Trump Media’s share price fell more than 10% after presidential debate

Trump Media stock prices fell more than 10% Friday afternoon after a series of gains in the days leading up to the first presidential debate.

Trump Media & Technology Group shares closed at $36.73 hours before Donald Trump met with President Joe Biden in Atlanta. The stock rose 8.3% to $39.78 at the open after people across the country watched Biden stumble through answers and Trump repeatedly harped on immigration.

But by Friday afternoon, the price had dropped to about $32 a share.

Market volatility is nothing new for the company behind Truth Social, often referred to as a meme stock.

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Trump Media share price

How the parent company of Truth Social went public

Trump founded his social media company in 2021 after launching it from other major platforms following the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.

Trump Media went public on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange on March 26 through a merger with shell company Digital World Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The merger was announced in 2021.

Trump’s stock market debut went off without a hitch, and Trump Media’s stock soared, thanks in part to (and to the delight of) his supporters.

But prices have fluctuated wildly since then, with the stock ranging from a high of $79.38 a share on March 26 to a low of $22.84 on April 16. It rose steadily throughout Trump’s bribery trial before beginning a weeks-long slide after the former president was found guilty of 34 felonies.

The downward trend was reversed only a week later.

Trump Media is considered a collection of memes

The parent company of social media app Truth has been compared to GameStop and AMC. Like those typical meme stocks, Trump Media is overvalued relative to its peers—other social media companies—at least by conventional Wall Street standards.

In May, Trump Media reported a net loss of $327.6 million for the first quarter of 2024 and had revenue of $770,500, according to unverified documents. Regulatory filings show the company was loss-making in 2023, with revenues of about $4 million and losses of more than $58 million.

Experts have previously told USA TODAY that meme resources are driven by attention. The debate, one of the most watched events on television, certainly brought that to Trump.