Trump Media shares drop below $30, company sheds more than half of market cap since trading debut

• The price of Trump Media shares fell below $30 in early trading, a more than $40-per-share plunge since the company began public trading on March 26.
• The shares of Trump Media, which owns the Truth Social app, have dropped by more than 47% month-to-date.
• Former President Donald Trump is the biggest shareholder in the company, owning nearly 60% of its stock.
• Trump on Monday is set to start jury selection for his criminal trial in Manhattan Supreme Court on charges of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

The price of Trump Media shares fell below $30 in early trading Friday morning, which is more than $40 lower than what its shares first sold for when the social media company began public trading on March 26.

DJT shares fell by more than 8% within the first hour of trading Friday.

The latest price fall for the ticker continued a slide that included a 5.4% drop on Thursday, and a more than 8.5% decline on Wednesday.

The shares of Trump Media, which owns the Truth Social app, have dropped by more than 47% month-to-date, wiping out billions of dollars in the company's market capitalization.

Former President Donald Trump is the biggest shareholder in the company, owning nearly 60% of its stock. Trump on Monday is set to start jury selection for his criminal trial in Manhattan Supreme Court on charges of falsifying business records related to a 2016 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

Trump Media on March 26 opened its first day of trading with a price of $70.90 per share, hitting a high of nearly $80 later that same day. During trading that day, the company's market capitalization topped $9.5 billion.

By 10:45 a.m. ET on Friday, Trump Media's market cap was $4.3