early and often

Trump Is Upset That Android Hasn’t Approved His Nonexistent App

Perpetual victim Donald J. Trump. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images

The idea that Big Tech is out to get Donald Trump and his supporters is key to the origin story of Truth Social. After all, the Twitter clone exists only because Trump was (in his view unjustly) booted from most major social-media networks. And perhaps these tech companies didn’t stop there: Trump thinks they’re trying to ruin Truth Social before it even gets off the ground by keeping it off of Android phones.

“Is Google trying to fuck me?” Trump has been asking friends and advisers, according to Rolling Stone.

“He keeps hearing about how Google and YouTube have it out for him … including on Truth Social, and I think he’s taking [it] seriously,” said one of sources who’s discussed the topic with the former president.

Maybe a lot of people are saying Google and YouTube executives hold a grudge against Trump, but there’s a more immediate reason that there’s no Truth Social app for Android users, who make up about 40 percent of the U.S. mobile-device market. According to Rolling Stone, the app is not finished:

As of Tuesday, Truth Social hasn’t even submitted an Android app to Google to review for Play Store approval, an individual familiar with the matter and Trumpworld sources with knowledge of the situation tell Rolling Stone.

Okay, but which of these two narratives make more sense?

Trump hired former representative Devin Nunes, whose primary experience in tech involves suing a parody cow Twitter account, to run Trump Media & Technology Group. In February, Truth dropped a buggy app that barely even attempts to differentiate itself from Twitter on the Apple App Store. Even most iPhone users couldn’t access it because they were put on a massively long waiting list. Trump himself didn’t bother to use Truth, limiting its appeal even further. When Elon Musk struck a deal to buy Twitter, Trump finally started posting “truths” — while dropping significant hints that he might just return to Twitter. Truth Social didn’t even have a web app until May 18, and a completed Android app doesn’t exist.

Or Truth Social’s failures are the result of Team Trump being persecuted by tech-world elites who don’t care about free speech and hate the former president so much they won’t commit to letting Android users access his new site.

If I were Trump, I’d believe the second version, especially because the latest status update from TMTG’s CEO hinted that Google might hold up the Android app’s release.

Hang in there, Catturd. Trump won’t let those nasty Google executives keep him from making the internet great again, again!

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Trump Is Upset That Android Hasn’t Approved Nonexistent App