On Wednesday, former President Donald Trump announced that he had reached a settlement which would allow him to resume his social media presence following being kicked from Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc.
The former president’s new enterprise will be in operation by the first quarter of 2022, according to a press release from the Trump Media and Technology Group. According to the Trump Media and Technology Group, it is planning on launching a social media firm called Truth Social. If all goes as planned, the moves would be made well before 2022’s mid-term elections.
A merger would make the company publicly-tradeable through Digital World Acquisition Corp. Trump had long expressed his desire to create a social media company following his exit from Twitter and Facebook. After it received very few visitors, Trump decided to abandon a blog on which he had posted comments earlier this year.
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The company stated that it plans to launch a social network in the first quarter of 2022. Accordingly to the release, they also plan on offering a subscription service for video-on-demand.
Digital World Acquisition shares rose 49% during U.S. Premarket Trading on Thursday. They had doubled in the previous days.
Trump, who has teased that he might run again in 2024 without making any formal announcement, has been banned by major social-media companies for his role in encouraging supporters who broke into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 as both houses of Congress were meeting to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.
Twitter has barred Trump permanently, and Facebook announced earlier this year that he would remain suspended from its networks for at least two years and would be reinstated in 2023 only if “the risk to public safety” has subsided.
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Trump is trying to regain the power to communicate with supporters and raise funds, as well as drive news coverage, that was lost due to his loss of access to social media platforms like Twitter. Trump relied heavily on Twitter during his presidency for all things, including insulting his rivals and major policy announcements.
Without social media, Trump had been relegated to issuing press releases—which he often does multiple times a day in a format similar to his tweets—holding campaign-style rallies and giving interviews to friendly media outlets.
According to the filings of Digital World Acquisition with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Patrick Orlando is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
Orlando is involved in many blank-check businesses, and has served as the CEO since January 2020 of Yunhong International. Yunhong International trades on Nasdaq with the symbol ZGYH and was founded in Wuhan China. According to Securities and Exchange Commission filings (including those from Yunhong International).
—With assistance from Sam Unsted and John Viljoen.
