Truth Social has been very powerful, very strong and I'll be staying there but
I hear we're getting a big vote to also go back on Twitter.
I don't see it because I don't see any reason for it.
They have a lot of problems that Twitter you see what's going on.
It may make it, it may not make it, but as the problems are incredible,
the engagements are negative and you have a lot of bots and
you have a lot of fake accounts which I think they should get on.
>> There you have former president Donald Trump pretending he doesn't care about
Twitter, has no interest in posting on Twitter.
But over the weekend when Elon Musk put up a poll asking Twitter users whether or
not Donald Trump should be allowed back on the site,
Trump posted about it on Truth Social saying vote now with positivity but
don't worry we aren't going anywhere Truth Social is special.
It's special all right, just not in the way that he thinks it is.
But nonetheless, if he doesn't care why is he asking his fans and
followers to go participate in the poll?
In the end, about 51.8% voted yes and
Elon Musk did in fact unban Donald Trump from the platform.
Now, Musk is desperately trying to get Trump to post on Twitter which
I don't really know why but Trump so far has resisted.
In an interview at the Republican Jewish Coalition Conference over the weekend,
Trump tried to explain why he would not be tweeting and
briefly forgot the name of his own website in the process.
Let's watch.
>> What do you think about Elon Musk buying Twitter and
if you are reinstated, will we see you back on Twitter again?
>> Well, I like that he bought it.
I've always liked him.
I get along with him very well.
He did put up a poll and I hear it's very overwhelming, very strong but
I have something called Trump if you look at strum bone but
it's really fantastic Truth Social.
And Truth Social is through the roof, 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 and
it's taking care of voices that really wanna be taken care of and
really smart voices, brilliant voices.
>> Truth Social is not doing really well.
And if you want to talk about engagement, keep in mind that while Trump had 80
million followers on Twitter over a Truth Social, it's down to five million.
Now, technically speaking Trump is allowed to post on other sites.
His agreement with Truth Social opens the door for
Trump to engage extensively on other platforms.
Trump is obligated to give Truth Social a six-hour exclusive on any post but
is free to post political messaging political fundraising or
get-out-the-vote efforts on any site at any time according to a May SEC filing.
Now, that he's officially running for president though he could argue that
anything he posts is political and should be allowed on any site at any time.
And Trump's following again it's not even quite five million,
it's 4.59 million on Truth Social versus the 80 million on Twitter.
So, my prediction is probably by tonight, probably by the time you watch this video
Trump's already posting on Twitter, but as of now, he hasn't done so yet.
Now, Truth Social is having lots of financial issues as
well that I wanna kinda draw a little bit of attention to.
Trump has told his allies that he can't leave Truth Social,
because he's propping it up and he doesn't want a site so closely associated with
his brand to collapse, according to people familiar with his thinking.
Because things that Trump has launched, businesses that Trump is
associated with never collapse so he wouldn't want to start now, right?
I mean he's only gone bankrupt six different times.
More than 1.3 billion in financing for the platform is dependent on
the completion of a planned merger between Trump Media and blank-check
company Digital World Acquisition Corp that currently must be completed by Dec 8.
The deal is facing investigation by federal prosecutors and securities
regulators that could force Digital World to liquidate in early December,
which could put an end to the merger.
But there is one way that Elon Musk is trying to get Donald Trump
to start posting on Twitter again and it's through this,
I guess somewhat lewd content that he posted on Twitter.
So for religious folks who are easily offended, look away for everyone else,
this is what he posted.
Elon Musk says and lead us not to temptation,
with Donald Trump being represented by Jesus and
then Jesus kind of salivating and trying to resist
the temptation to I guess have sex with that animated figure.
>> Yeah, fair enough.
>> Yeah. >> Okay, so look,
one of our members has it exactly, right which is unsurprising.
Richie [INAUDIBLE] on twitch said he won't be going back to Twitter because back
can get sued by its investors and he'll go bankrupt again.
I love our members. You guys are so smart,
that's exactly right.
