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MSNBC's Joe Scarborough predicted that Donald Trump would cash out his Truth Social stock and wreck the company to pay off his staggering debts.
New York Times investigative reporters Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig appeared Tuesday on "Morning Joe" to discuss their new book, “Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success,” and they concluded with a look at the Republican presidential nominee's current financial situation.
"He stands to make, even with his Truth Social stock plummeting, doesn't he stand to make a billion or two dollars if he decides to sell in the next few weeks?" Scarborough said.
Trump has vowed not to sell off his shares in Trump Media, Truth Social's parent company, when a lockup provision expires as soon as this week, but Craig said his debt situation puts him under great pressure to divest.
"First of all, the stock has been falling, so that's a real question mark," Craig said. "If he sells, it could crush the company. But these are a lot of unknowns. You know, the other thing we've seen him doing, he's hawking sneakers, he's hawking Bibles. These are licensing deals, they're not going to bring in a lot of money.
"We have to remember, Donald Trump lost a lot of the licensing deals that he struck when he decided to run for president back in 2016. Now he's facing potentially crushing fines, hundreds of millions of dollars in fines. Just think of the New York attorney general's case. We don't know how it'll play out, that case is on appeal. That bill could be coming due."
Scarborough said there were too many reasons for Trump to dump his shares.
"I do think he'll most likely sell the stock," Scarborough said. "It might crush the company, but with the expenses, if he could get a billion, $2 billion out of that, that'll certainly – that will – you have to sell a lot of sneakers to get a billion or two dollars."