OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former President Donald Trump was already a wealthy man, but now he’s even richer, thanks to soaring Truth Social stock following the merger of Trump Media & Technology Group and Digital World Acquisition Corp.
Trump’s overall wealth, also boosted by a huge reduction his civil fraud penalty from $454 million to $175 million by a New York Appellate Court on Monday, has climbed to north of $6.5 billion, making him one of the world’s 500 richest persons, USA Today reported, citing the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Trump’s previous net worth high of $3.1 billion was based mostly on his real estate holdings, the outlet reported.
“Trump and his company were accused of grossly inflating the value of those holdings to get better loan and insurance terms in the civil fraud suit,” USA Today noted, without adding that the judge, Arthur Engoron, and New York Attorney General Letitia James, charged and convicted Trump of ‘crime’ in which there were no victims and that James campaigned in 2018 on “getting” Trump.
“We have a great company and are incredibly honored,” Eric Trump, executive vice president of the Trump Organization, said in a statement to Bloomberg.
Truth Social’s stock began trading on the Nasdaq on Tuesday under the initials “DJT.” And while the social media platform has not been profitable by any measure, neither were other major platforms, such as Twitter and even Facebook, for years after they were launched.
“Shares of Digital World Acquisition Corp. surged 35% in regular trading Monday, gaining $13.01 to close at $49.95, erasing losses from Friday when investors voted to approve the deal,” USA Today reported, adding: “Truth Social’s parent company will have a market value of approximately $5.5 billion when it starts trading and Trump’s stake will be worth about $3 billion – at least on paper. That stake is included in Bloomberg’s calculation of Trump’s net worth.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s attorney and spokeswoman had some words for New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday after a state appeals court slashed her client’s civil fraud penalty by more than half to $175 million and gave him another ten days to pay it.
“I hope she took a little piece of humble pie today because that’s what was served to her, just a little, but we’ll be serving a lot more of that in the next couple of years,” Alina Habba told Fox News host Jesse Watters Monday evening.
“I’ll post either the $175 million in cash or bonds or securities or whatever is necessary, very quickly,” Trump told reporters after the appeals ruling.
Another judge overseeing the criminal hush money case in New York ruled on Monday that the trial will start on April 15, rejecting Trump’s request for an additional delay.
Earlier this month, the judge postponed the case’s jury selection for 30 days, citing concerns raised by defense attorneys regarding the federal prosecutors’ tardy production of more than 100,000 pages of potential evidence.
On Monday, Judge Juan Merchan decided to hold the Manhattan district attorney not liable for the Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney’s office’s delayed production of documents, ABC News noted.
“The Manhattan District Attorney’s office made diligent, good faith efforts” to retrieve appropriate material, Judge Merchan said, adding that Trump will not suffer any prejudice due to the late disclosure.
The judge sounded doubtful during the hearing that a disagreement over possible evidence warranted a delay in the case’s prosecution or dismissal, and he described the defense’s allegations of prosecutorial misconduct as “extremely unsettling.”
“You are literally accusing the Manhattan DA’s office and the people assigned to this case of prosecutorial misconduct and to make me complicit in it, and you don’t have a single cite to support that position,” Merchan told Trump attorney Todd Blanche, per ABC News.