And so, now, and is also right that he might not be able to help himself anyway-.
>> Exactly. >> But I guarantee you that his advisors
have told him a couple of dozen times now, Mr President,
remember we have this SPAC that we're doing and
the whole value of this Truth Social and yes, it's called True Social,
not Trump died the social, true social, okay?
He doesn't even know the name of his own company.
So dumb.
Okay, and the reason they have to tell him dozens of times is because he's dense and
he acts irrationally like a child, he's impetuous, he's,
I want to be on Twitter, that looks kind of naughty, I want to do that, right?
So, they would say, Mr former president, I'm sorry,
you're still president whatever you need, remember the whole value of your
company is dependent on you being there so that all the right-wingers come there,
if you're on Twitter they don't have to come to Truth Social.
Remember we told all of our shareholders that you would post on Truth Social,
that would be your platform, that's why they should come to it.
If you then go to Twitter, the shareholders will say, hey, wait a minute,
we were misled, we thought you were going to post on Truth Social, and
not only will the price collapse, but you'll get sued personally.
It's like he'd be nuts to post on Twitter.
Look this back, if he had put a competent person in charge instead of Devin Nunes,
it could have been worth up to $10 billion by now.
He could have actually gotten to the place where he was pretending to be all along.
But already through his incompetence, he's bungled away most of that, right?
By hiring complete incompetence running a totally ridiculous organization that did
not give confidence to shareholders, being erratic, saying terrible things etc.
But now he could still rescue a significant amount of money if he
just has a discipline to stay on his own platform.
>> He's going to be posting on Twitter by tonight.
>> There's no way he's gonna do it.
>> No, he's gonna post on Twitter,
you think when has criminal investigation ever stopped him?
When has a lawsuit ever stopped him?
He doesn't care.
He thinks that he's entitled to do whatever he wants with impunity.
And guess what?
For the longest time he's been able to do whatever he wants with impunity.
So like-.
>> I know but there's one wrinkle here, and I'm not saying that he's not going to,
but he's gonna blow it big time.
It isn't about, hey, lawsuits, he's gonna lose the lawsuits, that is real and
could happen, but mainly the price is gonna fall, right?
>> You mean you mean Trump might be swayed by a smart financial decision?
The man who's gone bankrupt six times.
>> No, my point is, I get it, I'm agreeing with you that he's not gonna be able
to help himself, but he will see his money flowing out the door as he does it.
>> Excellent. >> Like in real-time.
And so, okay, and he's probably too stupid to help himself.
>> Excellent. >> He should have been promoting
it all along.
He waited for months before he even sent out one post because it's obvious
that he despises his own platform, okay?
So, just be done with it.
And I'll give Musk credit for this.
He's basically going, come here little boy, he's basically dangling candy
in front of him while saying come into my white van, you'll love it in here.
And Trump is, candy, somebody said candy, okay?
So, of course, he's gonna do it.
He's a moron.
>> Yeah, so we'll see how it all plays out.
But I find it all very amusing.
And look anyone who's still on Twitter who might be hyperventilating about this,
stop hyperventilating about it, okay?
Donald Trump was eventually gonna be allowed back on Twitter as soon as
Elon Musk actually went through with buying Twitter which was kind of shocking.
[LAUGH].
I had no doubt that eventually Trump was gonna be on it.
Trump will probably dominate headlines with his tweets as
soon as he starts tweeting again which was probably the most annoying thing
about Trump being on Twitter.
But this is it.
I mean Elon Musk, how is this man, the head of multiple companies?
He is, when you say terminally online you should think of Elon Musk, there should
be a photo of Elon Musk in the dictionary next to the wording terminally online.
The guy spends all his time on Twitter.
>> Yeah.
So, that's a huge issue and in fact, that's why Tesla has lost so
much value over the last six months.
That's why overall Elon Musk has lost $100 billion in net worth.
And even his own shareholders are saying, will you get off of online for
one second and go do your other job?
The job that's worth 10,000 times more, Twitter is barely worth anything,
no matter what you paid for it.
