It has taken just a handful of hours for Donald Trump’s latest online venture to become a laughing stock, with the former’s president’s attempt to launch a new social media site mercilessly mocked online and its beta site bombarded by trolls.
The rather unironically named ‘TRUTH Social’ was announced on Wednesday by Trump who, in a press release, said that the platform was his attempt to “stand up to the tyranny of Big Tech” and called the fact that he is banned from Twitter – while the Taliban has a “huge” presence – “unacceptable”.
The site was launched through a merger between the Trump Media and Technology Group and the Digital World Acquisition Corp, however from looking at the screenshots that are available of the site on the app store, it doesn’t look like they’ve spent millions on branding as it looks incredibly similar to Twitter.
According to the blurb on the app store, “TRUTH Social is America’s ‘Big Tent’ social media platform that encourages an open, free, and honest global conversation without discriminating against political ideology”. It goes on to explain that when you share a post on the site this is actually a “TRUTH” and you can also “Re-TRUTH” someone. Hmmm... wonder where they got the name for that one?
It has also been reported that that site is working on a video-on-demand service called “TMTG+,” featuring “’non-woke’ entertainment programming”. Once again, a really original idea.
Although the website has not been officially launched yet, the Washington Post reports that it was briefly accessible on Wednesday evening and, sure enough, chaos quickly ensued.
Screenshots from the site have begun to circulate on social media showing that an account with the handle @realdonaldjtrump had been compromised and had begun to post joke messages, as well as an image of a pig defecating on its own scrotum.
It took less than two hours for Donald Trump's new social media to collapse under the weight of embarrassment. Trump's own account was quickly compromised and proceeded to post a photo of a pig defecating on its own scrotum. Access to the site is now shut down.
— steven monacelli (@stevanzetti) October 21, 2021
Looks like the Donald J Trump account on Trump's new social media platform has been comprised already pic.twitter.com/UywtKga1Tr
— Claire Goforth (@clairenjax) October 21, 2021
Others claimed to have set up an account imitating the former president as well as his vice-president Mike Pence before the beta version of the site was eventually taken down.
Was just able to setup an account using the handle @donaldtrump on 'Truth Social,' former President Donald Trump's new social media website.
— Mikael Thalen (@MikaelThalen) October 21, 2021
Although the site is not officially open, a URL was discovered allowing users to sign up anyway. pic.twitter.com/MRMQzjNhma
Thank you TRUTH Social. Good to be here pic.twitter.com/tD3ClXWCss
— Drew Harwell (@drewharwell) October 21, 2021
As always with Trump, the mockery of the former reality TV host and his latest venture was rife on normal social media platforms (if that’s even a thing), with some calling it “Orwellian”.
If you didn't know, would you think this was real or parody? pic.twitter.com/sn4GJABHCi
— Philip Bump (@pbump) October 21, 2021
Happy to announce that I have an exclusive deal with TRUTH social. This is my final tweet.
— Nick Lutsko (@NickLutsko) October 21, 2021
A former president seeking to reclaim power announcing that he’ll soon be sending out his “first TRUTH” via his new platform “TRUTH Social” is some real Orwellian s***.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) October 21, 2021
Trump starting a company called TRUTH Social is like Jeffrey Dahmer starting a company called NOT-A-CANNIBAL Teen Safety Services.
— Rex Huppke (@RexHuppke) October 21, 2021
"Truth Social" sounds like some kind of after school club where everyone makes wristbands and virginity pacts
— 𝗡𝗙𝗧𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗻𝗯𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗮 (@tokenbrotha) October 21, 2021
It's ironic how Donald Trump is launching a social media site call Truth Social, which will ultimately be filled with lies.
— Emilli (@Emilli96) October 21, 2021
Does Trump know there is club in Ohio that already has the same name as his new social media platform? “Truth Social.” pic.twitter.com/E0Uxf333Dp
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) October 21, 2021
And there’s already a parody Twitter account for the website pointing out some of Trump’s other business failures.
Success. It’s in our DNA. pic.twitter.com/pHPYtolfFf
— TheTRUTHSocial (@TheTruthSocial) October 21, 2021
This is hardly the first time that Trump has tried to relaunch his presence on social media after getting banned from virtually every major website following the January 6th insurrection. He had tried to run a blog but that lasted less than a month due to lack of interest.
If you are interested in seeing what TRUTH Social will be like then there is a sign-up page where you can register your interest but it gives no indication when the site will actually be online. Furthermore, it looks like it is only currently available to Apple users so anyone with an Android phone will either have to wait a bit longer or miss out altogether. We’re sure they are devastated...
