As a champion of all things Trump, Newsmax made sure to gush over the emergence of Trump Media & Technology Group, which operates Truth Social as a public company after years of wrangling and controversy. An October 2021 article by Eric Mack gushed over the company when it was created:
Former President Donald Trump has announced the Trump Media & Technology Group, merging with Digital World Acquisition Corp. to become a publicly listed company with a potential valuation of up to $1.7 billion.
A new social media platform called Truth Social is set to launch in early 2022, to compete with the likes of Facebook and Twitter — two sites that have left the former president banned — along with a ”subscription video on demand service” to rival Google’s YouTube.
”I created TRUTH Social and TMTG to stand up to the tyranny of Big Tech,” Trump wrote in the announcement Wednesday night. ”We live in a world where the Taliban has a huge presence on Twitter, yet your favorite American President has been silenced.
”This is unacceptable.”
Trump calls this a fulfilling of a promise to create a conservative media competitor to combat the liberal activism against his administration and in the 2020 presidential campaign.
Mack offered no evidence that Trump actually “created” any of this beyond lending his name and dwindling prestige to the venture. It took years for that merger to be consummated, but Newsmax left it to a wire article to announce that. Newsmax touted the company’s stock price in the immediate aftermath, though it left much of this to wire articles:
- Investors Greenlight Trump’s $6B Social Media Deal
- Digital World Surges 35% on Merger With Trump’s Truth Social
- Trump Media Soars 50% in Wall Street Debut
- Trump Media Surges for 2nd Day After Stellar Debut
When Newsmax did its own original articles, it focused on how much money Trump would make. The apparently unironically named Charlie McCarthy cheered in a March 21 article:
Former President Donald Trump could be on the verge of receiving a $3.5 billion windfall thanks to his Truth Social platform.
Trump, whose lawyers this week said has been unable to obtain a bond that would allow him to appeal a $464 million judgment in a New York civil fraud case, would benefit financially by Truth Social going public — something that could happen as soon as next week.
[…]Trump’s supporters have banded together to push up the stock, valuing Truth Social to a staggering $6 billion, the outlet added.
Nick Koutsobinas gushed even more in his own article the same day:
Former President Donald Trump’s wealth surged after his social media company, Truth Social, merged with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), paving the way for a public listing on the Nasdaq.
The deal significantly boosted Trump’s financial status, landing him on Bloomberg’s list of the world’s 500 richest individuals with an estimated net worth of around $6.5 billion. Trump, who holds approximately 58% of the new entity, saw his stake valued between $3 billion and $4 billion.
Both writers did concede that all this wealth is on paper, since Trump can’t sell his stock for six months.
Solange Reyner found a way to hype the stock despite some negative news in a March 25 article:
Trump Media & Technology Group shares jumped more than 9% Wednesday after CEO Devin Nunes sent a letter to allies on Capitol Hill asking them to investigate potential manipulation of the company’s stock, reported CNBC.
Nunes in a letter to lawmakers Tuesday suggested there were “strong indications of unlawful manipulation of DJT stock” and asked them to investigate “whether any laws including RICO statutes and tax evasion laws were violated, so that the perpetrators of any illegal activity can be held to account.”
[…]Trump Media went public last month and has experienced many volatile sessions since. It’s fallen about 41% in April after rising nearly 10% last week.
As the artificial giddiness wore off, the stock price dropped and other controversies surfaced, Newsmax reported that too, but left it to wire articles:
- Trump Media Plunges 23% After Disclosing Big Losses
- Trump Sues 2 Trump Media Co-founders, Seeking to Void Their Stock
- Brothers Plead Guilty to Insider Trading of Truth Social
- Trump Media Falls 12% on Plans to Sell More Stock
- Trump Media Shares Gain as It Blames Short Sellers
Jim Thomas complained in an April 16 article that “President Biden seized the spotlight to tout his tax plan while taking a jab at former President Donald Trump’s financial struggles, particularly the dipping stock of his media company, Truth Social.” A separate wire article noted the operation’s plans for a live streaming platform. Newsmax left it to other wire articles to tout more Trump-related windfalls:
There still wasn’t a lot of talk about how Trump actually “created” any of this.