So that's definitely true.
But I wanna agree with you on one other thing.
The media hyperventilating about Elon Musk.
Okay, I got it guys.
He bought it.
Move on.
Yeah, you see, was he ever going to do, what was that BS thing, content,
moderation council, or whatever thing he pretended he was gonna do?
Advertisers and he's like Trump a little bit too, he's a rash little child.
He's, advertisers, don't worry, I'm will to put together this wonderful blue ribbon
council and I'm not gonna decide who's gonna be on, they're going to decide.
And then he's, no, I'm impatient, I want to do it now, [INAUDIBLE] you're back.
And then he does a stupid ass poll of his own right-wing followers.
>> Is a very strong poll.
>> It was a very strong poll, but the engagement is negative.
It's negative 13, that's what people are saying.
I don't know what that means.
So, in a lot of ways they are the same people.
So-.
>> I will say this though, just a quick observation and
maybe this is a testament to the coders over at Twitter building something
that's sustainable enough to, I guess deal with the incompetence
that we've been noticing with Elon Musk's leadership thus far.
I mean Twitter seems to be chugging along.
>> No, yeah, I don't know if anyone is going to fall apart,
but did 88% of the employees actually leave?
Because if they actually left and it's still running, that's a little bit of
a minor miracle and something that is not, I mean, it's something to watch out for.
That's all.
I can't believe it and it's not good news for
employees if 88% of them can leave and the thing doesn't fall apart.
>> Well, I mean, look-.
>> I'm just being honest with you.
>> Well, there are-.
>> There is a conclusion people are gonna [INAUDIBLE] I don't like that conclusion.
>> Well, okay, so, what I'll say about that is, there's Twitter functionality and
the employees who are kind of in charge of that, and then there are other teams
of workers who focus on things that aren't related to Twitter's functionality.
So, for instance,
there was a group of employees that were tasked with human rights issues.
Now, why would they need that?
Well, Twitter is an international platform.
So, when you're dealing with some of these countries that don't have the free
speech rights that we have here in the United States,
you need a group of lawyers and council that can kinda navigate those issues and
deal with those human rights concerns when it comes to their platform.
So, those types of employees gone.
And Elon Musk, I mean he's made it abundantly clear that while he pretends to
care so much about free speech, in reality,
he doesn't think that these types of workers are really worthy.
He doesn't think he needs them.
So, sure he get rid of them.
But you're gonna run into issues once you, I don't know,
someone hits you up from, let's say from China's government and says,
we're gonna block your site unless you do X, Y, and Z.
Those issues come up all the time.
>> Yeah. And so, look,
part of the people that he fired are folks like salespeople that you don't need to
run a company, but eventually you'll run out of revenue, right?
But the Twitter machine is not going to fall apart if the salespeople are not in
the building.
Part of the employees are folks that eventually, not on day one, but
on day 12, day 37, somethings gonna fall apart,
something's gonna fall out of the car and it's gonna be real bad, right?
So, that hasn't happened yet.
I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet, but it's only been a couple of days.
So, let's see if something does actually fall out of the car.
And the last thing on the mainstream media hyperventilating,
they're, can you believe this?
Advertisers are not gonna go back for this kind of immaturity and putting Trump back
and I'll be honest, it's Don Lemon on CNN that said it this morning, right?
Okay-. >> Come on.
>> But Don you live in a glass house.
CNN propelled Donald Trump to where he is today.
>> CNN hired a bunch of Trump administration officials to
be contributors.
What are you talking about?
What are you talking about right now?
I just, I can't with these people.
>> And the reason is because their mainstream media, and
they look down their nose at any kind of new media including social media, and
they're, Twitter is so unserious, that's not where serious advertisers should go.
They should know here at CNN we value advertisers way more than anyone
else on the planet.
That's why, for example, will lie on their behalf and try to Torpedo Medicare for
all so that they can charge higher drug prices.
Do you see how morally uncompromised we are at CNN?
Please spare me.