Trump 55: The Bronze Baron Of Bedminster Wants Back On Twitter And the Forbes 400

[Dandruff]

1 hour ago, fraurosena said:

Not surprised, but good grief...

With all his financial woes, this makes you wonder if he was going to use this information as collateral. 

I'm more concerned about what they didn't find.

[Xan]

6 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Not surprised, but good grief...

With all his financial woes, this makes you wonder if he was going to use this information as collateral. 

I think Donald is always thinking about what he can use and against whom.  I do think he would have shown classified documents to anyone to impress people but I bet he was considering how he could use them to enrich himself.  He's probably already offered them to Putin for a price but Putin, who probably already knew the information contained, took a pass.

This might be tinfoil hat territory but I think the timing of the invasion of Ukraine is curious.  I almost wonder if Putin would prefer to be in the headlines for being a ruthless dictator who invades countries than for being the man who enabled and propped up an idiot conman like Trump.  As people have already said, Putin could have invaded anytime.  And if he'd done it while Donald was president, he could have counted on the USA staying out of it.  There's a reason for everything he does.  The timing here is odd.

[Cartmann99]

Spoiler

 

 

[Dandruff]

2 hours ago, Xan said:

This might be tinfoil hat territory but I think the timing of the invasion of Ukraine is curious.  I almost wonder if Putin would prefer to be in the headlines for being a ruthless dictator who invades countries than for being the man who enabled and propped up an idiot conman like Trump.  As people have already said, Putin could have invaded anytime.  And if he'd done it while Donald was president, he could have counted on the USA staying out of it.  There's a reason for everything he does.  The timing here is odd.

My sense is that Putin is yanking Biden's chain, putting him into a position where his reputation may suffer regardless of how he reacts to the situation.  When Trump was in the WH I think folks pretty much knew who was pulling whose strings, so there wasn't a need for superpower alpha male posturing.

[fraurosena]

54 minutes ago, Dandruff said:

My sense is that Putin is yanking Biden's chain, putting him into a position where his reputation may suffer regardless of how he reacts to the situation.  When Trump was in the WH I think folks pretty much knew who was pulling whose strings, so there wasn't a need for superpower alpha male posturing.

No. Not everything is about the US.

Putin’s reasons for invading Ukraine have everything to do with control of that country and it’s resources. There are many familial ties between the peoples along the border between Ukraine and Russia. 
After the fall of the wall, Ukraine was more like a Russian satellite state than it was a free country. Their dictatorship had a strong affiliation with Putin’s clique and therefore Putin’s control.

That all changed in 2014, when the people of Ukraine kicked out their (Paul Manafort aided) dictator (who promptly fled to Russia). Ukraine made it’s first steps towards democracy, and with that, turned it’s eyes away from Russia and towards Europe and NATO. Putin attempted to bring them back to heel by invading and annexing Crimea, but it didn’t work. Ukraine kept working at democracy and began talks with the EU and NATO.

Meanwhile, Putin’s position in Russia has become steadily more precarious. He’s robbed the country blind, his people are beginning to stir, and his oligarch friends are not as friendly as they used to be. The people at the Russian side of the border are getting ideas about democracy from friends and family on the Ukrainian side, and Putin fears these sentiments will spread, further undermining his control.

So what does any politician who is in fear of losing control do? Start a war, of course.

Edited February 19, 2022 by fraurosena

[GreyhoundFan]

But of course: "Trump properties in talks to host lucrative Saudi golf events"

Quote

Former president Donald Trump’s company is angling to host events at his golf courses for the controversial Saudi golf league, according to three people familiar with the matter, potentially handing Trump a lucrative business partnership with an oppressive regime he defended as president.

At least two of Trump’s courses in Bedminster, N.J., and Doral, Fla., could be named as sites for the nascent tour, according to the people familiar with the talks, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Officials from LIV Golf Investments, the apparatus funded by the Saudis to host the tour, have held conversations with the Trump Organization, these people said.

One of the people familiar with the matter said Trump had spoken to Greg Norman, the head of LIV Golf Investments, about having his properties involved in the tour.

A spokeswoman for LIV Golf Investments declined to comment. Eric Trump, the former president’s son, and a Trump Organization spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment. The Saudi embassy in Washington also did not respond to comment requests.

Taylor Budowich, a spokesman for Trump’s political action committee, offered a statement only touting the former president’s golf courses when asked about the talks.

“It certainly sounds possible given the fact that President Trump owns some of the most beautiful and renowned golf courses in the world — from the cliffs of Rancho Palos Verdes, to the majestic rolling hills of Bedminster and, of course, the iconic Doral property,” he said.

