Trump Media & Technology Group’s funding buddy just got the thumbs-up from the folks who watch over securities. This means they’re good to go with a merger that’s been on hold for a bit. If things go as planned, ex-President Donald Trump could end up with a slice of the pie worth nearly $4 billion.

Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC), known as a special-purpose acquisition company, spilled the beans on Thursday. They said the Securities and Exchange Commission gave the green light for their merger with Trump Media. DWAC’s gearing up to let shareholders know when they’ll get to vote on this deal in the next couple of days.

As for the SEC, they’re keeping their lips sealed on the matter, saying they don’t chat about specific companies.

Getting past this regulatory checkpoint is a big deal for Trump and his media venture, which is behind the right-leaning Truth Social network. They’ve been trying to get this merger off the ground since October 2021, but it’s been a bumpy ride with all sorts of regulatory snags and hurdles along the way.

The game plan was for DWAC to join forces with Trump Media, pumping the ex-president’s new venture full of cash to beef up its operations. However, with the merger taking its sweet time, DWAC ended up giving back loads of cash to its backers.

Should they finally seal the deal, Trump’s set to bag nearly 79 million shares of the merged entity, grabbing up to 69% of the whole shebang, according to a DWAC document. At Thursday’s stock price for DWAC, that chunk could be worth a whopping $3.95 billion.

On Friday, the former president hit a big bump in the road. A judge ruled he can’t run his New York-based company—a key part of his worldwide business—for three years. On top of that, Trump and The Trump Organization have to cough up $354 million in fines, marking one of the toughest punishments New York has ever dished out to a company.

DWAC’s stock took a hit too, dropping 4% that day.

“Moving forward, we aim to accelerate our work to build a free speech highway outside the stifling stranglehold of Big Tech,” Trump Media’s CEO Devin Nunes, who used to work in the House as a Republican, said. This came as they announced getting the OK from the SEC to go ahead with their merger.

For the first nine months of 2023, Trump Media’s bank account saw a nice bump, with revenues hitting $3.4 million, way up from $237,000 the year before.