Warning signals are mounting on Trump’s social media

Worrying signals about the financial health and prospects of Donald Trump’s social network, Truth Social, are mounting as traffic moderates six months after the platform’s launch. Fox Business Network announced Thursday (Aug. 25) that the company has stopped paying its host, RightForge, and raised a slate that now stands at $1.6 million. Truth Social, the parent company of Trump Media and Technology Group and Rightforge, did not respond to requests for comment by AFP.

In addition, TMTG’s merger with listed vehicle Digital World Acquisition Corporation (DWAC), which will allow it to raise fresh money, is slowly being implemented, 10 months after its announcement. On Thursday, DWAC issued a notice for its extraordinary general meeting on September 6, during which shareholders will be invited to postpone the one-year deadline for achieving the union to September 8, 2023. , in the absence of a favorable vote, the Company “Compulsorily Dissolved”.

Read moreBlob for Truth Social is a social network created by Donald Trump

If successful, the merger is expected to pay about $1.25 billion in TMTG, although some investors may still pull out and reduce the envelope. According to financial statements released Tuesday, DWAC had just $3,000 at the end of June, with the amount raised in the stock market blocked pending the merger. DWAC is under investigation by US federal authorities, who have presented their evidence to a grand jury. The company is also under investigation by the SEC.

Launched in late February, Truth Social aims to be an alternative to major social networks, particularly Twitter, from which Donald Trump has been suspended since early January 2021, with freedom of expression as its leitmotif. But six months after its launch, the platform appears in the thirtieth place among social networking apps in the ranking of iPhone downloads published by Apple. According to the Statista database, the app is downloaded only fifty thousand times per week. The former US president’s account has 3.91 million followers on Truth Social, but this number is still less than his 79.5 million Twitter followers at the time of his suspension.

DWAC lost 2.42% on Wall Street on Thursday. The title’s value is down 71% from its year-to-date peak in early March.