Shares in Donald Trump’s media company, Trump Media and Technology Group, dropped on Wednesday after the company made a move suggesting that the president might sell his $2 billion worth of stock.
On Tuesday, Trump’s media company filed a registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission that would allow his trust to sell almost 115 million shares, worth more than $2.3 billion.
While the move would allow Trump to sell his shares, it does not require him to do so.
According to ABC News, Trump transferred his stake in the media company into his Donald J Trump Revocable Trust, which is controlled by his son, Donald Trump Jr.
If Trump did sell off his shares, it could scare other investors into dumping their stocks for fear of a mass sell-off, potentially further tanking the stock’s price.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the company’s stock price was down by approximately 5 percent.
The company did damage control on Wednesday, issuing a statement saying that the story is a fabricated hit job by legacy media.
“Legacy media outlets are spreading a fake story suggesting that a TMTG filing today is paving the way for the Trump trust to sell its shares in TMTG. To be clear, these shares were already registered last June on an S-1 form, and today TMTG submitted a routine filing that re-registers them on an S-3 form in order to keep the Company’s filings effective. In fact, there currently is no open window for any affiliate to sell shares,” the company said in its statement.
Trump has previously said that he plans to continue holding his shares in his media company.
“I don’t want to sell my shares. I don’t need money,” Trump said in September.
Trump is the largest single shareholder in the company and controls approximately 53 percent of its shares, according to the New York Times.
The stock price shot up following Trump’s election win, but has since fallen by approximately 40 percent this year.
In addition to Trump’s stock, the filing also registered for potential sale the stocks held by other entities. Yorkville Advisors, a New Jersey investment firm working with Trump Media to create retail investment products, including a crypto exchange-traded fund, had its shares registered under the filing. It controls a little more than 17 million shares in Trump Media.
Another 106,000 shares are controlled by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. She was paid in shares for previous consulting work. She said she planned to divest her equity stake in Trump Media within 90 days of her confirmation in an ethics agreement she made with the Office of Government Ethics.
