Former president Donald Trump received quite the godsend late last week — an infusion of billions of dollars as a merger between his media company and another publicly-traded company was finally approved.
On Friday, shareholders of the Trump Media & Technology Group — the parent company of his social media platform Truth Social — approved the merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp., a publicly-traded shell company.
The SEC had been holding up the proposed merger for months, but finally gave approval to it. That will result in Trump’s wealth increasing by billions of dollars.
These fresh new funds can help him not only cover his legal bills, which are mounting by the day, but also help him meet the $454 million judgment that was handed down on him in a New York civil fraud case.
In addition to this windfall of cash, Trump received more good news on Monday.
An appeals court in New York ruled that the former president has to post a bond of $175 million in order to officially appeal the full judgment that was placed against him in his civil fraud case. That came after his legal team argued that he was unable to obtain the collateral necessary to get a bond for the full $454 million amount.
In addition to the significantly reduced amount Trump has to pay, he also has 10 more days to pony up the money. The initial deadline for the bond was Monday.
In the merger, Digital World Acquisition Corp. shareholders will now become shareholders of Trump’s media group, and it will be traded on the stock market with the symbol DJT, according to a report in The New York Times.
The paper added that Truth Social will receive more than $300 million as a result of the merger, which will help it not only continue operations but to also grow.
And, The Times reports that the company will debut on the stock market with an initial value that exceeds $5 billion, which could put an extra $3 billion in Trump’s own pocket, according to The Western Journal.
Trump won’t be able to use any of the funds he receives from the merger as collateral to obtain a loan, according to the merger agreement. But, that doesn’t mean he can’t use the money for other personal purposes, including paying the judgment or funding his legal fees.
At a separate trial in New York on Monday, Judge Juan Merchan set the start date of jury selection for April 15. That will be for the criminal trial the former president is facing over hush money payments he made to a former adult film star.
At that hearing, Merchan discredited the allegations Trump put forward about misconduct regarding the office of the district attorney. The judge ruled that the prosecutors fully cooperated in efforts to secure documents from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York.
