Looks like Donald Trump is struggling to come up with the $464 million fraud fine.

Could he be saved by the stock market?

After a majority of Digital World Acquisition Corp. shareholders decided on Friday to acquire the company, Trump Media—which operates the social media platform Truth Social—is about to go public.

At the current price of Digital World’s shares, Trump’s stake in the combined company is expected to be at least 58%, or close to $3 billion.

Trump stands to gain an incredible amount of money in return for a company whose own auditor warned it was in danger of failing last year.

Ignore the numerous warning signs around the transaction, such as pending legal actions from previous business associates.

Additionally, Digital World settled fraud charges related to the creation of the merger proposal last year by agreeing to pay $18 million.

Following the clearance, shares of Digital World fell more than 13%, closing the day at $36.94.

Supporters of Digital World, who are primarily individual investors rather than Wall Street businesses and many of whom seem to be Trump supporters, appeared unaffected.

After the clearance was announced, deal advocate Chad Nedohin declared, “This is just the start,” on his show DWAC Live on the video platform Rumble. “There’s no reason to freak out.”

Pronounced D-whack, Digital World, also known as DWAC, is a shell company established specifically to acquire another company and go public, also known as a SPAC.

The business will now be known as Trump Media & Technology Group, and as early as next week, it may begin trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker DJT.

It’s unclear that the agreement will instantly take care of Trump’s most serious financial problems, such his fraud penalties in New York.

The new firm may give the former president an exemption from the minimum six-month ban on selling or transferring his shares.

Trump might potentially attempt to obtain a loan secured by the share price. However, given the possible hazards of the business, analysts predicted that a bank would likely lend him far less than the shares’ face value in this instance.

However, some of his admirers are still in the hopes hat their assistance will help.

Nedohin, who goes by Captain DWAC on Truth Social and calls himself a Canadian “worship leader” on his website, declined to be interviewed.

However, he urged investors to approve the purchase this week on his show, suggesting that it may aid the former president in his legal fights.

“If the merger is complete Friday at 10am and Trump all of a sudden has… shares of DJT that’s worth three, four, five $10bn, who knows? He could easily leverage that to get a loan,” he said.

He added: “This is putting your money where your mouth is for free speech, to save your country, potentially losing it all.”

Experts say there’s a big chance investors in Digital World may lose money on their investment.

Since the announcement of plans to buy Trump Media in 2021, share values have fallen from their peak.

However, they continue to suggest that Trump Media is worth approximately $5 billion even after Friday’s decline, which is significant considering the company lost almost $50 million and only made $3.3 million in revenue in the first nine months of last year.

Through the acquisition, Trump Media will receive an infusion of capital exceeding $200 million, which it may utilise for development and expansion.

However, for the time being, Truth Social—which went public in 2022 and positions itself as a rival to well-known social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, is still very small compared to its better known rivals 

Trump Media states in regulatory filings that it has signed up 8.9 million people, but cautions potential investors that it does not monitor indicators such as user growth or interaction that could provide them with an understanding of the company’s activities. Furthermore, it states that it does not plan to do so.

According to outside companies, Truth Social saw almost five million visits in February. In contrast, more than 100 million people visited Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter, which was reportedly valued by one investor at almost $14 billion.

Analysts claimed that Digital World was an excellent illustration of a “meme stock,” one in which the stock price is unrelated to the underlying business and very certain to decline.

“With Trump Media, I expect that it will collapse but whether it’s going to occur a week from now or two years from now and how rapidly… those things are really difficult to predict,” said University of Florida finance professor Jay Ritter, who tracks public listings.

Individual investors flocked to Digital World shares following the announcement of the Trump transaction, according to Marco Iachini, senior vice-president of research at Vanda Securities. This behaviour continued in January following his victory in the Iowa primary.

He said that there had been less activity before this week’s vote, suggesting that professional firms might be the ones driving the trading.

Trump, whose primary contributions to Trump Media have been his name and posts on the platform, seems set to be the biggest winner from whatever it is that inspires consumers.

“It’s an enormous transfer of value from [investors]… to Trump, which stands to be extremely lucrative for him,” says Michael Ohlrogge, a law professor at New York University who has studied listings of companies such as Trump Media.

(Adapted from CNN.com)