According to an insider report, Donald Trump thought about leaving the company and supporting a rival months after he started developing his social media site, Truth Social.
Former “Apprentice” contestants Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss, creators of Trump Media, and Trump had their first meeting on January 26, 2021, over burgers and ice cream, according to a daily journal of business transactions given by founder and whistleblower Will Wilkerson. This was a few weeks after Trump had been suspended from Twitter due to the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. Internally, the gathering was informal to as “the cheeseburger summit.”
In order to create Trump Media and Technology Group, which is the organisation behind Truth Social, Litinsky and Moss formally collaborated with Trump through their business, United Atlantic Ventures, in February 2021.
However, as Trump mulled endorsing his former assistant Jason Miller’s Gettr app on June 11, 2021, Litinsky and Moss privately expressed concern about a potential “meltdown,” has been discovered by sources. In addition to the Gettr deal, the internal log indicates that Trump also discussed a 12.5% stake offer from the right-wing social media site Parler during the call.
The meeting between Trump and Gettr took place some months after the Trump Media and Truth Social project was launched. The co-founders of Truth Social reportedly questioned whether Trump would negotiate a “side deal” when they offered him $5 million a year in exchange for his participation.
According to Wilkerson, the question was whether Trump would only make public remarks on the Truth platform.
In an agreement dated February 2, 2021, Trump and the Trump Organisation specified their obligations to Trump Media and Technology Group and Truth Social. Trump received 90% of the stock in the corporation as part of the transaction.
One of these obligations was to grant rights to intellectual property to the Trump name, trademarks, marks, photographs, photos, videos, and likenesses, which were crucial assets in many of Trump’s business activities. Internal documents appear to suggest that the founders were concerned about their exclusivity with the Trump name as the business considered going public through the special purpose purchase company Digital World Acquisition Corp.
Internal emails claim that a revision to the SPAC agreement sought to convert Donald Trump’s “exclusive” licence to the product of Trump Media to a “non-exclusive” licence.
According to a source-obtained email from August 2021, Nelson Mullins attorney John Haley, who provided advice on the Trump Media SPAC arrangement, referred to the licence agreement as an “essential building piece for the project and platform.”
Trump’s platform commitments are “essentially “gutted,” according to Haley, by switching to a non-exclusive arrangement, leaving DWAC with an “unbankable” programme that won’t last.
According to Wilkerson’s daily journal, Moss and Litinsky met with counsel for the Trump Organization and Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Eric Trump to discuss their concerns. Later, the two spoke on the phone with Trump about Jason Miller.
The log notes several delays until the final deal with DWAC was delivered to Mar-a-Lago on October 20, 2021, including one while Don Jr. went pheasant hunting in England.
At Mar-a-Lago, according to the internal log, “there were serious doubts that DJT would not sign, he called Jason Miller about ”Gettr”, and grilled Andy about the deal.” Nevertheless, Trump signed the contract, which has not yet been carried out.
Trump can only share his posts on Truth Social for eight hours as a result of the arrangement, according to media reports. Elon Musk, who just purchased Twitter, has declared he will restore Trump’s account. Trump has stated he will continue to use Truth Social while applauding the deal.
An inquiry for a response on Monday went unanswered by representatives of Trump Media and DWAC.