CNN
—
When he’s not elevating horses or working at a development website, 28-year-old Nick Mirtschink says he spends “quite a bit” of time on Reality Social, the social media platform began by Donald Trump.
So does Bree Duke, a retiree from northwest Georgia, who mentioned she repeatedly checks in with Trump’s frequent posts, known as “truths.”
“I like it,” Duke advised CNN. “I’ve it on my TV, and I’ve it on my cellphone.”
Mirtschink and Duke shared their glowing critiques of the app whereas attending Trump’s latest rally in Rome, Georgia, the place common customers of Reality Social have been simple to return by. Outdoors of his MAGA motion, although, the social media website is struggling to discover a wider viewers. It’s hemorrhaging customers, and its visitors has plummeted. There have been roughly 860,000 accounts energetic on the positioning as of November – a tiny blip in contrast with extra mainstream platforms.
And but, on Friday, Digital World Acquisition Corp. authorised a profitable merger with Trump Media & Expertise Group, Reality Social’s proprietor – one that’s anticipated to ship a multibillion-dollar windfall for the previous president simply as mounting authorized troubles and judgments have compromised his enterprise empire, private wealth and marketing campaign funds. It received’t convey fast aid, although, as Trump is restricted from promoting his shares for six months.
It’s a vital milestone for the social media website in addition to for Trump, offering a path for the previous actual property tycoon’s return to Wall Road. The corporate will commerce below the ticker DJT, placing Trump’s initials alongside a number of the most iconic manufacturers and companies on this planet simply as Trump Tower as soon as did.
For Trump, whose animated and antagonistic Twitter presence helped him chart a path to the presidency, the social media website has additionally turn into a brand new megaphone for his unvarnished opinions. His most devoted followers, political reporters and even his personal workers and advisers depend on the positioning for a window into his newest considering, which he shares throughout dozens of posts a day.
However as Trump’s foray as a social media mogul enters its third yr, the app’s long-term viability – and objective – stay unclear. Reality Social shouldn’t be a critical menace to compete with, not to mention eclipse, X, Fb or YouTube – it’s not among the many 100 most downloaded social media functions within the Apple App retailer – nor has it separated itself as their conservative various. Trump Media’s administration warned final yr that the corporate was prone to insolvency with out a merger, and most analysts are skeptical of its present valuation above $6 billion.
“It’s grossly overvalued,” Jay Ritter, a finance professor on the College of Florida, advised CNN this week. “It qualifies as a meme inventory for which the worth is divorced from basic worth.”
As a substitute, the sky-high appraisal seems intently tied to Trump’s political comeback try. However Reality Social has not proved it might survive, not to mention thrive, except the nation’s gaze is affixed on the positioning’s most well-known consumer.
“Reality Social’s clout is pushed very a lot if not fully by Donald Trump’s reputation,” mentioned Josephine Lukito, who researches the intersection of politics and social media on the College of Texas at Austin. “With out him, I don’t assume there’s a viable path ahead for it.”
Reality Social launched in early 2022, a yr after Twitter, now often called X, and Fb had locked Trump out of his accounts over his incitement of the January 6, 2021, US Capitol assault. Each platforms have since reinstated Trump’s account, although he posts nearly solely to Reality Social.
Trump lately advised a South Carolina viewers he purchased the identify of his app for $2,100 from “a man.”
“I’d’ve paid tens of millions,” Trump claimed to the group.
Some conservatives, searching for a substitute for mainstream social media websites seen as hostile to their standpoint, initially appeared wanting to embrace Reality Social. A 2021 survey discovered that 3 in 5 Republicans expected to use the new site.
“Prepare!” Trump wrote in his first Reality Social publish. “Your favourite president will see you quickly.”
However the hype for the app exceeded precise utilization. Three months after it launched, solely 2% of People reported repeatedly utilizing Reality Social to get their information, Pew Analysis discovered, consistent with different area of interest conservative social media options equivalent to Gettr and Rumble.
Exercise on the app has capsized since its early peaks. The location’s month-to-month energetic customers on iOS and Android units are down 39% year-over-year, in keeping with Similarweb information shared with CNN earlier this month. Visits to the positioning on cellular and desktop have plummeted as properly by almost 29% throughout that stretch.
The app itself is considerably clunky and never with out technological issues. It appeared to go down throughout President Joe Biden’s State of the Union tackle when Trump promised to supply dwell commentary.
CNN tried to achieve Reality Social for remark by means of an e-mail tackle on its web site. The e-mail bounced again.
Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes, a former Republican congressman, mentioned in a press release final month after US regulators allowed for the merger: “Transferring ahead, we goal to speed up our work to construct a free speech freeway exterior the stifling stranglehold of Massive Tech.”
