Former President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he is launching a new media company — complete with a social media platform that will begin rolling out in November.
Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) said in a statement that its mission was to “create a rival to the liberal media consortium and fight back against the ‘Big Tech’ companies of Silicon Valley, which have used their unilateral power to silence opposing voices in America.”
The new company’s first project is its social network, dubbed TRUTH Social, which is set to launch in beta for “invited guests” next month and come online nationwide in the first three months of 2022. A web page inviting people to sign up to be part of the beta launch describes TRUTH Social as “America’s ‘Big Tent’ social media platform that encourages an open, free, and honest global conversation without discriminating against political ideology.”
“We live in a world where the Taliban has a huge presence on Twitter, yet your favorite American President has been silenced. This is unacceptable,” Trump said in a statement accompanying the announcement. “I am excited to send out my first TRUTH on TRUTH Social very soon.
“TMTG was founded with a mission to give a voice to all,” Trump added. “I’m excited to soon begin sharing my thoughts on TRUTH Social and to fight back against Big Tech. Everyone asks me why doesn’t someone stand up to Big Tech? Well, we will be soon!”
The company also teased the creation of a subscription-based on-demand video service, TMTG+, which it said would feature “‘non-woke’ entertainment programming, news, podcasts, and more.” That operation is being led by Scott St. John, a longtime executive producer of reality competition and game shows, including “Deal or No Deal” and “America’s Got Talent.”
There has long been speculation that Trump would attempt to enter the media wars after he left the White House. After he was booted off Facebook and Twitter following the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol, speculation increased that he would add a social media component to any post-presidential venture.
The 45th president briefly experimented with a blog-style platform called “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump,” which enabled him to make posts that could be shared on Facebook and Twitter by others, but that was shut down in June.
On July 4, former Trump spokesman Jason Miller launched his own social media platform called GETTR, which he similarly billed as a “direct challenge to the social media oligarchs from Silicon Valley” and a way to “declare independence from their woke tyranny.”
Miller told The Post in September that he and Trump had talked for months about the possibility of the former president joining the platform, but said in a statement Wednesday that he and his former boss “just couldn’t come to terms on a deal.”
“Congratulations to President Trump for re-entering the social media fray!” Miller said. “Now Facebook and Twitter will lose even more market share.”
TMTG said it had been created through a merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp. and is seeking to become a publicly listed company, pending the approval of regulators and shareholders.
