Truth Social fits the predictable pattern of Trump failures
Stephen H. Provost
Truth Social has been a disaster, and it exposes two things about Donald Trump that made him a lousy president, not to mention a bad businessman.
Downloads have plummeted so low they’re barely registering on the Apple Store. (As of this writing, it’s not even available for Android phones yet). Many of those who do want to get access can’t because they’re stuck on a waiting list. And two top executives involved in the site’s technical development have quit.
But none of those facts encapsulate the site’s failure as well as one number.
One.
That’s the number of tweets... er... “truths” Trump has posted on the site: “Get Ready! Your favorite President will see you soon!”
But no one on the site is seeing him.
This silence might seem odd from a man who tweeted 12,000 times during 2020 alone. But there’s an obvious explanation: He doesn’t like to be associated with anything that’s a “loser.”
This wait-and-see approach is what makes Trump such a lousy leader: He doesn’t lead. Instead, he tries to ride the coattails of various trends, a strategy that has worked a couple of times. First, he caught the wave of reality TV with The Apprentice, and then he won the presidency by playing to the far right’s culture of grievance.
When he dipped his toe into the social media quagmire, however, he entirely misread his audience. The Apprentice and his presidential dog-and-pony show were both built on conflict. Social media sites work the same way, but Trump failed to recognize this. Rather than being a shouting match, Truth Social is an exercise in preaching to the choir.
Trump might have been able to create some interest by actually posting on the site himself, but rather than driving the conversation, he waited to jump on a bandwagon that never arrived. Then he lost interest. That’s what he does: Avoid accountability for failures and take credit for others’ successes.
Devin’s folly
One might think that someone with this attitude would be sure to hire people who knew what they were doing. As president, Trump vowed to bring the “best and brightest” minds to work in his administration. Instead, he insisted on hiring cronies and sycophants whose major qualification was their professed loyalty to him.
That loyalty required them to serve as yes-men and women to an imbecile who suggested trying to buy Greenland, injecting bleach to fight COVID, and using nukes in an absurd attempt to stop hurricanes. Turnover among Trump’s senior staff was 91% during his time in office, more than any of his five most recent predecessors. When his most loyal foot soldier, flunky Veep Michael Pence, refused to take part in an illegal coup at the 11th hour, Trump disavowed him, too.
This loyalty requirement is what led Trump to choose the man he felt was perfect to run Truth Social. His choice wasn’t some tech wiz with an actual background in social media or website building. Instead, he turned to Devin Nunes, a longtime U.S. representative for the Fresno-Tulare area. Nunes was in line to run the powerful Ways and Means Committee if the Republicans were to take control of the House in 2022 (which seems like a good bet). But he resigned his seat to run Truth Social instead.
What was he thinking?
He wanted to impress Trump, of course, but that’s easier said than done — especially when you don’t know what the hell you’re doing.
Nunes had zero qualifications to run a social media company. Think about how laughable it would be to hire him as coach of an NBA team or to teach a class at medical school. Some might argue that Nunes wasn’t qualified to be a member of Congress either, but at least he had experience doing that. His experience in tech consisted of once trying to sue a fictional cow for allegedly defaming him on Twitter. (The suit was dismissed.)
Given Trump’s history of cutting and running, then blaming others for his failures, it’s only a matter of time before Nunes either bails or is fired from Truth Social, which itself seems destined for the social media scrap heap. If it winds up there, it will join the likes of Trump Airlines, Trump Steaks, Trump Vodka and Trump University among the Teflon Don’s business failures.
Of course, he owns none of it. It’s always someone else’s fault.
Truth Social's failed rollout was entirely predictable. It fits the pattern of Donald Trump's broken promises and hairbrained schemes: He'll tout some overhyped idea, hire a poorly qualified sycophant to execute it, then lose interest when it fails to catch fire. Then he'll cast blame or simply ignore it, and move on to the empty promotion.
For better and for worse, it keeps his name in the news. What more could a narcissist want?
Stephen H. Provost is a former journalist and the author of more than 40 books, including the three-book series Trumpism on Trial.