Donald Trump Launched His Social Media Platform And Lost His Own Name
Donald Trump started a social media network this week, announcing the launch of Truth, but didn't get his own name on the platform
This article is more than 2 years old
Donald Trump continues to make post-Presidency waves even without a presence on any traditional social media. He’s been removed from most platforms for some time now having, according to the platforms themselves, violated numerous terms and conditions. But it looks like he is trying to find a workaround with the latest “solution” to take matters into his own hands, so to speak. It was announced on Thursday that Donald Trump was starting his own social media platform called TRUTH Social and it will look to make inroads into the social media space, presumably first and foremost with Trump’s base of potential and previous voters.
In a (very) lengthy press release, the folks from TMTG (Trump Media & Technology Group) outlined the plans for the Donald Trump-led social media platform. It’s an ambitious undertaking meant to begin competing with the likes of Facebook and Twitter right from the jump. In their release, TMTG said that TRUTH social will soon be available for pre-purchase/ download in the Apple app store with a targeted timeline for release sometime in November of this year.
In a very Trumpian message, Donald Trump rang in with some of his hope and dreams for TRUTH Social and what will have it stand out from some of the competitors out there. Trump said, “I created TRUTH Social and TMTG to stand up to the tyranny of Big Tech. We live in a world where the Taliban has a huge presence on Twitter, yet your favorite American President has been silenced. This is unacceptable. I am excited to send out my first TRUTH on TRUTH Social very soon. TMTG was founded with a mission to give a voice to all. ” Donald Trump will act as the Chairman of TMTG.
How much he’s able to use the platform to start remains to be seen though. It was also reported on Thursday that somehow someone had already beaten Trump to the @DonaldTrump handle on TRUTH. It looks like an enterprising early downloader figured out a way to register names on the platform before the actual launch and scooped up the popular handle right away. I’m sure this will be corrected though.
In addition to the launch of TRUTH Social, Donald Trump and company intend to also launch a subscription streaming service through this same company. The programming bent for this initiative will have it featuring, as they put it, “non-woke” content. What that looks like also isn’t exactly clear at this point, though the company is for sure at least dreaming big. In their release, TMTG valued the company at $875 million after they combined with Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC). That valuation, again, according to their own numbers to $1.7 billion if everything goes to plan. This is one of the first moves in potentially realizing that value.
For those getting confused with Donald Trump’s social media initiatives, TRUTH is a different venture than what the former President’s top advisor Jason Miller began a few months ago. That was GETTR and at the time it was reported that Trump was going to come on as an advisor for that fledgling social media startup. GETTR had reported having more than a million active subscribers shortly after launch, though there seems to be some confusion in the MAGA crowd now about where Trump lands in terms of platforms. It would sure seem like TRUTH is his destination of choice.
Remember, much of this stems from Donald Trump having been removed from both Facebook and Twitter after the events of the Capitol riot last January. At the time, both platforms made the decision to remove Trump after deeming that his posts violated their terms. Twitter has yet to reinstate him and Facebook announced a must-year suspension which would then lead to a review. I suppose starting your own social media platform is one way to get around these bans.
