‘What the f*** is going on?’: Donald Trump is ‘complaining about lackluster Truth Social rollout’ and ‘wants to know why his app isn’t dominating the charts’
- Truth Social shot to the top spot in Apple’s App Store when it debuted in Feb
- As of Monday morning it had dropped to 118th in download popularity
- An attempt to sign on by DailyMail.com ends at a waitlist 584,200 spots long
- Saturday data analysis shows users spending far less time on Truth Social than other right-wing social media sites like Gab and Gettr
- A mobile app expert predicted to DailyMail.com the day after the app’s launch that Trump will ‘pack up his bags, and so too will the remaining platform users’
Former President Donald Trump is reportedly upset with the trajectory his new social media app Truth Social is headed, despite not even posting anything there himself yet
Donald Trump is livid about the ‘lackluster’ performance of his new social media venture Truth Social less than two weeks after it rolled out, a new report suggested on Saturday.
The former president had been overheard angrily swearing over the phone and having heated conversations surrounding his glitch-prone app.
‘What the f*** is going on?’ Trump has said at least once, people who heard him told the Daily Beast.
The report describes the ex-commander-in-chief complaining about ‘why more people aren’t using it—why the app isn’t swiftly dominating the competition.’
He’s also reportedly unhappy with how the rollout is being covered. Multiple media outlets have reported on technical glitches that have plagued the app since its launch.
Truth Social and its parent company, Trump Media & Technology Group, are the former president’s highest-profile business venture since he left office. TMTG raised a billion dollars from undisclosed investors upon going public late last year.
And the number of daily visits has gone down from 2 million in its initial debut to just 300,000 average visits in a day, according to a preliminary data analysis by SimilarWeb that’s cited in Saturday’s report.
That would put it on par with Gettr, another MAGA-friendly platform started by former Trump adviser Jason Miller. At the same time right-wing social site Gab reportedly got about 650,000 page visits.
Both Gab and Gettr, which gained traction last summer during a conservative backlash against ‘censorship’ on Twitter and Facebook, were founded long before Truth Social. Gettr was launched in July last year, months after Trump was kicked off both the big tech platforms. Gab launched even earlier, in August 2016, and has since been banned from Google and Apple’s app stores.
The analysis also suggested people spend less time on Truth Social — just 90 seconds, compared to seven minutes on Gettr and nine on Gab.
DailyMail.com has reached out to the former president’s spokesperson as well as reps for Trump Media & Technology Group for comment.
As of Monday, Truth Social has plummeted to 118th place in Apple’s App Store after soaring to the top spot upon its debut (left). An attempt to sign on by DailyMail.com shows users are still being put on a waitlist more than half a million places long (right)
Truth Social platform debuted in Apple’s App Store on President’s Day this year after months of fanfare and promotional statements from Trump himself.
However it immediately got off to a rocky start. Users reported glitches like sign-up errors and delays when trying to make accounts. Afterwards, many found themselves on a ‘waitlist’ more than 100,000 places long.
The day after launching, Truth Social soared to the top of Apple’s App Store, with the most downloads of any free app.
Two weeks later, a search of the App Store found it’s plummeted to 118th place.
That could be because people are still not getting in — a DailyMail.com reporter who made an account two weeks ago and logged in on Monday found they were still 584,200th in line on the apps’ ‘waitlist.’
Trump said Truth Social is an ‘incredible success’ in remarks to a reporter for right-wing Right Side Broadcasting Network at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida late last month.
‘We have hundreds of thousands of people trying to get on and we’re doing it very slowly,’ he said.
However, Axios pointed out last week that Trump has yet to even post on the app himself.
Truth Social’s quick loss of traffic was predicted by mobile app expert Mike Rhodes, CEO of consultancy firm ConsultMyApp. He told DailyMail.com the day after its launch that interest would quickly peter out due to its lack of originality.
‘This new platform is evidently geared up to promote content with a specific viewpoint, rather than harbor a wide range of views on multiple subjects. Echo chamber platforms like this already exist, however, they are by no-means adopted by the masses,’ Rhodes said.
He called Truth Social ‘simply a thinly veiled replica of Twitter,’ making it ‘therefore a doomed piece of old age tech.’
‘My best guess is that the platform will simply end life as a forum for people to reaffirm existing views, with a small but dedicated user base. Eventually it is likely that Mr. Trump will find another media outlet to serve him better. He’ll pack up his bags, and so too will the remaining platform users,’ Rhodes explained.
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