Trump’s Truth Social, Already In Shambles, Loses Its Top Execs
Source: The New Republic, Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling
Photo: Donald Trump yells at a campaign rally (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Top executives at Trump Media, the parent company of Truth Social, have reportedly been forced out in a retaliation scheme involving Devin Nunes.
Executives at Trump Media & Technology Group have been forced out in the wake of internal allegations that the company’s CEO, former California Representative Devin Nunes, is mismanaging the company.
Several sources that spoke anonymously with ProPublica believed that the forced exits, which include Chief Operating Officer Andrew Northwall and Chief Product Officer Sandro De Moraes, were retaliation for a “whistleblower” complaint regarding Nunes that was sent to the company’s board of directors.
Nunes, a Trump loyalist, has helmed the company since it launched in 2021. Trump Media has generated practically no revenue, and its singular major property, Truth Social, has failed to attract the interest of the general market or become even close to a competitor of platforms like X (formerly Twitter) or Threads.
As its chief executive, Nunes had penned a TV streaming deal to bring cable content onto the site and, for no clear reason explained by the company, traveled to the Balkans to meet with the prime minister of North Macedonia.
Four Trump Media employees were sent packing after the company enlisted a lawyer to investigate and interview the alleged misconduct, reported ProPublica. Alongside Northwall and De Moraes, the company also reportedly let go a human relations director and a product designer. An unidentified source said that the cohort were granted severance pay in exchange for their silence about the situation.
On Thursday, Northwall publicly announced his departure on Truth Social, writing that he had “decided to resign from [his] role at Trump Media” and that he was “incredibly grateful” for the opportunity.
A spokesperson for Trump Media completely brushed off the allegations of retaliation in a statement to ProPublica claiming that the story “utterly fabricates implications of improper and even illegal conduct that have no basis in reality.”
“This story is the fifth consecutive piece in an increasingly absurd campaign by ProPublica, likely at the behest of political interest groups, to damage TMTG based on false and defamatory allegations and vague innuendo,” the statement said, adding that “TMTG strictly adheres to all laws and applicable regulations.”
The report is just another sign that one of Trump’s financial assets may not last for much longer. One of the largest shareholders of the shaky company offloaded its stock as soon as insider-trading restrictions were lifted last month, dumping 11 million shares worth somewhere between $128 million and $170 million. Trump Media fell dramatically in the days following lock-up expiration, with shares spiraling to a fraction of their value at the company’s initial public offering in March.
Donald Trump—who owns roughly 57 percent of the company, with 115 million shares—has insisted he has no intention of selling off his stock, though doing so could be a quick and easy profit for the legally hamstrung Republican presidential nominee. Choosing to do so, however, would devastate investors’ confidence in the Trump-led company and could spell the end for Truth Social.
Trump Media has been criticized as another iteration of a long line of grifts this year as the former president has fought off numerous legal charges that have added up to half a billion dollars in expenses and debt. Other Trumpian hustles included launching a remarkably ugly sneaker, an equally hideous line of watches, and NFT trading cards of himself dressed in superhero costumes and astronaut suits. He also made some quick cash on a limited edition, $60 God Bless the USA Bible co-promoted by “God Bless the USA” singer Lee Greenwood, and stamped his name on a new cryptocurrency platform headed by his two sons, Eric and Don Jr., that even Trump’s allies have criticized as a “huge mistake.”
https://newrepublic.com/post/186805/trump-media-truth-social-shambless-top-executives-leave