August 27, 2022

Trump’s Truth Social Is in Trouble

Firm warned it could be hurt by “further controversies that damage his credibility.”

The TRUTH Social website on a mobile device with an image of former US president Donald Trump in the background.Jaap Arriens /Sipa/AP

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Lately, Donald Trump has been screaming into the void. He is taking to his own social media site, Truth Social, to complain about the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago, but not many people (bar a few reporters) seem to be listening. That’s a far cry from his days as a Twitter influencer before he was finally booted from the platform.

The site’s traffic has tumbled to about 300,000 views per day, down from 1.5 million on the day of its launch, the Washington Post reported Saturday. And that is one of a slew of problems for the would-be Twitter competitor. The Patent and Trademark Office this month refused Trump’s application for a trademark for the site’s name. The site has been panned for forcing people who want to sign up to languish on a waitlist.

The SEC and federal prosecutors are investigating the origins of a deal through which a so-called special purpose acquisition company (or SPAC), called Digital World Acquisition Corp., was set up to eventually take over Trump’s company. The feds appear to be looking into whether the deal was negotiated before the SPAC went public, which would be illegal.

New subpoenas served on the firm in June suggest the probe could be expanding. News of the federal scrutiny has contributed to the company’s stock price falling 75 percent since its peak, with reported losses to the tune of $6.5 million. 

The Trump company has also stopped paying a key vendor. Fox Business reported this week that Truth Social owes a web-hosting company called RightForge $1 million and has failed to make contractually required payments since March.

Digital World Acquisition’s SEC filings have also sounded a series of warnings about the company’s chances for success. In May, it said Trump’s company “may never generate any operating revenues or ever achieve profitable operations.” The filings have repeatedly warned that the venture is endangered by its reliance on the former president. “If President Trump were to discontinue his relationship with TMTG due to death, disability, or any other reason, or limit his involvement with TMTG due to becoming a candidate for political office, TMTG would be significantly disadvantaged,” they said in May. And as Mother Jones has reported, Truth Social does not even get exclusive access to his content. Trump is not required to use the site to post any content related to politics, which, of course, is most of what he says.

Digital World Acquisition has also repeatedly warned in filings that: “If President Trump becomes less popular or there are further controversies that damage his credibility or the desire of people to use a platform associated with him, and from which he will derive financial benefit, TMTG’s results of operations could be adversely affected.”

It’s fair to say further controversy has occurred. More trouble looms. A business relying on Donald Trump’s credibility is not, let’s say, ideally positioned. 

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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