Trump’s Truth Social is headed for Wall Street in merger that could reap billions

Donald Trump’s social media platform that launched in the volatile aftermath of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol is headed for Wall Street.

Shareholders of his Truth Social platform voted on Friday to take the company public, a move that could raise the former president’s net worth by tens of millions of dollars as he desperately tries to find cash for the court-ordered judgments against him.

Mr Trump will need to find money from his own coffers or get help from a surety company to post an appeals bond by Monday that would block enforcement of a $454m penalty after a New York judge found that he defrauded banks and insurers.

His attorneys are asking a state appeals court to pause the judgment against him while he appeals without having to fork over tens of millions of dollars, which they called a “practical impossibility,” with rejections from roughly 30 bond companies who won’t take his prized real estate empire as collateral.

Political action committees supporting the Republican Party’s likely nominee to face President Joe Biden in November are also hemorrhaging tens of millions of dollars to pay his legal bills and attorneys’ fees, months before a summer of criminal proceedings and the general election.

The public debut of Truth Social’s parent company Trump Media & Technology Group could be a massive boost to the former president’s financial state – he could rake in more than $3bn from his investment.

But he won’t see any immediate return.

On Friday, after delays from investigations from regulators and the US Department of Justice, Truth Social shareholders approved a long-anticipated merger between Trump Media and the publicly traded shell company Digital World Acquisition Corporation.

Under the terms of the