Trump’s Truth Social Big Payday May Be Falling Apart

Failures

from the nice-try dept

Donald Trump promised to take the social media world by storm with his Truth Social Twitter-clone for the MAGA world. “Free speech!” he claimed as he banned anyone who criticized him. Of course, from the beginning, many suspected that this was all a very sketchy grift, using a SPAC to try to cash in on gullible MAGA folks willing to pump up a shell company stock well beyond what it could possibly be worth.

Except, everything continues to fall apart. Even with Trump himself finally starting to “Truth” it up during the January 6th hearings (which have been quite damning), the site is struggling to remain relevant. It’s even gotten to the point that the ban and block finger is so heavy that he’s blocking some of his biggest fans, and they’re not happy about it.

It’s almost as if it was never about “free speech” after all.

Oh, and also, Reuters has a giant report on how the company is having trouble attracting tech talent, and that other tech companies are steering way clear of partnering with the company as well, because it’s seen as such a toxic asset all around.

Truth Social last summer started recruiting tech talent. Executives sought to find ideologically aligned staffers, in at least one case scanning candidates’ social media and listening to their appearances on podcasts, according to a person familiar with company operations. But the company struggled to woo skilled tech workers, regardless of their politics, according to three people with knowledge of the recruiting efforts.

Those with the company’s preferred conservative politics, or at least a commitment to its stated free-speech mission, were in short supply, they said. And tech workers with liberal or moderate politics usually wanted nothing to do with the Trump company. One person approached by TMTG told Reuters it was an easy offer to refuse. Beyond a distaste for Trump’s politics, this person cited concerns about the former president’s history of business failures – the DWAC filing lists six Trump entities that have filed for bankruptcy – and about TMTG’s financing arrangements.

But, perhaps the bigger threat on the horizon is that the SPAC shell game with Digital World Acquisition Corp. may be in serious doubt. The SEC has ramped up its investigation into what’s going on here.

And, as Liz Dye at Wonkette points out, things seemed to get even worse, as DWAC is now facing a grand jury investigation as well:

The SEC investigation continues apace. But in the meantime, DWAC disclosed this morning that the company and its board members had all gotten subpoenas from a federal grand jury in the Justice Department’s office in the Southern District of New York. And that shark tank does not hand out investment capital.

The grand jury is seeking substantially the same information as the SEC, and it has specific questions about Miami investment firm Rocket One Capital. CNBC reports that DWAC board member Bruce Garelick resigned last Wednesday. Garelick is — or perhaps was — the chief strategy officer for Rocket One. We’d check his status, but as of this morning, the company’s website looks like this:

Probably just a coincidence, right?

Oof. Anyway, at the very least, all of this is going to delay the SPAC deal, and it may delay it permanently. The gang that couldn’t shoot straight can’t even pull off the whole cashing out part of the grift for its social media site that barely works, is having trouble attracting a meaningful userbase, and is kicking people off for any kind of wrongspeak.

Filed Under: donald trump, grand jury, reverse merger, subpoena
Companies: dwac, truth social