Is Donald Trump Getting Ready To Retire Truth Social?

Is former U.S. President Donald Trump getting ready to retire his social media platform, Truth Social?

Following the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Trump was banned from all mainstream social media platforms. The Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) was created soon after, but now that his suspension from Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter has been lifted, will Trump abandon his own social media platform in favor of a more mainstream audience ahead of the 2024 election?

Earlier this week, Newsweek noted that the 2024 Republican candidate has returned to sharing updates on his Facebook page; however, he has not returned to Twitter, even though Elon Musk reinstated his account last year. Trump continues to be active on his own Truth Social platform, sometimes posting multiple times a day.

Filings from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) show that Trump has an exclusivity agreement with Truth Social, which means he must post his statement there first and "may not make the same post on another social media site for 6 hours."

Although the platform gives his supporters first access to his statements, The New York Times reported that Trump is considering resigning the deal. Trump currently has more than 86 million followers on Twitter, compared to the 5.4 million he currently has on Truth Social.

Trump has been known to share frequent updates on Twitter, sometimes posting multiple times a day. With a larger audience on Twitter, would he still continue to use Truth Social when he has a much larger audience on Elon Musk's platform?

Joshua Tucker, co-director of NYU's Center for Social Media and Politics, told Newsweek, "If he goes full-fledged on Twitter and Facebook, that really undercuts one of the big calling cards of Truth Social," adding, "Truth Social is the social-media platform you can use to get access to Donald Trump. So, if he does go back to Twitter and Facebook, that is probably going to hurt Truth Social, and he's going to take a financial hit."

That being said, Donald Trump has dismissed the idea that he would eventually return to Twitter at the Republican Jewish Coalition's annual leadership meeting on November 19.

"It's doing phenomenally well. The press hates to talk about it, but it's doing phenomenally well. I think engagement is much better than it is with Twitter," Trump said at the time, adding, "Truth Social has been very, very powerful, very, very strong, and I'll be staying there."