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Fox Business anchor Stuart Varney predicted on Tuesday that the ultimate value of Donald Trump’s media company stock will be entirely dependent on how he performs in November.

Shareholders of Digital World Acquisition Corporation approved a merger with Trump’s media company last week, just days before Trump faced a deadline to pay a $464 million bond in New York based on a civil fraud judgement he is appealing. That bond has since been lowered to $175 million.

The merger pumps hundreds of millions into Trump’s media empire, but there has been a question around what the value of Trump’s media company will actually be once initial trading and valuations have settled.

“Are people buying this company, this stock because they think it’s got inherent value or because they want to demonstrate support for Donald Trump?” Varney asked markets analyst Scott Shellady on Tuesday.

Shellady said he can’t see how a valuation in the billions can be justified at the moment and predicted more people were supporting the stock as a sign of support for the former president. He also said Trump’s smaller social media following on Truth Social takes some of the “teeth” out of massive valuations for the social media company.

“You are probably on to something. It is probably more the second thing you mentioned because it’s going to be hard if you look at it in comparison

to Reddit or other places. They are not making the money yet. Maybe they do in the future but it is hard to justify the valuation with what we’ve seen today and also I think something took the teeth out of it,” he said. “I don’t know if people look at it this way, but since Donald Trump has been on Facebook and Twitter or X, on Facebook he has some 34 million followers, on Twitter he’s got 78 million but on Truth Social he’s got 6.6 million so maybe that takes a little teeth out of that argument as well. It has to play out, there is some euphoria, some ‘Donald Trump may be elected president’ here, but when it comes down to valuation these things typically overshoot the mark the first few days.”

Varney predicted the value would tank in November if it looks like Trump is going to lose the election to President Joe Biden, equating the media company’s value with Trump’s ability to take the presidency.

“I think it’s almost like a meme stock, and that’s the way it’ll play out,” Varney said. “It’s a bet on whether Trump wins or loses in November of this year. If he loses, I think the stock goes way down. If he wins or looks like he’s going

to win, I think the stock does well because then Truth Social will do well.”

Watch above via Fox Business.

Tags: Fox Business, Scott Shellady, Stuart Varney, Trump Media & Technology Group, Truth Social