After a two-year stretch of Twitter exile, Donald Trump is reportedly laying the groundwork for his long-awaited comeback, even when his return may put Reality Social—the Twitter competitor he helped launch final yr—in a whole lot of jeopardy. On Sunday, Rolling Stone reported that Trump doesn’t plan to resume a “social media exclusivity” settlement requiring that he share all of his posts on Reality Social earlier than another platforms. The 18-month contract expires in June and was signed lengthy earlier than Elon Musk purchased Twitter and reactivated Trump’s account, which was suspended shortly after the Capitol riot.
The settlement’s expiration date this summer time means that Trump’s potential reemergence on Twitter—the platform used to bludgeon his main opposition in 2016 and generate an astronomical variety of earned media impressions—would come proper at a time when rival Republican candidates would seemingly have entered the sector.
One supply informed Rolling Stone that Trump has privately shrugged off the prospect of renewing the exclusivity deal, and recalled the previous president saying, “There’s not going to be a necessity for that.” One other supply accustomed to the matter informed the outlet that Trump has mentioned that he doesn’t “need to make commitments.” Within the occasion the contractual obligation shouldn’t be re-upped, Trump would nonetheless be “required to submit contemporaneously to Reality Social.” However shedding the unique rights to his posts would create vital issues for the platform and Trump Media & Expertise Group, the personal firm that owns Reality Social. (TMTG didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the state of Trump’s contract and his reported plans to return to Twitter.)
Reality Social’s reliance on Trump was starkly revealed final yr, amid TMTG’s proposed merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp—a publicly traded, particular function acquisition firm. In keeping with a Might 2022 SEC submitting on the merger, TMTG’s licensing settlement with Trump stipulates that he “is usually obligated to make any social media submit on Reality Social and will not make the identical submit on one other social media website for six hours.” Whereas the merger stays incomplete, speculative buyers have poured a whole lot of tens of millions into the SPAC. The prospect of a Trump Twitter comeback, nevertheless, provides a brand new layer of uncertainty relating to the merger and DWAC’s already dwindling inventory value, shares of which had been valued at $97.54 final March however at the moment are right down to about $15.31.
TMTG CEO Devin Nunes seemingly addressed these issues in a Newsmax interview final week, saying that Trump “has little interest in going again to Twitter.” (When approached by Rolling Stone for remark, TMTG referred the outlet to Nunes’s feedback to Newsmax.) And in November, shortly after Musk reinstated the previous president’s account, Trump supplied related assurances. “I don’t see any purpose for it,” he mentioned of Twitter, “they’ve a whole lot of issues.”
Even when Trump does reclaim his Twitter-powered megaphone, he’ll nonetheless want Fb—a fundraising and promoting workhorse for main campaigns—to run a profitable presidential bid. Meta has but to reinstate any of Trump’s Fb and Instagram accounts after suspending him two years in the past, however the Trump marketing campaign’s authorized counsel has reportedly petitioned the corporate to vary that. For its half, Meta has mentioned that it’ll decide on Trump’s use of its platforms within the close to future.
