What is Donald Trump actually doing?

At the beginning of last year, a look at Twitter would have sufficed to answer this question: the outgoing American president distributed up to two hundred tweets and retweets a day among his almost eighty million followers.

Including, on January 6, 2021, some who cheered and celebrated the mob as they stormed the Capitol in Washington.

Then it got quieter: Twitter excluded Trump, Facebook had also blocked him, and the restless speaker had little choice but to announce the development of his own social network.

With "Truth Social" his Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) - according to a presentation dated October 2021 - should not only teach these two networks to fear, but also stand up to Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Disney + and Google with further offers .

At the end of February, Truth Social was launched in the App Store for iPhones - with the promise of "open, free and honest global exchange without discrimination of political ideologies".

The promised openness should find its limits: At the end of March, a user complained in the App Store ratings that his "truths" - the individual contributions are called "truths" here - about the abuse of satanic rituals had simply been stalled: "If you If you really want to tell the truth and talk about the fight between good and evil on this planet, this place will not support you.” Another user reports the unsuccessful attempt to delete his Truth Social profile.

The response: "Forbidden".

Why not like this?

It was a "bumpy" start, according to American media reports.

Even those undeterred by frustrating technical hurdles attempting to register eventually had to settle for a waiting list number that could number in the hundreds of thousands.

Devin Nunes, a former congressman who left office to become TMTG's executive director, rushed to promise that the social network would be "fully operational" by the end of March.

At the beginning of April there is not much to notice: the lawsuits continue, the network ranks only 21st in the hit list of social networking apps, and downloads have plummeted.

Now, Reuters reports that two of the key minds behind Truth Social have left their posts, Josh Adams and Billy Boozer, the company's directors of technology and product development.

So what does Donald Trump do?

According to consistent reports, he has announced a single "truth" on Truth Social so far, on February 14, while the app was still in beta: "Get ready!" It reads, "Your favorite president will be meeting you soon!"

Now, according to the Washington Post, citing a Trump confidante, he is said to be getting ready to switch to Gettr, another conservative-targeted Twitter clone launched in July 2021 by Trump's former adviser Jason Miller.

Why not like this?

Because Donald Trump at least didn't want to miss the chance to use the registration data of those interested in Truth Social to build up an address directory that could be of use to him again in his fight for a return to the White House.

And because he probably first had to realize that he couldn't simply claim the size of his audience as an alternative truth.