Former President Donald Trump finally posted his second message on Truth Social on Thursday — 10 weeks after his first — in the face of massive new competition from a Twitter platform owned and operated by billionaire Elon Musk.
“I’m back!” Trump posted on his problem-plagued social media platform.
He inexplicably followed the greeting with the hashtag “COVFEFE,” a nonsensical word that he apparently typed accidentally in 2017 when he was president, and which was widely derided as the product of a confused leader of the nation.
That tweet — referring to a “press covfefe” — was later deleted by Trump, who initially challenged people to decipher the word.
Trump Media & Technology Group CEO Devin Nunes, a former California GOP congressman, was thrilled, and he posted a photo of a rainbow.
Beyond the troubles Truth Social has grappled with from the start, it now could face significantly more competition since Musk has purchased Twitter for $44 billion. The Tesla CEO and multibillionaire has indicated he might open up Twitter to a large number of extremists who had been banned on Twitter and who had been a target market of Truth Social
Until Thursday, Trump didn’t bother trying to pump up his platform’s success with his own messages. He has been posting his statements on the Twitter account of his paid aide Liz Harrington. He was still posting there on Thursday, with one post attacking George Conway.
Trump, who was permanently banned from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat for his role in inciting last year’s violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, said earlier this week he would not return to Twitter even if he’s allowed to when Musk takes charge. He vowed to stick with Truth Social, a move that could help calm nervous Truth Social investors.
MarketWatch reported Thursday that, after Trump’s tweet, share prices rose for the special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), Digital World Acquisition Corp., which is buying the parent company of Truth Social.