Cramer says Trump should ask permission to sell stock in Truth Social parent early

Published Tue, Mar 26 202412:00 PM EDT

Kevin Stankiewicz @in/kevin-stankiewicz-b5593466 @kevin_stank

CNBC's Jim Cramer said Tuesday former President Donald Trump should ask the board of Trump Media & Technology Group to waive his six-month lockup period on his company shares which are now worth billions on paper. "If I were President Trump … I would go in and say to the board, 'People want stock. Let's unlock this.' And that's what I would do if I were on the board: I would unlock it," Cramer said on "Squawk on the Street." Shares of Trump Media soared more than 40% on Tuesday and were at one point briefly halted for volatility in their first session trading under the DJT ticker. Trump Media completed its merger with the shell company Digital World Acquisition Corp. on Monday, officially making Trump's social media firm a publicly traded entity more than two years after the deal was first announced. The transaction has been the subject of investigations by the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, owns nearly 79 million shares of Trump Media, according to a securities filing , valuing his stake in the company at more than $5 billion on paper, based on Tuesday's intraday price of about $70 per share. Before the merger was completed, the stock had previously traded under the DWAC ticker and began 2024 trading at less than $18 a share. Including Tuesday's surge, it has now more than quadrupled year to date. Trump Media's debut Tuesday comes as Trump has multiple needs for cash , including his presidential campaign and a variety of legal bills tied to the criminal and civil cases he faces across the U.S. Trump is subject to a six-month lockup period on Trump Media, but the company's board of directors — which includes his son Donald Trump, Jr., and former members of his presidential administration — could waive that requirement, enabling him to sell some of his stake. Cramer suggested Tuesday he believes other shareholders of Trump Media would not take issue with the former president Trump was able to sell some of his stock. "This is a moment where he could very easily say, '... No one would mind if I sold stock, so please let me do it,'" Cramer said. Trump Media did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Cramer's remarks. Trump Media, which operates the social media site Truth Social, reported a net loss of roughly $49 million over the first three quarters of 2023, according to a securities filing . It reported around $3.4 million in revenue.