Trump Media gifts DJT shares to FBI pick Kash Patel
Kash Patel, U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee to be director of the FBI, looks on as he testifies before a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 30, 2025.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
Trump Media this week gifted thousands of shares of company stock to President Donald Trump’s nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, to Trump’s eldest son and to four other board members, new regulatory filings show.
The company awarded 25,946 stock shares each to Patel, Donald Trump Jr. and the president’s pick for Education secretary, Linda McMahon, who all serve as Trump Media directors, the filings Thursday reveal.
Three other directors — former U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer, Eric Swider and Kyle Green — received the same number of DJT shares at no cost, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
The filings said the awards were granted Tuesday. Trump Media that day closed trading at $30.04 per share.
At that price, the shares have a paper value of more than $779,400. But most of the stock awarded has restrictions on what it can be sold.
DJT was trading at around $31.50 per share as of 2:30 p.m. ET Friday.
The filings said the stock was granted “as consideration for services provided” between late March — when Trump Media went public after completing a merger with a blank-check company — and Dec. 25.
The disclosures come as critics say President Trump’s financial entanglements and recent business ventures pose conflicts of interest for members of his administration.
The stock awards were made public hours after Patel appeared for a Senate hearing on his nomination to lead the FBI, the top U.S. law enforcement agency.
Trump Media, which operates the Truth Social app, on Wednesday announced it was expanding into financial services.
Weeks after winning the presidential election, Trump transferred his majority stake in Trump Media to his revocable trust. Trump is the sole beneficiary of the trust, and Trump Jr. is its only trustee.
The new SEC filings said that the shares awarded Tuesday to the six board members are restricted stock units that will vest in installments.
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Twenty-five percent of the awarded RSUs — about 6,487 shares per director — immediately vested, meaning they can be sold at any time. The paper value of those shares was nearly $195,000 as of Tuesday’s closing trade.
The remaining 75% of the RSUs will vest in nine quarterly installments over two years beginning March 25.
Trump Media did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
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