Donald Trump’s social media platform Truth Social has lost $31.6m since its launch, a securities filing revealed on Monday, and is struggling to find additional funds.
The ex-president had announced the launch of his social media app in October 2021, saying it would “stand up to big tech” companies such as Twitter and Facebook that previously barred him.
But a filing by Digital World Acquisition Corp, the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that plans to merge with Truth Social’s owner, Trump Media & Technology Group’s (TMTG), showed the social media company has been losing money heavily.
In 2021, TMTG lost $59.1m. In 2022, Truth Social posted a profit of $50.5m, with net sales of just $1.4m. It lost $23m in the first half of this year, with net sales of $2.3m. Losses total $31.6m since TMTG’s creation.
Digital World Acquisition also revealed that the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US’s top financial watchdog, was looking at the deal in a move that “could cause us to be unable to consummate the business combination”.
If the merger collapses, the filing states, Truth Social will struggle to find new funds. TMTG’s independent registered public accounting firm has indicated that the financial condition raises substantial doubt as to its ability to continue as a going concern, according to the filing.
“TMTG believes that it may be difficult to raise additional funds through traditional financing sources in the absence of material progress toward completing its merger with Digital World.”
The company also eliminated several positions in March, the filing said, adding that the action followed a review of all departments, most significantly impacting TMTG’s streaming video on demand and infrastructure teams.
• The headline and text of this article were amended on 21 November 2023. We regret that an earlier version misstated Truth Social’s loss since launch as $73m, when the figure recorded in the SEC filing is $31.6m. The article has also been corrected to reflect that Truth Social posted a profit of $50.5m in 2022, rather than a $50m loss as the article previously stated.
Reuters contributed to this article
