Value Of New Trump Media Company Is Dropping Like A Rock

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Stock prices for Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC) are falling as the pro-Trump social media operation associated with it stumbles through a list of serious problems. DWAC, a so-called blank check company, announced last year it would be merging with the Trump Media & Technology Group and thereby standing behind Truth Social, the social media platform with former President Trump’s backing that is meant as an alternative to mainstream sites.

Truth Social isn’t exactly working out — individuals hoping to use the site have been placed on an at-times stunningly lengthy wait-list, and interest in the platform is falling. According to Apptopia, daily downloads of Truth Social’s app have fallen to around 8,000 — a roughly 95 percent drop since its debut. And Bloomberg noted in a Thursday report that DWAC “has shed 31% of its value since shares soared late in February when the Truth Social app launched on the Apple App Store.” DWAC shares were at around $60 to $63 apiece on early Friday — and back on March 1, a month prior, the company’s stock prices were at around $95 each. As of recently, Trump himself hadn’t even posted on Truth Social since its official roll-out to the general public — and if the main individual ostensibly behind this whole thing isn’t even using it, what does that say about the site’s long-term viability?

Bloomberg noted that Apptopia data also showed daily active users of Truth Social at around 513,000 — but the individuals who can open the app on their phones but are still on the wait-list could be muddying those numbers, the outlet added. How could something touted for so long be seemingly unprepared for the level of interest that those behind it wanted? Twitter doesn’t have a wait-list. Notably, Truth Social remains unavailable in either Android or desktop formats — heading to “truthsocial.com” in a web browser simply points visitors to a help center, legal documents, and — alongside little else — a link to download the app on iPhones.

Bloomberg notes that “there’s been little detail for investors regarding how Trump Media plans to operate. The latest plan has been for a social network, news channel, a streaming service and eventually a cloud-computing platform” — which, considering the mishaps associated with Truth Social, is laughable. If the people behind this debacle can’t figure out to make a social media platform work well, then how exactly can they be expected to launch a streaming service? And a cloud-computing platform? Trump Steaks 2.0 here we come. (Trump Steaks is one of the numerous business failures associated with Donald Trump’s time in the public spotlight.) In the absence of posts from Trump on Truth Social — which really says a lot — Trump has been sending out his deranged messages to the world through means including press releases shared by his spokesperson Liz Harrington, interviews, and speeches. His record has been familiarly dismal — recently, he pushed amid the war in Ukraine for Russian President Vladimir Putin to release allegedly damaging information about the family of President Biden.