UPDATE: It appears financials at TMTG were misrepresented/misreported in news reports. TMTG “recorded a $50.5 million profit after getting a boost from a change in the value related to its convertible notes,” Bloomberg’s Bailey Lipschultz explained.
Well, things are going badly at Truth Social — more specifically, the Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which is the Trump-branded company operating the former president’s social media venture. Trump himself regularly posts on Truth Social, but it’s not gained widespread notoriety for much of anything beyond that fact, with usage still paltry compared to major social media platforms.
The Trump company is losing so much money and comparatively bringing in so little that accountants on the case apparently suspect it could go under. That’s according to a recent disclosure by Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC), a so-called special purpose acquisition company that has long been planning a merger with the Trump firm but that’s been confronted by federal investigations and a settlement with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), among other travails.
The losses at Truth Social’s corporate parent across 2022 and the first half of this year somehow reached $73 million, with just $3.7 million coming in. “TMTG’s independent registered public accounting firm has indicated that TMTG’s financial condition raises substantial doubt as to its ability to continue as a going concern,” DWAC said. And as recapped by The Hollywood Reporter, DWAC also raised worries about past trends in Trump’s businesses, like the repeated failures of namesake ventures in areas including vodka and air travel. (Trump Shuttle was once a thing. It didn’t last.) Trump also faces distracting court cases… and court cases… and more court cases.
All of these details represent a just staggering turnaround for a social media operation unveiled originally with so much fanfare. Trump supporters including elected officials rushed to make investments in DWAC, where the stock price has since proven remarkably volatile. Declines in value for the majority stake that Trump himself holds in the Trump company behind Truth Social were cited by the financial news publication Forbes as they recently removed Trump from their list of the country’s 400 wealthiest individuals, a list he’s used deception to target in the past.
