Former President Donald Trump, infamous for having lied tens of thousands of times during his presidency and now facing a subpoena in New York for possibly having lied on his financial forms and tax returns, is now launching an ironically named new social media app, Truth Social. The premise is the same as he has asserted since 2016, that traditional news media cannot be trusted and that they, not Trump, are the liars.
The app’s launch this week was a washout. Many people who registered to become “Truthsayers” kept receiving error messages or were told they’re on a waitlist. Those things happen with any new social media launch, but it’s consistent with Trump’s other major ventures that promised big results yet failed to deliver: luxury hotels that turn out to be cheaply furnished and overpriced, an airline that went bust, and a for-profit university that fell so far short of delivering on its promises that Trump wound up having to pay $25 million to bilked students. Prosecutors say he overvalued his properties to dupe banks into lending him money, then undervalued those properties to minimize his taxes.
The words truth and Trump simply do not belong together on any platform, social media or other.
The chances of Truth Social replacing social media giants like Twitter and Facebook are dubious at best. The entire reason Trump launched the app is because Facebook and Twitter banned him for inciting violence during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection — a violent attack prompted by Trump’s "big lie" that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.
Another ominous sign is the fine print in Truth Social’s user agreement. Despite claims by promoters that the site will be an open forum for people to express themselves free of censorship, the user agreement stipulates that people posting on the site cannot “disparage, tarnish, or otherwise harm, in our opinion, us and/or the Site.” Free expression, in other words, as long as it doesn’t criticize the Great Leader.
That’s the same spirit that guides dictatorships in Russia, China, Egypt and Cuba, and it fits the pattern Trump established in his endorsements of some Republican candidates and attacks on others. Criticizing him or daring to hold him accountable is a certain way to earn banishment from the Republican Party, as Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger can attest. Truth Social is led by former Republican Rep. Devin Nunes of California, a Trump sycophant.
Now Trump and his fans will be free to say what they like, unfiltered and unhindered by mainstream social media companies that insist on picky rules about users not using their accounts to violently overthrow democracies. Followers who were driven to launch an insurrection, plot the kidnapping of Michigan’s governor and sabotage nationwide efforts to contain the pandemic will now have a new, unfiltered platform to plan future acts of lunacy.
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