Trump’s Truth Social App Is Bombing So Hard That Top Executives Are Quitting
Truth Social is bombing.
The social media platform Donald Trump launched to compete with Twitter and Facebook has been such a disaster since its launch in February that two of its top executives have resigned, Reuters reported on Monday.
Josh Adams and Billy Boozer, the company’s chief of technology and chief of product development, are the two executives leaving the company after less than a year. Both were critical parts of the operation, according to eight sources who spoke with Reuters. “If Josh has left … all bets are off,” one of them said of Adams, calling him the “brains” behind the app’s technology.
Truth Social has been beset by issues since its launch. CEO Devin Nunes, the former congressman who left Washington to run the app, said that the platform would be fully operational in the United States by the end of March. This didn’t happen, though, as the app has been overrun with technical glitches, and prospective users continue to be stuck on a wait list to join. The special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that took Truth Social public has been under scrutiny from federal regulators, and last Thursday it missed a key filing deadline. Shares in the SPAC have been plummeting, according to Axios.
The Daily Beast reported on Monday on the app’s anemic performance. Truth Social is only the 28th most popular social network in Apple’s App Store, and it’s not currently available for download on Android phones, which, as Reuters points out, make up 40 percent of the U.S. smartphone market. The Daily Beast also points to data showing that the app has just over 500,000 active daily users. Twitter, by comparison, has over 215 million. It’s currently the 355th most popular app on Apple devices.
Trump hasn’t been pleased. “What the fuck is going on?” he was heard saying of the app’s failure, The Daily Beast reported last month.
It’s too bad, given the former president’s lofty ambitions for the app. “I created TRUTH Social … to stand up to the tyranny of Big Tech,” Trump said last October when the app was announced. “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. I am excited to send out my first TRUTH on TRUTH Social very soon.”
Trump posted on the platform shortly after it launched in February. “Get ready!” he wrote. “Your favorite President will see you soon!”
Time for some Truth!!! pic.twitter.com/jvyteDb5gW
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) February 15, 2022
He hasn’t posted since.