"As a public company, we will passionately pursue our vision to build a movement to reclaim the Internet from Big Tech censors," Nunes said. "We will continue to fulfill our commitment to Americans to serve as a safe harbor for free expression and to stand up to the ever-growing army of speech suppressors."

BREAKING: Trump's media stock ($DJT) is soaring a whopping 50% on its first day.

It has a $15 Billion market cap, higher than EIGHTY companies listed on the S&P 500 including American Airlines.

Trump owns a 58% stake in the company, meaning he is now $9 BILLION richer.

The… pic.twitter.com/yrYMoJ7c1g

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 26, 2024

The debut of Trump Media could yield the former US president over $3 billion (£2.4 billion) should it maintain its initial offering price of roughly $50 per share, marking a significant increase to his net wealth. Trump owns around 79 million shares, about a 60 percent stake, although rules prevent him from liquidating his holdings for six months. 

This sudden increase in wealth is acknowledged even by the likes of Bloomberg, which announced on Monday that he had joined their list of the world's top 500 richest people. "Donald Trump’s business empire was supposed to be in peril like never before on Monday. Instead, it turned into the single-greatest day on record for the former president’s wealth," the article noted.

Donald Trump's $6.4 billion net worth means that he is, for the first time, one of the world's 500 richest people https://t.co/fqeMhGyzRO

— Bloomberg (@business) March 25, 2024

Truth Social was first launched back in February 2022, around one year after Trump was banned from prominent platforms such as Facebook and X, previously known as Twitter, in the wake of the January 6 protests. Although Trump has since been reinstated on both platforms, he has opted to continue posting exclusively to Truth Social. 

Institutional investors will likely play down Truth Social's value, given that it still holds just a small fraction of the user base compared with other social media firms. Meanwhile, its core mission of bringing free speech to the world has been somewhat undermined by Elon Musk's decision to purchase Twitter. 

As well as renaming the platform X, Musk has ended the censorship regime that previously controlled the company and restored the majority of previously banned accounts, causing anger and fury among the liberal establishment. As a result, other alt-tech social media platforms such as GETTR, Gab, and Parler have largely faded into obscurity as users realize that their biggest potential audience is still on X.