Of all the “exploits” signed by Donald Trump, this one is the most indisputable: between the start of his electoral campaign in 2016 and the end of his mandate in 2020, he “blew up” his Twitter account, which went from 5 to 89 million followers in five years! Then came January 6, 2021. That day, his supporters, white-hot, surged on the Capitol. A hallucinating riot ensues, which kills several people. The leaders of the social network conclude that the 45th president, beaten two months earlier at the polls, represents a public danger. The sanction falls: they close his Twitter account.
But here is a year following this ban, Trump found a cure. With money from conservative investors, he is preparing to launch his own digital platform which, ironically, is called “TRUTH Social”, in other words: “Truth (in capital letters) social”. “Trump and the truth is the perfect oxymoron!” laughs Barbara A. Perry, an author specializing in American presidencies, who teaches at the University of Virginia.
“Trump Media” announces new fundraising
“It’s a bit as if Fox News was renaming itself Nuance News”, she adds, without being able to anticipate exactly what the impact of the new Trumpian media will be. “We have to admit that with his reality show The Apprentice, his television career was a success and that he also succeeded perfectly on Twitter thanks to his lies broadcast “24 hours”. He might repeat the feat with his social TRUTH. ”
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No one knows exactly when the “King of Mar-a-Lago” (the name of his kitsch palace in Palm Beach, Florida) plans to launch his media offensive. But everything is already in place. Founded in the fall of 2021 with an initial fundraising of 300 million dollars, the company Trump Media & Technology Group, or TMTG, announced, last month, a new fundraising of more than 1 billion dollars! TMTG will cover TRUTH social, but also other media, such as a podcast platform or radio talk shows.
The interface of “Truth” resembles that of Twitter in every way.
AppStore screenshot
Trump has put Devin Nunes, a longtime ally, at the head of the group. Elected since 2003 to the Washington House of Representatives, he has chaired the Intelligence Committee since 2015. These days, he gives up politics for his new life as CEO. “It is time to relaunch the Internet and restore free speech to it without the tyrannical censorship of Big Tech,” he said. It will be understood: TRUTH Social aims to compete directly with Facebook / Meta and Twitter. Nothing less.
Devin Nunes, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, in Washington, July 25, 2017
afp.com/Brendan Smialowski
According to the business plan, the platform intends to go from 0 to 16 million users in one year, with the objective of 81 million followers by 2026. By comparison, Twitter has a total of 400 million subscribers. The company also relies on podcasts, a growing market too – 120 million Americans listen to them.
In TMTG’s business model, Donald Trump represents the “lead product”. As astonishing as it seems, the company wishes, in the longer term, to widen its audience to all political sensitivities, but also to information, sport, entertainment. According to projections, the revenues of the social network might reach 258 million dollars in 2026, or regarding a tenth of the turnover expected by the parent company TMTG.
In the immediate future, Donald Trump also wants to use his new media to make his comeback a success. In his sights: the legislative elections of mid-term next November, where he intends to consolidate his hold on the Republican Party by having his foals elected. “He is already on the road to revenge,” slips the former French ambassador to the United States Gérard Araud. But there is reason to think that a highway opens in front of him.
“After a really successful start to the Democratic presidency, symbolized by the vote in early August of the infrastructure law (endorsed by 19 senators from the Republican camp), the tide has turned, notes the author-journalist-documentary filmmaker Chris Whipple. Then, with the disorderly withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, a more complicated sequence began, “he understands.
US President Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden with their new dog Commander, address soldiers stationed overseas for Christmas from the White House in Washington on December 25, 2021
afp.com/SAUL LOEB
Since the fall of Kabul, the popularity of Biden, whose physical fragility is obvious, has been decreasing inversely with inflation (which starts once more) and the Omicron variant (apparently uncontrollable). “The problem is that Biden was elected on the program of the right of the Democratic Party and that he implements that of the left: there is thus deception on the goods”, estimates, in Washington, the pollster and featured consultant Whit Ayres.
To make matters worse, his camp seems irreconcilable. “In the United States,” Chris Whipple continues, “there is a joke that says:” Oh, I, you know, I do not belong to an organized political structure: I am a Democrat! “This joke describes the situation current wonderfully. ”
The social network, Trump’s fatal weapon
American history further teaches that the midterm legislative elections (if it is the first) are almost always lost by the camp in the White House. As with Obama and with Trump, so will probably be the case with Biden. “Moreover, one sign does not deceive: many outgoing Democrats have already announced that they will not stand for re-election, which means that they hardly believe in their chances of re-election,” observes New York political scientist Andrew J Polsky.
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For many analysts, a democratic double defeat, in the House of Representatives and the Senate, is no longer excluded. For Trump, all that remains is to maintain the flame of Republican voters, 2 out of 3 of whom are convinced that their champion was robbed of the White House in November 2019 and that Joe Biden is an illegitimate president. And to cultivate this myth, what better than social TRUTH, which might become Trump’s lethal weapon in 2024?
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