MAY 17, 2022
Former US President Donald Trump. Allison Joyce/Getty Images
- The company buying Trump’s social network Truth Social warned investors about his past business failures.
- In a filing Monday, Digital World noted the bankruptcy of Trump Taj Mahal and failure of Trump Vodka.
- The blank-check firm is engineering a merger with TMTG, the company that owns Truth Social.
Former US President Donald Trump. – Allison Joyce/Getty Images
The company buying Donald Trump’s social network Truth Social has warned investors about the former president’s history of bankruptcies and business failures.
In a regulatory filing Monday, Digital World Acquisition Corp highlighted the bankruptcies of Trump Taj Mahal, Trump Plaza, and Trump Castle, and the failures of Trump University, Trump Vodka, and Trump Steaks, among others.
Digital World, a SPAC or “blank-check” firm, is seeking to merge with Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), the owner of Truth Social. Trump himself would control between 47% and 58% of the merged company and would serve as its chairman, Monday’s filing shows.
Digital World said in its filing: “A number of companies that were associated with President Trump have filed for bankruptcy. There can be no assurances that TMTG will not also become bankrupt.”
It continued: “A number of companies that had license agreements with President Trump have failed. There can be no assurances that TMTG will not also fail.”
It added: “While all of the foregoing were in different businesses than TMTG, there can be no guarantee that TMTG’s performance will exceed the performance of those entities.”
TMTG did not immediately respond when contacted by Insider for comment.
Monday’s filing also showed that Trump has agreed to post on Truth Social six hours before making similar posts on other platforms. However, it also stipulated that Trump can post from any platform at any time for “political messaging.”
Trump launched Truth Social in February as an alternative to mainstream social media platforms, most notably Twitter. Truth Social was plagued with technical difficulties upon launch and Trump was silent on the platform until late April.
Twitter permanently suspended Trump’s account in January 2021 after he posted a video telling rioters at the January 6 insurrection: “We love you; you’re very special.” However, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has proposed buying Twitter for $44 billion, has said he would reinstate Trump’s account if the deal completes.
Trump told Fox News he won’t return to Twitter even if his account is reactivated, although advisers close to him told The Washington Post they doubted this.
TMTG is planning to launch a streaming service called TMTG+ and has posted job ads for producers, Forbes reported Friday.
