Former President Donald Trump got some good news earlier this week following a shareholder vote regarding an effort to take his social media platform, Truth Social, public.
According to Axios, Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC), the “blank check” company attempting to merge with Trump Media & Technology Group and take the platform public, received enough shareholder support to extend the deadline another 12 months.
“Had the shareholder vote failed, DWAC would have liquidated and Trump would have needed to find another deep pocket,” Axios noted further. “DWAC had launched a major lobbying effort in recent weeks to secure the vote, including sending emails to all Truth Social users (even if they weren’t shareholders).”
The outlet noted that this is the second time the closing extension has been extended for a year.
After the vote, DWAC shares climbed on the news, but they are nowhere near what they were when the merger was first announced.
“This doesn’t necessarily mean the merger will close — providing Truth Social with hundreds of millions of dollars — but it’s much more likely now than it was just 24 hours ago,” Axios reported.
The Western Journal noted that DWAC needed 65 percent of shareholders to vote for the extension.
The platform has around 10 million monthly visits, a far cry from the 17.4 billion Facebook gets or the 6.5 billion that X, formerly Twitter, receives.
Separately, Axios reported that Trump would get to keep control over the platform even if he sells it once it goes public. The outlet noted that Trump will retain 55 percent voting power after DWAC “disclosed the creation of a new class of high-vote stock of which Trump will be the only holder.”
Trump is, by far, Truth Social’s most prominent poster.
In May, the social media site filed a major defamation lawsuit against the Washington Post. The lawsuit, filed in a state court in Sarasota, Fla. — where TMTG is headquartered — came on the heels of a large defamation settlement Fox News made with Dominion Voting Systems.
The technology company is seeking more than $3.7 billion from the Post.
The suit says:
On March 15, 2023, the Guardian published an online article entitled “Federal investigators examined Trump Media for possible money laundering, sources say”. (the “Guardian Article
The source of the Guardian’s false and defamatory “money laundering” charges was a former employee of TMTG, Will Wilkerson (“Wilkerson”), who was terminated for cause. Beginning in 2022, separate and apart from any purported disclosures he may have made to the government, Wilkerson began to concoct and publicly shop false stories about TMTG to numerous media outlets.
“By May 2023, Wilkerson had come up with yet another fake news story. Wilkerson knew that WaPo eagerly published false stories about TMTG, its CEO, Devin Nunes (“Nunes”) and, of course, former President Donald Trump. Wilkerson contacted WaPo with a salacious story about a porn-friendly bank and securities fraud. Through a series of meetings and conversations with Wilkerson and his lawyers, WaPo undertook with Wilkerson to publish agreed false and defamatory statements to injure TMTG,” the suit continued.
It adds that the Post published a May 13 story headlined, “Trust linked to porn-friendly bank could gain a stake in Trump’s Truth Social.”
The suit goes on to allege the Post “published an egregious hit piece that falsely accused TMTG of securities fraud and other wrongdoing” and “has been on a years-long crusade against TMTG characterized by the concealment of relevant information in its possession.”
“WaPo’s false criminal charges exposed TMTG to public ridicule, contempt, and distrust, and injured TMTG’s business and reputation,” the suit said.