Sept. 11 (UPI) — Trump Media shares took a dive Wednesday, down 10.52% to $16.65 per share as of late afternoon following Donald Trump’s Tuesday night presidential debate with Kamala Harris.
The share price had risen prior to the debate.
Multiple polls, including a CNN flash poll and a YouGov poll, showed an overwhelming majority of debate viewers said they thought Harris won the debate.
“The perception in the market is she won the debate,” Tuttle Capital Management CEO Matthew Tuttle told CNN on Wednesday.
Trump’s debate performance may signal to investors that his defeat in November is more probable, some observers say. They contend that, since Trump Media stock appears to have been propped up by almost exclusively by Trump supporters, and — if he loses the election — interest in his social media company is expected to wane, as well.
DJT shares started out in March trading at $71 per share. They have since plunged by nearly 70%.
In what appeared to be Wall Street reacting to Trump’s debate performance, other Trump trades such as Bitcoin and Coinbase also dropped, even as some solar and clean-energy stocks rose sharply.
When Trump debated Biden in June, the opposite happened as DJT shares rose for a day before fizzling again later.
Both liberal and conservative commentators said Harris seemed more prepared, articulate and even-tempered than Trump during Tuesday’s performance.
Trump owns 57% of Truth Social stock. He will be allowed to cash in on that stake Sept. 19 when a lock-up agreement expires.
Many business analysts suggest that the stock’s value was pumped up by Trump supporters far beyond the actual financial value of the company.
In April, Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. said in a corporate filing that Trump’s company had a net loss of more than $52 million on very weak revenues of just $4 million last year.
The Harris campaign immediately called for a second debate, but Trump has not accepted.
