Donald Trump’s biographer says election loss could decimate net worth

A former biographer of former President Donald Trump said Saturday that if the Republican presidential candidate loses the November election, it could lead to a significant drop in his net worth..

In an interview with MSNBC’s Alex Witt on Saturday afternoon, Tim O’Brien, author of the 2005 biography TrumpNation: The Art of Being Donald explained why Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, is losing popularity and how an election loss could make things worse.

When Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), owner of Truth Social, went public in late March, the stock was trading at $66.22. It fell to $22.81 on Friday. In the most recent quarter, TMTG reported more than $16 million in losses and less than $1 million in revenue.

Meanwhile, TMTG said in a report to the United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) that “the success of the Company depends in part on the popularity of our brand and the reputation and popularity of President Donald J. Trump. The value of TMTG’s brand could decline if President Donald J. Trump’s popularity suffers,” adding that “TMTG’s business plan relies on President Donald J. Trump attracting his former social media followers to the TMTG platform.”

O’Brien told Witt that Trump’s stake in TMTG is “probably about half of his net worth — at least that’s what I think,” and added that his stake is worth about $2.7 billion.

“We’re in a very unusual situation where we have a publicly traded stock that is really a barometer of Trump’s political fortunes because Truth Social’s business model is nothing more than a cult of Donald Trump’s personality and his social media presence,” O’Brien said.

Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, said Newsweek Saturday evening via email: “President Trump has had an incredible career — starting companies, building iconic buildings, creating one of the greatest television shows in history, and then becoming President of the United States. He will return to the White House again.”

Newsweek reached out to TMTG and O’Brien’s agents via email on Saturday evening seeking comment.

The biographer explained how recent political events have contributed to the successes and failures of Trump’s media company.

He said TMTG stock “jumped” in the first few days after Trump was shot in the right ear at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. The FBI is investigating the assassination attempt.

Aside from President Joe Biden’s poor performance in a debate with Trump in late June, the former president “had so much momentum at that point that he came into the Republican (National) Convention with that momentum,” O’Brien said.

He added: “Since the Republican convention, all the momentum has shifted to the Democrats… and you’ve seen Truth Social stock start to weaken again.”

On July 21, Biden dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, who later became the Democratic presidential candidate. Harris immediately hit the ground running, raising about $500 million since entering the race at the top of the ticket, according to Reuters sources.

Her campaign also has 4.7 million followers on TikTok and 1.3 million followers on X, formerly Twitter. Trump, meanwhile, rejoined X earlier this month, where he has 89.8 million followers. He has just 7.6 million followers on Truth Social.

Witt asked O’Brien what would happen to the value of TMTG if Trump lost the upcoming election, versus if he won.

O’Brien told Witt that if Trump loses the election, the value of his media company “will become irrelevant. I can’t say it will go to zero, but it will go even more dramatically from where it is now.”

He added that if Trump wins the election, the value of his company will increase again.

Asked if Trump had “diluted the financial potential of Truth Social” when he rejoined X, O’Brien said, “Of course he did,” but added that Trump “realized he couldn’t reach the political audience he wanted to reach.”