Just stupid...

The hits keep coming for Trump's SPAC deal

By DECLAN HARTY, KATE DAVIDSON and SAM SUTTON 

Digital World Acquisition Corp. and Trump Media & Technology Group are having a rough month.

The blank-check company trying to merge with former President Donald Trump’s latest venture has seen its stock plunge 30 percent since the start of September. Shareholders have yet to come out with enough support for giving the companies another year to close the deal. And the Wall Street investors who had committed to putting $1 billion into the combined company have started to walk away, with several recently telling POLITICO the deal was no longer worth it.

Now, Elon Musk is joining the list of complications.

The Tesla CEO’s reversal on buying Twitter for $44 billion has thrown officials across Washington, the banks who were originally planning to provide financing for the deal and just about everyone else for a loop, including Digital World and Trump Media. That is because Trump Media’s signature product is Truth Social, the conservative social media app that acts today as Trump’s only online bullhorn following his banishment from platforms, including Twitter.

Truth Social has struggled on its own to generate much traction beyond the conservative pundits, one-time Trump administration officials and other supporters of the former president who populate the platform today. But Musk’s light-touch vision for Twitter — based on less moderation and more free speech — threatens to further undercut Truth Social, even if Trump does eschew an invitation back to Twitter.

Investors seemed to recognize as much following the initial reports that Musk and Twitter were back on. Digital World shares fell more than 5 percent during trading Tuesday. The stock only ticked up 0.3 percent Wednesday.

Dark clouds have been swirling around Digital World and Trump Media for months now. But Musk buying Twitter will not be the most significant event around the Trump deal bound to happen over the next week.

That will come Monday, when Digital World is slated to hold a shareholder meeting where it may finally announce whether enough shareholders have voted in favor of a 12-month extension on the deal.

Holding it up is the SEC, which is still reviewing and investigating the transaction nearly one year after it was first announced — drawing the ire of Trump and Truth Social users in the process. “Defund the SEC” has started to even populate on the platform with growing frequency, The New York Times’ Matthew Goldstein reported Wednesday.

Currently, the companies have another two months to finalize it, though Digital World’s backers could stretch that out to March. Digital World CEO Patrick Orlando has been posting on Truth Social to try and rally investors to vote for the extension for the last several days, even urging Trump to promote the vote.

Trump, meanwhile, has been out on the campaign trail, blasting the SEC and saying he doesn’t need to take the company public.