Trump's Inflated DJT Stock Is a "Bubble," Truth Social Is a Failure, Experts Say: A Closer Look

-Just as he's drowning in legal bills

and in desperate need of cash,

Donald Trump's net worth has unexpectedly soared

after his failed social-media company went public

in what experts are calling an "unsustainable bubble

that is divorced from the reality of the business."

For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."

[ Cheers and applause ]

I don't need to tell you,

Donald Trump needs cash, and he needs it ASAP.

The guy's been hawking Bibles on TV

like he's trying to raise money to go to Jesus camp.

"The New York Times" reported this week

that he's spent more than $100 million on legal fees.

Now, I don't know what Trump's current lawyers

are doing with all that money,

but I can guess what his former lawyers would do with it,

based on what they're doing without it.

Rudy Giuliani, who recently declared bankruptcy

and declared debts totaling $500 million,

posted a video of himself this week behind the wheel

of what I can only assume is either a convertible

or a car missing its roof,

under the caption, "Driving with the top down."

Alright, I think I'm out on this "Thelma and Louise" reboot.

Knowing Rudy, he would probably miss the cliff.

By the way,

driving with the top down sounds like a euphemism

you'd use about Rudy Giuliani.

"I dunno.

I don't know if you should hire that guy.

Let's just say he's, uh, driving with the top down."

[ Laughter ]

Also, who's holding the camera in this video?

Who in their right mind would get in a car with the guy

who mistook the Four Seasons landscaping company

for a luxury hotel?

He probably thinks these road signs are suggestions.

[As Giuliani] Uh-oh! You know what that means.

We gotta drive crazy now!

Don't worry. The next sign says

"Only Rudys allowed."

[ Laughter ]

[Normal voice] So, Trump desperately needs money.

Now, Trump has spent his entire life wriggling his way

out of seemingly impossible jams.

But surely, surely,

there's no escape hatch for him this time, right?

-More breaking news tonight involving Donald Trump.

His media company, which of course includes Truth Social,

soaring in its first day of trading on NASDAQ,

surging 56% at one point during trading to $78 a share

before closing at $58.

-Trump now owns 60% of the new Trump Media company,

or roughly $78 million a share --

a stake that is, on paper at this hour,

worth $4.6 billion.

-The higher the stock goes,

the higher that Donald Trump's net worth is.

At yesterday's close,

Trump's net worth, according to Bloomberg,

a little over $7 billion.

It went up by $4 billion on Monday alone.

-That's right, Trump doubled his net worth in one day

after his otherwise worthless

social-media company went public.

This brings us to a segment called...

[ Laughing ]

I mean, I don't...

[ Laughing ] I don't understand.

So he doubles his net worth out of nowhere...

[ Laughing ]

...based on a worthless business, just in time to...

[ Laughing ]

...pay off the hundreds of millions he owes in fines

from lying about the value of --

I just don't -- I don't get it!

[ Laughter ]

[ Laughing maniacally ]

[ Scream-laughing ]

This has been "Seth Tries to Laugh About a Thing

That is Clearly Making Him Crazy."

Now, you might be asking yourself,

"Donald Trump has a media and technology company?"

And the answer is no, he doesn't.

What he has is a dumb Twitter ripoff

for MAGA trolls called Truth Social,

where he posts insane, typo-riddled, all-caps screeds.

You may have seen one of his posts

when someone else screen-grabs it and then puts it on Twitter.

Truth Social has been an abject failure,

has lost millions of dollars, and is hemorrhaging users.

-Experts warn the stock is extremely overvalued,

saying its staggering multi-billion dollar valuation

is likely a flash in the pan.

Truth Social has been racking up huge losses,

and as of last month,

only had some 494,000 active monthly mobile users.

-Truth Social is tiny.

We're talking about less than half a million

monthly active users on iOS and Android

in the United States.

For comparison, X, the company formerly known as Twitter,

it has 75 million users.

Even Instagram's Threads is 10 times bigger than Truth Social.

Not only that, but Truth Social is shrinking.

Monthly active users are down

by 51% year-over-year in February.

-Trump Media generated just $3.4 million of revenue

through the first nine months of last year, according to filings.

The company lost $49 million over that time period.

-The only way this business could be any more of a failure

is if, every time you opened an account,

you got a free Zune, a bottle of Crystal Pepsi,

a Blockbuster card, a Motorola flip phone

that came preloaded with a Myspace account,

and a round-trip

next to the door on Alaska Airlines.

So, just to recap, not only is Truth Social

a tiny business that generated only $3 million in revenue

while losing $49 million, it's also shrinking,

with unique visitors down 20% and active users down 51%.

Its revenues are so small -- and this is true --

it actually qualifies for the federal government's

definition of a small business,

which has revenue ranging from $1 million to over $40 million.

By comparison, here's how much money

Squatty Potty,

the plastic step stool you put your feet on

while you go to the bathroom,

made after it went on "Shark Tank."

-Squatty Potty has partnered with over 20 major retailers.

We're also in 20 countries all over the world.

We've now done $175 million in sales

since "Shark Tank."

-$175 million!

For something that helps you [bleep]

Compared to Truth Social,

which I guarantee is something

Trump does while he [bleep]

Trump's stock market windfall has nothing to do

with the reality of his business,

and that's obvious to everyone.

It's just a buying spree fueled by Trump supporters

and traders capitalizing on

the enthusiasm of Trump supporters.

I'm willing to bet most of the people investing

in this company have never even used Truth Social.

Here's an exchange from Fox News,

in which host Jesse Watters claimed he used the site

but wouldn't prove it.

-In the last nine months of 2023,

Truth Social generated $3.4 million,

and it lost $49 million in that span.

