President-elect Donald J. Trump transferred all of his shares in the social media company that bears his name to a trust controlled by his eldest son, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday night.
The filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission said Mr. Trump had moved his roughly 115 million shares in Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, to the trust. He did not sell the shares or receive any financial consideration for the transfer, which was described as a gift to the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust.
Mr. Trump is the largest shareholder of Trump Media & Technology Group, and his nearly 53 percent stake is worth about $4 billion. Trump Media, which is losing money, has taken in just a few million dollars in revenue. Mr. Trump’s ownership was one of his most valuable assets based on Trump Media’s market valuation.
The trust, according to a separate regulatory filing, is controlled by Donald Trump Jr. The filing said that Mr. Trump’s son, who is on the Trump Media board of directors, serves as the sole trustee of the trust and “has sole voting and investment power over all securities owned.”
Following the transfer, the filings said President-elect Trump now “indirectly” owns the shares and is the trust’s beneficiary.
The filings indicate the trust was established in 2014. The transfer of shares took place on Dec. 17.
It’s unclear what prompted the move. Mr. Trump had said during the presidential campaign that he had no plans to sell any of his shares. With Mr. Trump’s eldest son now making decisions for the trust, it could open the door for shares to be sold without violating that pledge.
Shortly before he took office in 2017, Mr. Trump transferred some of his assets and business holdings to the same trust. Some ethics experts criticized the move at the time, since the trust was ostensibly created for Mr. Trump’s benefit.
A Trump Media spokeswoman was not immediately available for comment. A representative for Mr. Trump’s transition team was not immediately available for comment.
In premarket trading on Friday, shares of Trump Media were poised to open more than 5 percent lower.
Mr. Trump is not an officer or director of Trump Media, although he served as its chairman when it was a private company. Trump Media went public in March after completing a merger with a cash-rich special purpose acquisition company.
The transfer of shares by Mr. Trump to a trust may be an attempt to avoid potential conflict of interest issues once he is sworn in as president in January. Truth Social is Mr. Trump’s primary online megaphone. He has been using it to announce the names of people he intends to nominate as members of his cabinet and other jobs in his administration.
Some ethics experts have expressed concern about people investing in Trump Media to gain favor with the president-elect.
Mr. Trump has tapped some executives and directors at Trump Media, which has fewer than three dozen employees, to fill out his administration.
Kash Patel, the former federal prosecutor named to take over the F.B.I., is a Trump Media board member. So is Linda McMahon, the former chief executive of the W.W.E., who Mr. Trump intends to nominate as secretary for the Department of Education.
Mr. Trump has also picked Devin Nunes, a former Republican congressman who is now Trump Media’s chief executive, to serve as head of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board. When announcing the appointment last weekend on Truth Social, Mr. Trump indicated that Mr. Nunes would remain in his role at Trump Media.
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