Donald Trump’s social media app Truth Social may be ready to launch as soon as Monday, marking the former president’s return to a social networking platform 13 months after his ban from Twitter.
According to Reuters, posts from the verified account for Truth Social’s chief product officer informed beta users that the app is “currently set for release in the Apple App store for Monday Feb. 21.”
Reuters’ report comes after a New York Times report on Friday saying that the Truth Social launch could be pushed back to next month. In an interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo, former Republican congressman Devin Nunes, who is now CEO of Trump Media & Technology Group, said that his company would begin to roll out Truth Social on Apple this coming week.
“Our goal is, I think we’re going to hit it, I think by the by the end of March we’re going to be fully operational at least within the United States,” he added.
The messages come roughly a week after Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., teased the app’s launch on his Twitter page.
In December 2021, Rep. Devin Nunes announced that he was leaving Congress to become the CEO of former Trump’s new Trump Media & Technology Group. Shortly thereafter, the company announced it had raised $1 billion in funding from an undisclosed group of investors to launch a multifaceted media company including a social media network called Truth.
Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) was attempting to go public via a SPAC (special purpose acquisition company) called Digital World Acquisition. The $1 billion investment is part of a so-called PIPE (private investment in public equity) investment. It is highly unusual for a company to not disclose investors for a transaction of this size.
Trump said at the time, “$1 billion sends an important message to Big Tech that censorship and political discrimination must end. America is ready for TRUTH Social, a platform that will not discriminate on the basis of political ideology. As our balance sheet expands, TMTG will be in a stronger position to fight back against the tyranny of Big Tech.”
Trump was banned from Twitter shortly after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots after he was accused of posting tweets inciting violence that in part led House Democrats to vote to impeach him for a second time. Since Trump’s ban and his exit from the White House, a series of social media apps have risen promising an alternative to Twitter, YouTube and Facebook for conservatives who feel their free speech is being suppressed, including Twitter competitors Gettr and Parler and video site Rumble.