Truth social going public and merging

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Shareholders in Digital World Acquisition Corporation voted Friday to approve a merger with Donald Trump’s social media company, a deal that could net the former president an eventual windfall of $3 billion or more.

The vote by DWAC shareholders comes about two-and-a-half years after the so-called special purpose acquisition company announced plans to merge with Trump Media & Technology Group, the private firm that owns the Truth Social app platform.

Shares in the newly combined company, Trump Media, could begin to be publicly traded next week under the stock symbol DJT, Trump’s initials.

Trump would have nearly 80 million shares in the merged company.

At current trading prices of DWAC, that would be worth around $3 billion or more, although it is not clear what the merged company’s opening share price will be.

That potential windfall for Trump, while massive, could not be immediately realized, at least not under the deal’s current terms. Trump will be barred from selling shares in the merged company for at least six months.

It is possible that the board of directors could vote to allow Trump to sell shares earlier than that. And that board could be stocked with people close to Trump, including his son Donald Trump Jr., former wrestling company executive Linda McMahon, and Trump’s former trade representative Robert Lighthizer, according to a list of planned nominees.

If the board signed off on lifting the share lock-up period, that could quickly free up a large source of cash for Trump, who is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee this year.