California governor Gavin Newsom has created an account on Donald Trump’s Truth Social app — but that doesn’t mean he’s gone MAGA. Newsom says his goal is “calling out Republican lies.”
“I just joined Trump’s Truth Social,” Newsom tweeted. “Going to be on there calling out Republican lies. This could get…interesting.”
The politician also linked his first Truth post — a video of him discussing America’s red state murder problem — which several studies have shown are actually significantly worse than in blue states, despite Republican assertions to the contrary.
“I know we’re all on this platform in search for the truth,” he starts. “But the truth is, I’ve not been able to find a simple explanation for the fact that we have a red state murder problem.”
“Eight of the top 10 states with the highest murder rates happen to be red states. So the question is simple. That are the laws and policies in those states that are leading to such carnage?
After being suspended from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and a handful of other social media apps for violating their standards of conduct, Trump launched Truth Social in February. But, not everyone who wanted to was able to sign up.
As more people downloaded the app, they went through a signup process that ended with them being put on a waitlist.
Truth Social mimics Twitter’s layout, and is aimed at providing a platform for conservative voices who feel their freedom of speech is not upheld by Twitter, Facebook-now-Meta and other channels. The influx of signups for Truth Social has created a waiting of list at least 150,000, CNN reported.
Trump was permanently banned from Twitter a year ago, after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, having been accused of posting tweets inciting violence that day. He was later suspended from Facebook for two years, and was suspended by YouTube as well.
Since Trump’s ban and his exit from the White House, a series of social media apps specifically geared toward conservatives who feel their free speech is being suppressed have been created, including Twitter competitor Gettr.