There’s more bad news for the company that would have to merge with Donald Trump’s Truth Social to make it public: Investors are starting to jump.
Digital World Acquisition Corp. — the special acquisitions firm (SPAC) tasked with making Truth Social public — revealed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Friday that investors have pulled out of $139 million in pledges from the $1 billion previously announced by the company.
There’s probably more to come. Investors, who agreed to withdraw the money nearly a year ago, can now drop their pledges as Digital World missed its original September 20 deadline to merge with Truth Social.
DWAC extends the timeframe for the deal by three months after shareholders declined their offer for a 12-month extension. But investors can still pull out.
It’s just the latest problem for Digital World and Truth Social.
A major supplier complained last month that the Truth Social bills remained unpaid. A major web hosting operator said Truth Social owed about $1.6 million in contractually-mandated payments, a claim that suggests the operation’s finances are in “significant disarray,” Fox Business News reported.
In another setback, Truth Social’s trademark application was rejected last month because the name was too similar to other operations.
Truth Social is not the juggernaut some investors had hoped for. The social media platform is largely a forum for Trump, who repeatedly posts praising himself and reposts articles from right-wing media praising him every day.
Responding comments usually involve QAnon conspiracies, exaggerated pro-Trump and anti-Joe Biden memes, and cringy comments like, “Ode to the greatest president ever.”
Comments lack the back and forth from social media platforms like Twitter, making them more of a dialogue. Most of the negative comments about Truth Social will be buried or disappear from the site, which the organizers promised would be censorship free.
Trump launched Truth Social after booting off Twitter in the wake of the January 6, 2021 US Capitol riots. Trump has used the platform much as he did with Twitter — to rail against enemies, complain that he is being victimized and falsely claim he won the 2020 presidential election.
Last month, Digital World warned in an SEC filing that a dip in Trump’s popularity could hurt the company. The filing noted that Truth Social’s success hinges on the “reputation and popularity” of investigation-ridden Trump, who is chairman of the Trump Media and Technology Group, which owns and operates the social media platform.
“To be successful, TMTG will need millions of those people to register and use the TMTG platform regularly,” the filing warned. “If President Trump becomes less popular or if there are further controversies that would damage his credibility or people’s desire to use a platform associated with him,” the planned merger with Digital World warned.
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