Go figure
Truth Social, the app launched by Donald Trump as a free speech platform for conservatives, is facing serious financial and legal stress as it tries to survive, Axios Media Trends author Sara Fischer writes.
The app is the former president’s biggest business venture since leaving office — and his best effort to create an alternative populist megaphone after being banned from Twitter.
For now at least, it’s following a chaotic trajectory like so many of Trump’s other businesses.
Truth Social owes a vendor — an internet infrastructure company for conservatives, RightForge — $1.6 million, sources tell Axios.
The situation, first reported by Fox Business, puts Truth Social at risk of losing the cloud hosting it needs to operate.
Beyond financial issues, Truth Social and the blank check company (SPAC) it plans to merge with in order to go public are facing serious legal problems — and regulatory probes — that could derail those plans.
The blank check company, Digital World Acquisition Corp., is under investigation by the SEC for possibly negotiating the deal prior to going public.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office refused Trump’s application for a trademark for “Truth Social.”
An investor sued Digital World Acquisition Corp.’s CEO last year, claiming fraud.
It’s unclear how many people — or exactly who — are working for Truth Social. Most members of Trump’s presidential inner circle aren’t involved in Truth Social’s day-to-day operations.
Its CEO, former Republican congressman Devin Nunes, makes occasional media appearances to discuss the app. A few people say on LinkedIn that they work for Truth Social.
The app’s problems haven’t stopped conservatives from exploring the service, where Trump now posts regularly without fear of being throttled or banned.
As of mid-August, the app had 3 million downloads worldwide across iOS (mostly in the U.S. and a few thousand in the UK), per Data.ai, an app measurement company.
Truth Social saw a surge of downloads in response to the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago search.
Reality check: Trump has 4 million followers on the app, compared to the 88 million he had on Twitter before being banned last year.
Truth Social isn’t available on Android, meaning that around 44% of smartphone users in the U.S. can’t download it.
At this point it’s basically just a platform for people to copy and paste Trump posts on other websites when he says something outrageous or semi-meaningful. Mostly his feed is just re-posted memes and stupid gifs. It’s dull as dishwater. If he weren’t the GOP frontrunner for 2024, he would disappear into the ether like summer fog.