A media company with ties to the former president Donald Trump share prices are off to a rough start tanking and of the company worth is decreasing day by day.
Rep. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., doesn’t seem eager to discuss the struggling business, years after she bought shares in a company that helped take Trump’s business public. Nasdaq.
Asked by CNBC and NBC News, Greene would not say what happened to his holdings in Digital World Acquisition Corp., which recently began trading publicly as DJT through a merger with Trump Media and Technology Group. The stock price is down at least 45% year to date.
Trump Media is the parent company of Truth Social, the former president’s social media app. DWAC’s shareholders formally voted on March 22 to approve the merger with Trump Media for the company to go public, and the company debuted on the Nasdaq on March 26.
Greene is one of only two members of Congress to announce that he bought the stock Digital World Acquisition Corp. He and Rep. Larry Bucshon, R-Ind., each bought stock in the company in October 2021, according to financial disclosures that month. company It announced that it had entered into an agreement with Trump Media to merge the two entities with the goal of making Trump’s business publicly traded on the stock market.
Green bought DWAC stock in the days after the merger was announced on October 22, 2021, for amounts ranging from $15,000 to $50,000, according to official financial disclosures to Congress. DWAC fund opened trade ended the day at $118.80 and around $67.
According to a financial disclosure, Bucshon bought DWAC stock on Oct. 25, 2021 for anywhere between $1,000 and $15,000. DWAC shares Closed about $83 per day.
If either of the two lawmakers were still investors in DWAC, they could have lost thousands — up to $32,500 in Greene’s case, according to Chris Josephs, co-founder of stock trading app Autopilot. Josephs noted that Bucshon could have lost as much as $8,900 with the drop in stock prices.
A spokesperson for Bucshon confirmed to CNBC and NBC News that the Indiana lawmaker still owns stock in the combined media company despite the stock price slump.
“Congressman Bucshon has not taken any action on his investment in DWAC since the initial purchase in October 2021, and he has fully complied with all disclosure requirements required by federal law regarding this trade,” the spokesperson said.
He did not respond to questions about why Bucsho continued to hold the stock, which closed at $32 on Thursday, marking a 54% decline in the share price since the stock debuted on the Nasdaq in March. The company has also erased all of its gains since the stock started trading at the $70.90 DJT ticker.
Bucsho’s most recent annual financial disclosure shows he entered 2023 with DWAC shares worth $1,001 to $15,000.
But Greene would not say what happened to his shares after his initial purchase, according to documents archived by LegiStorm, and his public statements did not indicate that he sold DWAC or Trump media shares, raising questions among ethics lawyers about what happened to Greene’s shares.
When asked about the status of the DWAC shares, Greene spokesman Nick Dyer said in an email that Greene “does not currently hold any shares as reflected in its financial disclosures.”
He did not respond to follow-up requests for comment on what happened to his shares in the company.
Greene would not say when asked by NBC News on Wednesday what happened to Trump Media shares. “It’s a waste of time. “I think you can read my reports and see what I’ve got,” he said.
“Where are his stocks?” George W. Bush’s former White House ethics attorney Richard Painter said so in a telephone interview.
He and other ethics lawyers offered several potential reasons why Greene did not include the stock in his recent disclosures.
According to Kedric Payne, senior counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, if he still owns DWAC stock and the estimated value of the asset is below $1,000, it will not be required to disclose it.
Another plausible scenario is that Greene recently sold his shares. In that case, Painter said, he wouldn’t have to disclose the sale until 45 days later. She also could lose the asset during her divorce proceedings with her then-husband in 2022, Painter said, noting that if the stock was transferred in a divorce settlement, it wouldn’t count as an asset transaction. Greene finalized their divorce in December 2022 Business Insider.
“He needs to explain what happened,” Painter said.
Legislators are not prohibited from trading or holding individual stocks and other investments. But under the STOCK Act, members of Congress must report any trade within 45 days.
Some members of Congress and outside groups have long argued that members of Congress should not be allowed to trade stocks while serving as elected officials. But legislation barring them from trading individual stocks languished in Congress.