Trump Moves All His DJT Shares Into Revocable Trust

A phone screen displays the Truth Social app in Washington, on Feb. 21, 2022. Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

President-elect Donald Trump has transferred his entire stake in Trump Media & Technology Group to a revocable trust, according to a Dec. 19 regulatory filing.

The document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission described the transaction as a gift, with Trump receiving no money for the transfer of his nearly 115 million Trump Media shares to Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust.

Since Trump is the lone beneficiary of the trust, he now “indirectly” owns the Trump Media shares he transferred, the SEC filing noted.

The trust is managed by Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., who serves as the sole trustee with full voting and investment authority over its assets.

Shares of Trump Media, which trades under the ticker “DJT,” closed at $35.41 per share on Thursday, valuing the transferred stock at more than $4 billion. The stock price fell to just over $33 when trading opened Friday, reducing the value of Trump’s stake to approximately $3.8 billion.

Trump, who is set to be sworn in for a second non-consecutive term as president on Jan. 20, had been the largest individual shareholder in Trump Media, which operates the Truth Social platform. His stake represented more than half of the company’s outstanding shares.

Trump is not unfamiliar with this type of transfer. Before his first inauguration in 2017, he made similar transfers to the same revocable trust, involving real estate holdings, assets, and liabilities, as reported by his then-accounting firm, Mazars.

Trump Media stock has often been seen as a proxy of Trump’s political odds since the company went public in March, with its price rising or falling in response to news about him. The DJT share price has reacted sharply to key events in recent months, including Trump’s campaign announcements, legal battles, attempted assassinations, and his election victory, which caused the stock to soar while adding millions of dollars to his net worth.

Following his White House win, Truth Social remains Trump’s primary online platform. He has been using it to share his plans and announce the names of individuals he has selected for key roles in his incoming administration.

Trump does not hold an executive position with the Truth Social parent company. However, he has nominated two of its board members to high-level positions in his administration. Kash Patel has been tapped to lead the FBI, while Linda McMahon, the former CEO of WWE, has been nominated for the secretary of education position.

Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes, a former California congressman, has been selected to lead the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board. When announcing the appointment last weekend on Truth Social, Trump indicated that Nunes would remain in his role at Trump Media.