Donald Trump’s Team Has Launched A New Social Media Platform
Donald Trump just had a member of his core team of advisors take on the role of CEO of a startup social media company this week.
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If there was someone who might want to have close ties to, or even help start, a social media company right now it would be Donald Trump. After all, at present, he’s suspended or blocked from using the major ones in any fashion. So it was interesting news on Friday to learn that a closer advisor and member of his team has taken on a full-time role in a new social media startup. Deadline is reporting that Jason Miller has agreed to be CEO of a fledgling social media company but will remain an advisor to Trump as well.
The new social media platform is called Gettr and apparently, its closest comparison would be that of Twitter. Judging by the team starting it, and Miller’s close ties to Donald Trump, it stands to reason the general gestalt will be much different, at least in tone, from Twitter to start. The details on the app in the App Store describe it as a platform “founded on the principles of free speech, independent thought and rejecting political censorship and “cancel culture.”
At the time of this writing, Gettr had 1,100 ratings in the Apple App Store and 3,184 in the Google Play Store. The Apple description has it as a “non-bias social network”. Again, how it differentiates itself from the current behemoths in the space, or even something like Parler remains to be seen. It’s a safe bet Donald Trump becomes closely associated with the app considering the connections to his core team and could begin to use it as a new launchpad for his own message.
Jason Miller served on the Donald Trump communications team starting in 2016 and then worked his way to a top adviser in 2020. He has not stopped working with Trump in this latest move but will have a diminished role because of the new CEO gig.
What’s interesting about this latest release of Gettr, which began to roll out this week, was how some other inner circle Donald Trump folks, like his sons Don Jr. or Eric didn’t mention it on their Twitter profiles. Whether that was a coordinated plan, meant to wait for the larger, Independence Day-timed official release on July 4th remains to be seen. But for the short-term, the Trump camp has been relatively quiet.
That could be because currently Donald Trump, or more specifically his Trump Organization, is at the center of indictments handed down by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. In all, there were 15 charges handed down on the organization and specifically chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg. Donald Trump was not not named in the charges which include tax fraud, but considering his name is on the sign this is a tough blow for the former President.
And where social media is concerned, Donald Trump is still persona non grata on multiple platforms. He’s still banned from posting on Twitter and his Facebook account has been suspended for multiple years subject to review. Those bans were in the wake of the riot in the Capital last January 6th. His messaging during that time was seen as violating the terms and conditions for the social media platforms. So he’s likely to become active on Gettr pretty quickly.
