This makes sense. Although Musk, Zuck, Bezos et al were leveraging shares that were actually worth something. If Trump comes along and goes “I’d like to pledge my $2bn holding in Trump Media as collateral,” whoever he’s talking to may have a hard time keeping a straight face. Sure, on paper it might be worth $2bn, but if Trump defaults on the loan (and what are the odds of that?), I don’t think that whoever picks up his Trump Media shares is going to get super-rich out of it. Certainly not $2bn rich.
But since the whole thing exists as a vehicle to transfer money to Trump, I don’t suppose it matters how much he actually collects. All that matters is that it’s more than he had before.
While people have talked about it being a way of skirting campaign finance laws, I don’t know how much of the money will make it to his presidential campaign. Much of it will probably slide straight into his pockets, or go to paying off his debts to the Russian mafiya or wherever else all his money normally goes.
