you know, really actively involved in Republican politics over the years. He’s given like $40 million this cycle and he’s the leading GOP donor,” Schwartz replied, adding:
Meanwhile, you know, he keeps on putting themselves on what appears to be apparent coincidences in a variety of different things involved in the Republican Party and Donald Trump. Part of those millions that he’s been given to the GOP have
gone to a group called the club for growth. Just actively pushing back on this TikTok bill. I you know, he’s an investor into ByteDance, meanwhile, the parent company of TikTok.And that, you know, at the same time, you know, Susquehanna International in December was at that point an investor into Digital World Acquisition, the company that really helped the Trump media business to become public. So it seems to be these strange coincidences that keep on coming up. When we talk to people near him, they always push back and they say, you know, Jeff Yass isn’t interested in dealing with these types of things. He’s more focused on education-related matters. But again, these things keep coming up. And at the very least it’s kind of odd. And it seems to be continuing a coincidence for a person who is giving millions of dollars to the Republican Party at this very time.
Watch the clip above via MSNBC.