Trump insists Reality Social is “on fireplace,” as he has put it. He repeatedly promotes the app at his rallies and through interviews. For instance, Trump lately plugged Reality Social whereas recounting for an viewers his publish in assist of in vitro fertilization remedies after an Alabama Supreme Courtroom ruling led some clinics to halt entry to some IVF providers within the state.
“The last word pleasure in life is a lovely, wholesome, great child,” Trump mentioned, earlier than including: “I put that message out on a factor known as Reality Social. Has anyone been tuning in these days? Scorching. Reality Social’s scorching.”
Many Republican politicians and conservative haven’t joined Reality Social or they publish occasionally. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s final publish was in July 2022. Fashionable conservative podcast hosts Megyn Kelly, Ben Shapiro and Glenn Beck don’t seem to have energetic accounts. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott solely lately joined Reality Social – simply as his identify surfaced as a possible working mate to Trump.
Even those that have embraced Reality Social proceed to be energetic on its competitor platforms – together with these in Trump’s internal circle.
“His surrogates are very energetic on X. They’re energetic on different platforms,” mentioned Matt Terrill, who was chief of workers for the 2016 presidential marketing campaign of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, one other prolific social media consumer. “It’s a recognition that’s the place lots of people are getting their information.”
To his supporters, the enterprise is additional proof of Trump’s enterprise acumen, a status he constructed throughout a profession working in actual property and as a actuality tv character.
“It’s sensible as a result of by the sheer advantage that we’re having this dialog proper now, it’s spectacular,” Paul Leslie, a author who attended Trump’s Georgia rally advised CNN. “You create your individual social media platform after which individuals even speak about the truth that, ‘Oh, you’re not on Twitter.’ It’s simply one other supply of press, and as anyone can clearly see, there’s by no means been a extra spectacular public relations genius than Donald Trump.”
On any given day, Trump will publish dozens of occasions to Reality Social, offering a working stream of commentary on his authorized troubles, sharing favorable ballot numbers, responding to adverse protection and weighing in on the political disputes of the day.
It’s on Reality Social that Trump first commented on former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s exit from the race.
On Friday alone, Trump attacked the decide and state legal professional normal in one in every of his authorized instances, expressed assist for Cuban protesters, endorsed an Arizona state Senate candidate, shared eight movies of him talking straight to digital camera and advised he has sufficient cash to cowl the $464 million civil fraud judgment in New York — a probably troubling admission for his authorized staff.
The posts replicate Trump’s previous social media utilization – and elegance; he usually posts in all-caps – however with solely a fraction of the attain. On X, the positioning previously often called Twitter now owned by billionaire Elon Musk, Trump has 87 million followers – 13 occasions his viewers on Reality Social.
“It’s protected to say that Reality Social has not damaged into the mainstream,” mentioned Joshua Tucker, co-director of the New York College Middle for Social Media and Politics. “It’s a spot for smaller teams of conservatives to congregate and for Trump to talk to a few of his supporters.”
To a few of these supporters, that’s a characteristic, and never a bug.
“I feel that’s positively a superb factor, him being off of Twitter,” Mirtschink mentioned on the Georgia rally. “As a result of Twitter has a bunch of Democrats on there.”
Kurt Holtzclaw, a 20-year-old development employee and Trump supporter, acknowledged having to sift by means of a good quantity of Reality Social content material from conspiratorial accounts which may be blocked on different platforms.
“I wish to get my data from all kinds of sources,” Holtzclaw mentioned. “However I wish to get his standpoint.”
The place Reality Social has succeeded has largely benefited one individual: Trump. As the previous president reemerged because the front-runner for the Republican nomination, Reality Social gained significantly extra mentions in information protection from reporters mining the positioning for Trump’s ideas on the race, mentioned Lukito, the College of Texas professor. That has solely accelerated since Trump turned the presumptive GOP nominee.
“One of many misconceptions is that what’s vital is how massive is it going to get relative to Twitter or how a lot cash it’s incomes,” Lukito mentioned. “The fact is he’s successful as a result of he’s in a position to efficiently leverage media protection by means of Reality Social. Most individuals find out about it not as a result of they’re on the platform however as a result of they see it within the media.”
Trump lately acknowledged this phenomenon after Jimmy Kimmel made enjoyable of the previous president’s commentary of his efficiency internet hosting the Academy Awards.
“He finally ends up studying my reality. E (sic) mentioned this man’s even dumber than I assumed,” Trump wrote on Reality Social. “The factor went viral. It’s been all around the world now, and all he needed to do was hold his mouth shut.”
Nonetheless, even a few of his supporters lengthy for the times when Trump’s posts reached a broader viewers.
“Trump would tweet and, oh boy, was everybody offended at that,” Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene mentioned on the latest Trump rally. “I inform you what, I’d give something for some good previous Trump tweets. Hey, you recognize, you will discover him on Reality Social. You understand the place he’s at.”
