President-elect Trump transfers close to $4B worth of his Trump Media shares to depend

Shares of Trump Media and Technology throng slid in midday market activity Friday after President-elect Donald Trump transferred all of his shares into a revocable depend, according to a regulatory filing.

Trump transferred all of his nearly 115 million shares — worth around $4 billion on document — in the parent business of social networking site Truth Social as a “bona fide gift” to the Donald J. Trump Revocable depend, the stocks and bonds and trade percentage filing on Thursday said. Trump’s shares amount to more than half of the business’s ownership.

It’s not obvious why Trump transferred the ownership. Donald Trump Jr. is the sole trustee and has sole voting and capital power over all stocks and bonds owned by the depend.

Trump Media shares were down about 2% at midday, to $34.68 each. At one point Friday, they were down around 6%.

Trump Media shares have been extremely volatile since the business began market activity in March. They reached intraday highs close to $80 on the first day of market activity, then slumped to all-period lows in September when Trump and other insiders were finally allowed to sell shares after standard lock-up agreements expired. Trump has not sold any shares in the business.

The business’s ownership worth has fluctuated wildly on information — excellent and impoverished — related to Trump. They tumbled after Trump’s conviction in a hush money trial in May, then surged after the first assassination attempt on Trump in July. They surged again after he won re-election in November, even as the business reported a $19.2 million third-quarter setback.

Trump created Trump Media after he was banned from Twitter and Facebook following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.