Former President Donald Trump wrecked the stock price of Meta, Facebook’s parent company, twice in two days.
He did so by tossing around a favorite barb to attack Facebook: “enemy of the people.”
Meta’s stock lost roughly 6% of its value between Friday and Tuesday after Trump cited Facebook to criticize legislation that would force the sale of TikTok.
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Today, the House is expected to vote on a bill to force ByteDance, TikTok’s China-based parent company, to sell the platform within six months. Lawmakers believe ByteDance is too cozy with the Chinese Communist Party.
If ByteDance cannot or refuses to sell, TikTok will be banned inside the U.S.
Trump said he opposed that.
Last Thursday, Trump posted on Truth Social, his social media platform, “If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck [Facebook founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg] will double their business. I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!”
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Meta’s stock then dropped 1.2% on Friday.
On Monday, Trump repeated and expanded his comments during an interview with CNBC.
“Frankly, there are a lot of people on TikTok that love it. There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it. There are a lot of users,” Trump told CNBC.
“There’s a lot of good and a lot of bad with TikTok. But the thing I don’t like is, without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger. And I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people, along with the media,” he added.
After Trump’s interview, the company’s stock then dipped another 4.5%, closing at about $484 a share.
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That was Meta’s lowest closing since last July. Meta rebounded somewhat on Tuesday, ending the trading day at $499.75 a share.
That was still more than $12 below the company’s stock price before Trump’s first comment last Thursday.
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