early and often

Join Truth Social and Get Trump Posts a Whopping 6 Hours Early

If Truth Social bans Trump too, there’s always shouting from the rooftops. Photo: Sean Rayford/Getty Images

Do you want to join Truth Social? No? Okay, but what if I told you it’s only place where you can read Donald Trump’s social-media missives six hours before they hit Twitter?

If your answer is still no, you’re not alone. Since Truth Social launched in February, most people considering whether they should sign up found the “cons” far outweighed the “pros,” even if they were sad to see Trump booted off Twitter. First, joining Trump’s social-media site wasn’t even an option for most folks: it’s only available on the Apple App Store, and more than a million people signed up only to find themselves on a stagnant waiting list. Second, there was little original content: Trump himself had only “truthed” once, and many major brands’ Truth Social feeds turned out to be bot accounts. And third, it wasn’t actually a bastion of free speech: The fine print makes it clear that any Truth Social user can be booted for merely annoying or disparaging the site or its creators.

In late April, when Elon Musk’s (possible) purchase of Twitter raised speculation that the former president would be allowed back on the site, Trump scrambled to add some arguments to the “pros” column. The Truth Social waiting list was quickly cleared, Trump actually started using the site, and he suggested it would remain the exclusive place for his social-media musings. “I am going to be staying on Truth,” he told Fox News. “TRUTH Social will be a voice for me … and that’s something nobody else can get.”

But as it turns out, that’s not quite accurate. An SEC filing by Digital World Acquisition Corp., the special-purpose-acquisition company attempting to merge with Trump Media & Technology Group and take it public, revealed some interesting details about the SPAC’s deal with Trump.

In the document, Digital World Acquisition Corp. lists several business risks related to Trump, who serves as TMTG’s chairman and largest stockholder. It notes that under the licensing agreement between Trump and TMTG:

President Trump is generally obligated to make any social media post on TruthSocial and may not make the same post on another social media site for 6 hours. Thereafter, he is free to post on any site to which he has access. Thus, TMTG has limited time to benefit from his posts and followers may not find it compelling to use TruthSocial to read his posts that quickly.

So if Trump were to rejoin Twitter, he’d only have to wait one-fourth of a day to repost his “truths” as tweets. And there are some pretty big exceptions:

In addition, he may make a post from a personal account related to political messaging, political fundraising or get-out-the-vote efforts on any social media site at any time.

The vague term “political messaging” could be used to describe most of what Trump posts. These are the only “truths” Trump has shared in the past two days that aren’t explicitly about a candidate he’s endorsed in Tuesday’s primaries, or a Dinesh D’Souza documentary that claims the 2020 election was stolen for Joe Biden, which is obviously pretty political.

I don’t want to know what that meme is about, but I’m going to classify it as “political messaging,” as it probably has something to do with President Biden dubbing Trump “the great MAGA king.”

So if Trump were back on Twitter now, Truth users would only have early access to two truths that are basically ads for the site they’re already using; it’s not the world’s greatest marketing pitch.

But don’t cry for Digital World Acquisition Corp. As made clear in the 3,200-word section of the filing titled “Risks Related to Our Chairman President Donald J. Trump,” they know what they’re getting into.

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Join Truth Social and Get Trump Posts a Whole 6 Hours Early