Donald Trumps Truth Social Is Off to a Glitchy Start – The New York Times

The rollout of Truth Social, former President Donald J. Trumps social media alternative to Twitter, has gotten off to a slow start.

On Wednesday morning, Mr. Trumps account on the app, available free on Apples App Store since Monday, had just under 50,000 followers. That is a far cry from the tens of millions of followers he had on Twitter before the social media platform barred him last year after some of his supporters attacked the Capitol.

Mr. Trumps account still has a single post, which the company calls truths as opposed to tweets.

The official debut of Truth Social on Monday was marred by error messages and a long waiting list for people who had already signed up to download the app. (This reporter was at 94,000 on the list but was able to download the app on Tuesday.)

Technical glitches for new apps are not uncommon, and the parent company, Trump Media & Technology Group, had said it didnt expect the new platform to be fully operational before the end of March. Truth Social posted a message from its own account that said our team is working as fast as possible.

The apps glitchy start didnt appear to have deterred investors, who continue to push up the share price of Digital World Acquisition, the special purpose acquisition company that Trump Media announced plans to merge with in October. On Tuesday, Digital Worlds stock rose 14 percent to close at just over $96 a share.

Digital World has become the best performing SPAC a kind of company that goes public first, raising money from investors to buy a private company. The stock has continued to rise even in the face of regulatory investigations into how exactly Digital Worlds deal with Trump Media came about.

Because of an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, it is unclear when the merger will close. If and when it does, Trump Media will gain access to nearly $1.3 billion in cash, which would help build its social media business.

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Donald Trumps Truth Social Is Off to a Glitchy Start - The New York Times