Investors in ex-President Donald Trump’s new social media company appear prepared to abandon it quickly after a merger between it and Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC) goes through, suggesting that the investment side of the operation is geared towards cashing out around as much as it is towards propping up an actually legitimate business venture. As of yet, there’s still no sign of the product or products that the Trump social media company, known as the Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), is after. Although those behind it all had previously claimed that an early version of a planned alternative social media site would be available in November, it’s now December with no platform in sight.
We think that any records of Mike Pompeo and Steve Mnuchin discussing removing Trump using the 25th Amendment after the insurrection would be very interesting to the public. So we’re investigating.https://t.co/4LVik2VbGz
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) December 7, 2021
The specific investors who appear set up to at least have the opportunity to quickly ditch Trump’s company are those behind a $1 billion investment that was unveiled in recent days. That investment is in the form of a Private Investment in Public Equity, or PIPE, deal. There’s no public indication of who the investors responsible for this pledged tidal wave of money actually are — which, journalist Judd Legum notes, raises questions about the potential for the money to be used as leverage against Trump in the event that he wins public office again. It could be yet another front for the development of conflicts of interest. In the meantime, that PIPE investment deal has been orchestrated to allow investors an easy out.
Source close to Trump says he hates Meadows book and feels betrayed by him. Similar to @swin24 reporting this weekend/
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) December 7, 2021
Matt Levine noted in Bloomberg that ordinarily, investors who are behind PIPE deals “can’t sell their stock the day after the merger closes,” but in this instance, “DWAC and TMTG have promised the PIPE investors that they’ll be able to freely resell their stock the minute the merger closes.” It seems as though it would be safe to assume that these provisions are in place to respond to specific interests and/or concerns on the part of the investors, rather than on a whim. In that case, “there seems to be a real push by these investors to flip these stocks immediately,” Legum observes, adding that they’d be able to make that money “before anyone gets too much information about how the company actually performs.” Read more at this link.
Trump's media company deal is being investigated by securities regulators.https://t.co/RH4xdIdApw
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 7, 2021
Recently, the news emerged that the Trump social media operation had been placed under investigation by federal authorities including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). At issue is the fact that individuals involved in DWAC and TMTG apparently negotiated over the merger deal before revealing these discussions to federal officials, despite an initial claim from DWAC that there had been no choice of “any specific business combination target” on its part. In the meantime, Trump has attempted to set up the Trump Media and Technology Group and its planned social media platform, Truth Social, as a competitor to mainstream sites… although conservatives remain perfectly able to do well on such sites. There’s no corporate conspiracy to shut right-wingers down.
'We really dug up and talked about all the details': Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger spent over 4 hours talking to the Jan. 6 Committee about the phone call he received from former President Trump pressuring him to ‘find’ enough votes. https://t.co/cy5geccE4k
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) December 7, 2021
