'Unmitigated disaster': Why Trump’s Truth Social has been a 'cringeworthy joke'

Former President Donald Trump’s new social media platform Truth Social has received plenty of attention in the right-wing media, who have hyped it as a MAGA alternative to Twitter. But journalist Bess Levin, in her March 7 column, examines the technical problems that have plagued Truth Social since its rollout and slams the platform as an “unmitigated disaster.”

“The Daily Beast reports that when he’s not praising Vladimir Putin or coming up with ways to start a war between Russia and China, Trump has been incessantly whining about what an embarrassing flop Truth Social has turned out to be,” Levin explains. “Sources tell The Daily Beast they’ve heard the ex-president ‘swearing gratuitously’ about the app on the phone and asking ‘what the fuck is going on’ with the social network. Trump has regularly complained about the bad press and ‘less-than-stellar optics’ the rollout has received, and demanded to know why it hasn’t immediately become a runaway success, according to reporters Adam Rawnsley and Asawin Suebsaeng.”

Levin continues, “Of course, that probably has something to do with the platform itself being an unmitigated disaster. On the day it launched, would-be users were reportedly hit with numerous glitches and outrageously long wait times, with some being forwarded to an ‘access denied’ error page. A reporter from Business Insider had to try the initial e-mail confirmation process five times before being able to create an account. Of the users who were actually able to create accounts, many were told they’d been placed on a wait list of what appeared to be more than 100,000 people. The app went partially dark for more than 12 hours due to ‘application launch traffic.’”

The Truth Social platform is part of Trump’s new tech company, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which is separate from his family business the Trump Organization.

Despite all of Truth Social’s technical problems, Levin notes, the former president seems to be profiting from the project.

“The share price of the company backing Truth Social is up roughly 60% year-to-date, and it’s currently worth about $82.09 after going public at $10,” Levin observes. “So even though the actual social media company is thus far a cringeworthy joke, it still appears to be lining the ex-president’s pockets. Which he probably doesn’t have a problem with.”