Former President Donald J. Trump’s social media company is currently worth over $6 billion.
But the agreement that set the stage for its stock market debut in March was nearly derailed years earlier by Mr. Trump, who is now the biggest beneficiary of its richly valued stock, one of the firm’s co-founders said on Wednesday.
Andy Litinsky, who helped start Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, testified in federal court that he had doubts about whether Mr. Trump would agree to take the firm public by merging it with a cash-rich shell company, even as the deal-signing ceremony was set to take place at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence in late 2021.
Mr. Litinsky, a former contestant on Mr. Trump’s reality television show “The Apprentice,” said that before the ceremony, Mr. Trump had asked him whether he should go ahead with the merger of Trump Media and the shell company, Digital World Acquisition Corporation.
Mr. Litinsky was in court in Manhattan testifying as a witness in an insider trading trial that arose from an investigation of traders who made millions of dollars with well-timed purchases of Digital World’s stock before the merger announcement on Oct. 20, 2021.
Persons:
Donald J, Trump, Andy Litinsky, Litinsky, ”
Organizations:
Trump Media & Technology Group, Truth, Trump Media, Acquisition, Mr, Digital
Locations:
Manhattan