If you can’t beat them, join them. After years joining his father in deriding the “lamestream media” as the “enemy of the people”, Donald Trump Jr has launched an app to aggregate news.
Don Jr and co-founder Taylor Budowich, a spokesperson for the former president, hope that MxM News (the name refers to “minute by minute”) will compete with giants such as Apple News and Google News, the Axios website reported.
They claim that a team of about eight staff will curate stories from across the ideological spectrum (“mainstream news without mainstream bias”). But it remains to be seen if that will include fact-checks of Donald Trump’s “big lie”.
The ex-president and his son, who frequently joins him at campaign rallies, have long railed against “fake news” and spoken of a need to challenge big tech companies.
Axios quoted Don Jr as saying: “As I travel around the country, the complaint I hear more than almost anything else is that people don’t know what media outlets, journalists or stories they can actually trust.
“We created the MxM News app to help people cut through that clutter and get trustworthy news and information about topics that matter and impact their lives. We view it as an important public service and also believe it will be a great business.”
The app will start as free before looking at ways to make money. Its creators do not currently plan to recruit their own reporters or produce original content.
Telegraph Creative, an equity partner in the company, designed and developed the mobile app. Its chief executive is Cliff Sims, a former aide in the Trump White House aide and deputy director of national intelligence.
A preview on Apple’s app store states: “MxM News delivers curated news that cut through the censorship, mainstream bias, and institutional dominance that has left society divided and misinformed.
“The platform allows readers to access the news that matters, particularly when it is being ignored. Updated minute-by-minute with news coverage from a diversity of publications and topics, readers have a one stop to be informed and stay informed.”
The preview shows sample stories: “[Kevin] McCarthy’s plot to build the House of Trump”; “Aaron Rogers talks Covid vax drama, alleges ‘censorship’ if opinions don’t follow the mainstream”; “Chinese investment in US plane-maker draws FBI, national-security reviews”.
Don Jr may be hoping that MxM News makes bigger waves than his father’s social media app. Trump himself has not posted on Truth Social since its awkward launch a month ago.