The valuation, which is $11 billion.

Compared to Reddit --

Right? Something that we've all been on, right? --

their valuation was $6.4 billion.

So, you think that a site

that has less than half a million users...

I mean, this is what -- These are facts.

-All these valuations are ridiculous, Jessica.

-Okay, then he's the Game-- It's like GameStop, right?

It's a meme, no? -Okay, you know what?

-You know how you look at this? -Well, it's actually not,

because I'm using it. -You look at this --

-Oh, you're on Truth Social? -I'm on Truth Social.

-Show it to me. -I'm not having you

look at my phone. -Show me your phone.

-[ Laughter ] -How dare you?

-Why won't you show her your phone?!

Oh, is the only app Candy Crush,

and do you have it downloaded twice?

Seriously, Jesse, why won't you show us your phone?

Is it because you're afraid we'll see the video

you took of Rudy driving his car?

[ Laughter ]

Trump himself seems to have no idea how the business works.

For example, the special acquisition company

Trump Media merged with is listed on the NASDAQ

rather than a larger New York Stock Exchange.

But when he tried to explain why,

Trump offered a mind-boggling and nonsensical answer.

-Truth Social is doing very well.

It's hot as a pistol and doing great, and it's going public.

And the New York Stock Exchange wants to have us badly.

And I told them we can't do the New York Stock Exchange.

You're treated too badly in New York.

We don't want to do the New York Stock Exchange.

And the people at the Stock Exchange are very,

very upset about it.

The top person is -- is mortified.

Can't believe it.

He said, "I'm losing business because of New York,

because people don't want to be in New York

and they don't want to go on the New York Stock Exchange."

-Alright. A couple things.

First of all,

the top person at the New York Stock Exchange is a woman,

so that story is obviously made up,

unless Trump is claiming he had a conversation with the bull.

[As Trump] The top person at the stock exchange came up to me.

Big bull, strong bull,

huge nuts,

tears in his eyes,

pouring down to his solid bronze snout.

And he said to me, he said,

"Mr. Trump, sir, the reason I'm frozen in place

is 'cause I'm so scared to be in New York."

[Normal voice] Second, the NASDAQ is also based in New York.

Third, you don't need to literally live in New York

to list a company on either the NASDAQ

or the New York Stock Exchange.

If Swiss company Nestle wanted to trade on the NASDAQ,

the CEO wouldn't have to move from Zurich

to a studio apartment in Bushwick.

[High-pitched European accent] "But I don't have room

for all my delicious chocolate!"

[Normal voice] I'm gonna assume the CEO of Nestle is a gnome,

and if it's not, don't ruin it for me.

And yet, despite the reality of the underlying business,

the stock debuted at nearly $7 billion in value,

thanks to a buying spree from Trump supporters,

which does not mean it'll stay there.

The stock's value is based entirely on one thing,

which is Trump's brand, and in its own SEC filings,

the company admitted Trump could tank the value.

They wrote that an adverse outcome

in one or more of the ongoing legal proceedings

in which President Trump is involved

could negatively impact the company,

and that a number of companies

that were associated with President Trump

have filed for bankruptcy.

There can be no assurances

that this will not also become bankrupt.

Uhh, sell, sell! Sell, sell, sell, sell!

Sell, sell, sell, sell, sell!

Nah, that was -- that was for a different thing.

[ Laughter ]

I thought this was foolproof!

Jesse Waters uses it!

[ Laughter ]

One expert told CNN that the stock price is clearly a bubble.

"I'm reasonably confident the stock price will eventually drop

to $2 a share, and could go even below that

if the company blows through the money it got from the merger."

Oh man, $2. If that happens, Trump's gonna be...

-Hot as a pistol.

-In fact,

that's basically already happened to Trump.

Trump once had a publicly traded company

with the exact same ticker symbol, DJT.

The company went public in 1995,

and then this happened in 2004.

-Trump Hotels & Casino files for bankruptcy.

-His Trump Hotels & Casino empire have filed

for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The filings list $1.3 billion in debt.

-And that was when he had actual stuff, like real buildings.

Now all he has is a website

where he misspells words, like "Buden" and "grest,"

a real thing he did this week on Truth Social.

No other successful company does that.

I've never logged on to Amazon and noticed

they accidentally spelled their name with an extra "O."

[ Laughter ]

The paper value of Trump's stock

is wildly divorced from the reality

of the underlying business, which is an abject failure.

There's a good chance

that eventually the bubble will burst.

It all hinges on Trump,

a guy whose businesses have filed for bankruptcy

four times and who's in so much legal trouble

his house was raided by feds

looking for classified documents and yelling...

-Show me your phone!

-This has been "A Closer Look."

[ Cheers and applause ]

Hey, I hope you enjoyed "A Closer Look,"

and if you didn't, why are you still watching?

[ Laughter ]

Why would you stay for this part?

Anyway, did you know that we also have something on our show

called "Corrections"?

We tape it right after the audience leaves on Thursday,

and right after our cameraman, Buck,

does a whole tank of nitrous.

[ Laughter ]

It's full of inside jokes like that

that you couldn't possibly get...

[ Laughter ]

...unless you go all the way back to the beginning.

That's right.

I'm not telling you to watch "Corrections" starting today.

I'm telling you to go back and watch from episode one.

If you miss even one, the whole thing is [bleep]

[ Laughter ]

It's easily over 20 hours at this point.

It was nominated for an Emmy in 2021, in 2022, and never again.

[ Laughter ]

So the arrow is pointing down.

"Corrections." It posts every Friday.

Give it a look. And, oh, one more thing --

I do a podcast with my brother. [bleep] you!