Former Republican President Donald Trump is reportedly "fuming" over the failure of Truth Social, the social media platform his team launched after he was booted from Twitter for peddling disinformation that incited an insurrection at the United States Capitol Building.
Truth Social's sluggish rollout angered Trump, according to a Washington Post report. A source who spoke to the publication said Trump is now considering joining Gettr, a Truth Social competitor that prides itself on its commitment to "the principles of free speech."
Trump apparently does not believe Truth Social is "ready for prime time," the source said and Devin Nunes—the former California Republican Representative who left office to run the app—has thus far failed to assuage Trump's concerns and remained largely silent despite questions from reporters.
Adding to Truth Social's woes is the fact two top executives, Josh Adams, Truth Social's chief technology officer, and Billy Boozer, head of product development, recently quit, both after less than a year on the job. Adams was described as the "brains" behind the app's operation and his departure could spell trouble for its future.
For many, news of Truth Social's troubles offers further evidence it and Trump, who has crashed and burned his way through a variety of business ventures, were doomed to fail.
Look at it this way. It would have been infinitely much more worse if Trump didn't have so much experience with company failures and bankruptcies. \n\nOf course, it's entirely different for the investors who got scammed yet again.https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1511660257357053957\u00a0\u2026— R. S. S. (@R. S. S.) 1649244151
Who didn't see this coming? Trump SocialDisease, they should have called it.https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1511344932702801926\u00a0\u2026— Padraig O'MUGWUMP\ud83c\udf3b (@Padraig O'MUGWUMP\ud83c\udf3b) 1649192409
You\u2019d think they\u2019d at least adapt the endless stream of dumb emails into posts for his social media thing.https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1511344932702801926\u00a0\u2026— Jonah Goldberg (@Jonah Goldberg) 1649193627
Joining the company of Trump steaks, perhaps?https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1511344932702801926\u00a0\u2026— Eric Cunningham \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@Eric Cunningham \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6) 1649193666
Oh so I guess they should have kept up the front end of their dark laundering and data collection ops better?https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1511344932702801926\u00a0\u2026— GOPisComplicit (@GOPisComplicit) 1649196153
Turns out that a movement that's largely bots and paid bad faith actors isn't going to create a lot of app downloads.https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1511344932702801926\u00a0\u2026— Just Norm \ud83d\udc99\ud83d\udc9b\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f (@Just Norm \ud83d\udc99\ud83d\udc9b\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f) 1649213023
See, it failed because Trumpers don\u2019t want to talk amongst themselves. They want to troll their opponents and \u201cown the libs.\u201d Besides, as a longtime New Yorker, I\u2019ve known since about 1987 that everything Trump touches dies.https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1511344932702801926\u00a0\u2026— Meg McSweeney (@Meg McSweeney) 1649215680
Nothing but losing in Trump world. \nTrump is a loser. And not just once. He loses all the time. So much losing. \nI only like winners. \n\n#trumpisaloser\n#TrumpisaNationalDisgracehttps://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1511344932702801926\u00a0\u2026— Carol Palmer (@Carol Palmer) 1649260421
It's in his DNA - failure and incompetencehttps://twitter.com/joncoopertweets/status/1510942941778522114\u00a0\u2026— bill scott \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6 (@bill scott \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6) 1649147927
I mean who DIDN'T see this coming?https://twitter.com/joncoopertweets/status/1510942941778522114\u00a0\u2026— MotivationalSpeaker (@MotivationalSpeaker) 1649175355
Truth Social has been plagued by problems since its launch.
The app promises "open, free, and honest global conversation without discriminating against political ideology." It is part of the new Trump Media Technology Group (TMTG).
Trump was widely mocked after news outlets reported that Truth Social's terms of service include a clause stating that users may not "disparage, tarnish, or otherwise harm, in our opinion, us and/or the Site." The platform was hacked within hours of going live.
Since then, users have complained about glitches and errors that haven't allowed them to sign up and put them in a queue behind hundreds of thousands of others. Downloads have dropped to 60,000 per week in Apple's App Store, down from 872,000 downloads the week the app launched.
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