Billionaire media mogul Barry Diller let fly on CNBC when he was asked to talk about the volatile Trump Media stock that was briefly valued at more than $9 billion on annual revenue of approximately $4.1 million.
Making the obvious analogy to the famously untethered-to-reality rise of the meme stock marvel GameStop’s shares during the pandemic, Diller asked, exasperated, “why are you even talking about this?”
Diller, who was often found on the same gossip pages as Trump in the New York media — he is married to fashion titan Diane Von Furstenberg — seemed perplexed at Trump’s ability to continue to operate what Diller unequivocally calls a “scam.”
“It’s a scam, just like everything he’s ever been involved in is some sort of con,” Diller says.
Barry Diller on the Truth Social stock: It's a scam! Just like everything he's ever been involved in is some sort of con. pic.twitter.com/Nxdzp1F0wJ
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) April 4, 2024
For a scam to work, it needs willing victims — Diller says the people buying the Trump Media stock are “dopes.”
Diller, a Democrat who is the chairman of IAC and Expedia Group, is also known as a co-founder, with Rupert Murdoch, of the FOX Broadcasting Company. Diller ran Paramount Pictures from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s as the the entertainment giant produced such cultural touchstones as Raiders of the Lost Ark, Saturday Night Fever, and the television series Cheers.
He had profitable timing in buying a part of QVC after leaving Paramount and later purchasing a majority share of Home Shopping Network. He is worth more than $4 billion, according to Forbes.
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