Despite all of the platform’s nearly endless and ever-mounting issues, the one-year anniversary of Donald Trump’s Twitter “replacement,” Truth Social, is rapidly approaching. As such, the former president is facing a truly crucial, monumental decision about the social media platform he basically created out of a fit of rage and humiliation following his Twitter ban, as the company and platform struggle to keep its head above water.
Newsweek recently reported that with the platform’s one-year anniversary, the scandal-ridden former president also faces the impending expiration of his exclusivity agreement with Truth Social that’s up for renewal in June. An SEC filing shows that while Trump is technically allowed to post on other social media platforms, he can only do so under strict conditions, including the rule that he “…may not make the same post on another social media site for 6 hours.” At the time of Truth Social’s inception, this contract was basically a non-issue, given that the former president had been banned from essentially every reputable social media platform across the board, due in large part to his behavior and posts surrounding the violent, deadly January 6th Capitol attack.
However, this decision carries far more weight now, as Trump was recently reinstated to his once-beloved Twitter, following a bizarre poll of users by new Twitter owner Elon Musk. Following Musk’s move, Meta — the company formerly known as Facebook — has now also opened its doors back up to scandal-ridden former president Donald Trump following a two-year ban from the platform.
Donald Trump boasts a whopping 4.9 million followers on Truth Social and has unsurprisingly been able to center himself as the golden boy of the social media platform. But the company as a whole is deeply struggling to even keep its head above water as the platform becomes more and more bogged down by scams and misleading gimmicks in an effort to bring in some semblance of revenue for the company, as reputable advertisers refuse to get within a country mile of Donald Trump’s raging Truth Social dumpster fire. Not to mention, Truth Social’s overall reach couldn’t even dream of holding a candle to the billions of users across Meta and Twitter.
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With his recent 2024 presidential candidacy announcement, Trump is now facing a monumental decision — whether he will cling to the safety of his Truth Social platform that he can single-handedly control, where he receives nothing short of daily praises and ego stroking, but at the expense of his ability to center himself in the nation’s attention as a GOP presidential candidate.
The Truth Social exclusivity contract between the platform and the former president is a double-edged sword, to say the very least. Donald Trump desperately needs the national and global attention that platforms like Meta and Twitter can offer him as his campaign struggles to even lift off the ground, but one social media expert says that failing to renew the agreement could serve as a near-fatal blow to Trump’s already thinning wallet.
Director of NYU’s Center for Social Media and Politics, Joshua Tucker, explains, “Truth Social is the social media platform you can use to get access to Donald Trump. So if he does go back to Twitter and Facebook, that is probably going to hurt Truth Social, and he’s going to take a financial hit.”
However, the catch-22 is almost impossible in this situation, as Tucker goes on to note that Trump truly needs the other, bigger social media platforms to foot the bill for his struggling 2024 presidential campaign.
“Trump’s ability to fundraise is going to be a real important signal about his viability within the Republican primary,” Tucker goes on to further explains. “And from that perspective, getting back on Facebook is vital to recreate the magic of the old campaigns where he brought in tons and tons of money from small donors that could play an important role in this kind of signaling development.”
Alexandra Cirone, assistant professor of government at Cornell University, also weighed in with similar sentiment, saying that Trump’s political future truly hinges on his impending social media decisions.
“Truth Social is a failing company, whose competitive advantage is exclusive access to Trump. Trump returning to Facebook would damage Truth Social even further, but approaching a 2024 presidential run, abandoning his platform would be worth it,” she said.
Cirone went on to explain, “Trump’s die-hard MAGA supporters aren’t sufficient to get him elected, especially if the field includes popular politicians like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. He will need the reach of social media to win.”
You can read the full report from Newsweek here.
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
