I signed up for Truth Social -- Donald Trump's alternative to Twitter -- on February 22, the day after it officially launched.
The reasons were -- and are -- obvious: Twitter already exists, there are already a slew of (underperforming) conservative social media sites and Trump isn't president anymore.That Trump didn't see that -- and that no one told him the obvious flaws in his plan -- should surprise no one who watched how he handled his business over the four years he was in the White House.The Point: Truth Social, at some point, may get off the ground. I was #401,477 in line to join.More than a month later -- it's been 41 days, but who's counting -- I am still not a member of the Truth Social community. I signed up for Truth Social -- Donald Trump's alternative to Twitter -- on February 22, the day after it officially launched.Demand was so high -- allegedly -- that I was put on a waiting list.
The two Southern tech entrepreneurs had the two qualities that Donald Trump's startup needed: tech-industry expertise and a worldview aligned with the ...
Adams is a “constitutionalist” who believes in strict interpretation of the authors’ original intent for the foundational U. S. document, said one of the people familiar with company operations. When Truth Social launched, they posted frequently on the platform, but again presenting themselves to the public only as “Josh A.” and “Billy B.” Boozer, also a political conservative who previously lived in Alabama, had collaborated frequently with Adams before joining Truth Social, according to the source. The two men had pitched Trump on the social-media venture in January of 2021, according to a person familiar with the company’s founding. At least one candidate rebuffed a recruitment overture, saying he couldn’t stomach working for Trump, the person familiar with the company said. To gauge whether potential recruits were a good fit, hiring managers explored candidates’ political ideology, in at least one case by scanning their social media profiles and listening to their appearances on podcasts, that person said. Trump’s level of involvement with his namesake company and the Truth Social platform also remains unclear. The executives believed deeply in creating an “open platform, where as long as you don’t say anything that is criminal,” the person said, “you can be entitled to your own opinion.” It also remains unclear whether Adams and Boozer still work on the venture in a different capacity after quitting their executive posts. Truth Social is part of a growing sector of tech firms catering to conservatives and marketing themselves as free-speech champions. The Truth social network logo is seen displayed behind a woman holding a smartphone in this picture illustration taken February 21, 2022. The Truth social network logo is seen displayed behind a woman holding a smartphone in this picture illustration taken February 21, 2022.
Chief technology officer Josh Adams and head of product development Billy Boozer both resigned from their roles less than a year after joining Trump's ...
More than a month after launch, the service has shown little improvement. At launch, Truth skyrocketed into the top-downloaded app on Apple’s App Store for social networking. Chief technology officer Josh Adams and head of product development Billy Boozer both resigned from their roles less than a year after joining Trump’s social media venture.
Two executives have left Truth Social, the social media platform founded by former US President Donald Trump, signaling continuing tumult at the company.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk also said he was “giving serious thought” to launching his own social media platform that prioritizes “free speech” in March. Musk took a 9.2% stake in Twitter. Truth Social said it had received $1 billion in funding from different institutional investors ahead of its SPAC merger with DWAC in December 2021. About 1.2 million users have installed the app, which is only available on Apple devices, so far.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a rally on April 2, 2022, near Washington, Michigan. Scott Olson/Getty Images. Truth Social is bombing. The social media ...
“I created TRUTH Social … to stand up to the tyranny of Big Tech,” Trump said last October when the app was announced. The Daily Beast reported on Monday on the app’s anemic performance. Both were critical parts of the operation, according to eight sources who spoke with Reuters. “If Josh has left … all bets are off,” one of them said of Adams, calling him the “brains” behind the app’s technology.
US President Donald Trump holds a Make America Great Again rally as he campaigns at Orlando. By SAUL LOEB / AFP.
As The Daily Beast reported last month, sources have heard Trump “swearing gratuitously” about the app on the phone, asking, “What the fuck is going on” with the social network, and regularly complaining about the bad press and disappointing optics of the rollout. As for Trump, he has yet to post a follow-up to his initial “truth” telling users to get excited to see more of him. The SPAC is said to be under federal investigation and Thursday missed a filing deadline because of what it said were accounting delays. Truth Social also still does not have an app for Android users, despite Android phones making up “more than 40% of the U.S. market,” Reuters reports. “If Josh has left…all bets are off,” a source told Reuters of Adams, describing him as the “brains” behind the app’s technology. When we last checked in with Truth Social, the alternative social media network launched by Donald Trump after he was booted from Twitter and temporarily Facebook for inciting a violent insurrection, things were not going great.
The departures come after the troubled launch of the company's iPhone app on 20 February, with many still stuck on a waiting list.
Investors have pledged $1bn to TMTG but they will not hand over that money until the DWAC deal closes. It remained unclear whether Adams and Boozer still work on the venture in a different capacity. DWAC disclosed in a regulatory filing last December that the SEC was investigating the deal. Representatives for TMTG and Trump did not respond to requests for comment. Truth Social is part of a growing sector of tech firms catering to conservatives and marketing themselves as free-speech champions. Boozer declined to comment and Adams did not respond to a request.
Here's a truth former president Donald Trump doesn't want to hear: His social network, Truth Social, has begun to implode.
The app’s content is viewable only within its Apple iPhone app — there’s no Android version to download — and links to individual “truths” don’t open in a standard Web browser. But engagement on the app remains staggeringly low: Besides #Truth, all of the top-trending hashtags — including #Ukraine, #Inflation and #GasPrices — are marked in the app as having fewer than 1,000 “people talking.” The share price slid 10 percent on Monday upon reports of the executives’ exits and started Tuesday with another 10 percent drop. Trump recently had dinner at Mar-a-Lago with billionaire Peter Thiel, a longtime investor in Facebook’s parent company, Meta, who plans to step down from its board this year to focus on other ventures. He has, however, continued to pay attention to Twitter, which he has repeatedly criticized as irrelevant since the site banned him last year. Trump is holding out hope that the platform will eventually be lucrative, but he has been reluctant to post on it because “it is not ready for prime time,” a close adviser said.
Kara Alaimo writes that the Truth Social platform is struggling to gain traction because former President Donald Trump has undermined its chances for ...