Signs are mounting that Donald Trump’s social media platform Truth Social is in financial trouble, with just a modest episode six months after launch.
Fox Business Network reported Thursday that the platform has stopped making payments to the company that hosts it, RightForge, and owes $1.6 million.
Neither the platform’s parent company, Trump Media and Technology Group, nor RightForge responded to AFP requests for comment.
Meanwhile, the parent company’s merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp — a blank check company formed specifically to conduct a merger — has yet to happen 10 months after announcing it would happen. This merger is intended to bring new funds to the Trump platform.
DWAC on Thursday issued a call for a special shareholder meeting on Sept. 6, asking investors to agree to a one-year delay in completing the merger until Sept. 8, 2023.
Without a positive vote for an extension, the blank check company said it will be forced to disband.
Financial data released Thursday said DWAC had just $3,000 in cash on hand at the end of June.
Truth Social bills itself as Trump’s response to platforms like Twitter, which the former president used as a vocal political bullhorn until he was kicked off the platform after a mob he incited attacked the US Capitol in January 2021.
But six months later, it’s 30th in an Apple ranking of social media apps downloaded on iPhones.
According to the Statista database, Truth Social is only downloaded about 50,000 times a week.
Trump’s account on Truth Social has 3.91 million followers; He had 79.5 million on Twitter when he was booted.
Shares of DWAC are down 71 percent since peaking in early March.
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