The financial terms of the proposed deal are unclear, but the events would undoubtedly provide revenue for Trump through the Saudis, who are making a fierce bid to recruit PGA Tour players and launch a series of golf tournaments.

As president, Trump frequently defended the Saudi government even as it committed a wide range of human right abuses, including the 2018 murder of Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi and the imprisonment and execution of gay citizens. Trump’s first overseas trip as president was to Saudi Arabia, and he regularly praised the country’s wealth and power, even as some advisers pushed him to take a tougher line on the country.

Such a deal would also provide a measure of revenge for Trump against the PGA Tour, an organization that he courted for years but that later enraged him when politics came between them. While Trump campaigned in the summer of 2016, the PGA Tour announced it was yanking its elite World Golf Championship tournament from Doral and moving it to Mexico City. Trump also lost the PGA championship from his course in New Jersey last year, as the organization pulled its event days after the Jan. 6 insurrection by a pro-Trump mob at the U.S. Capitol.

Doral has been the biggest revenue generator of any of Trump’s golf properties, but he borrowed heavily to acquire and renovate it, and the 643-room resort suffered financially during his presidency.

Trump, working closely with his daughter Ivanka, bought the 650-acre resort set among business parks and homes in 2012 for a reported $150 million and planned $250 million in renovations. He borrowed $125 million from Deutsche Bank to do it and vowed on Twitter that “within two years it will be the best resort in the country.”

But from 2015 to 2017, the club’s revenue fell from $92 million to $75 million — an 18 percent drop, according to company financial documents and Trump’s government disclosure forms. Operating income — the amount left over after expenses were paid — fell even faster, prompting Trump’s own tax consultant to tell Miami-Dade County officials in 2018 that the course had been “severely underperforming” competing clubs. Revenue suffered an additional 40 percent drop in 2020, when pandemic travel restrictions were in place for most of the year.

His company has been trying to revive Doral since his presidency ended. Last year, Florida legislators passed legislation easing the path for his company to pursue a future casino license for Doral, and last month his company announced that it would attempt to build 2,300 homes there.

It’s difficult to say how such a deal would affect Trump financially. Professional golf organizations pay rental fees to courses where they hold events but also impose sometimes expensive obligations and responsibilities as part of that, said Larry Hirsh, president of Golf Property Analysts in Philadelphia.

“It’s widely believed that the only clubs that make any significant money are those that host the PGA Championship, the U.S. Open and the Ryder Cup,” he said.

Hirsh said that Saudi Arabia's record on human rights could also prompt some members of Trump's club to cancel their memberships, which could hurt the value of the course long term.

“It depends on how much money [the league] is willing to pay, but it also depends on how many people will say they won’t be a part of it,” he said.

The Saudi tour has not announced any sites or dates for its events. But in a recent sports podcast interview, PGA Tour player Kramer Hickok said 17 PGA players had committed to the tour already, and he said he expected 10 to 14 of the events to be in the United States. He could not be reached immediately for comment.

Jared Kushner, the former president’s son-in-law, was spotted on the sidelines of a Saudi golf event earlier this month. Bloomberg News reported that Kushner has sought backing from the $500 billion Saudi sovereign wealth fund, which is chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, along with other government-controlled funds in the region. A spokesman for Kushner did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Longtime professional golfer Phil Mickelson has come under fire in recent days for saying that he was willing to overlook the country’s human rights record and consider supporting the new league. Many critics have said the Saudi government is attempting to buttress its standing by holding high-profile sporting events.

“We know they killed Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights,” Mickelson was quoted as saying by Alan Shipnuck, a biographer who wrote a book about him. “They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.”

PGA Tour officials have closely watched efforts by the Saudis to recruit its players, worried about the Saudi league luring away some of the tour’s players with the promise of higher purses. But most of the league’s marquee players have not left, and some have been critical of Mickelson, who has helped with recruitment efforts. The PGA declined to comment on Trump’s talks with the Saudi league.

Gary Williams, a longtime golf commentator who owns 5 Clubs Golf, said the PGA Tour has aggressively moved to keep its players with higher purses and other incentives but is likely to lose some major players. “They’re a real threat, there’s no doubt,” he said of the Saudis. “They may not have a real business plan but they have a lot of money.” Williams said he expects a number of other courses to sign up, besides Trump. “He needs revenue for those golf courses.”

When the Saudis came under intense scrutiny after the murder of Khashoggi, Trump repeatedly defended the kingdom and said he believed Mohammed, the crown prince, when he claimed to not have knowledge of the killing. U.S. intelligence has disputed that assessment.

In a November 2018 statement full of exclamation marks that aides said he dictated himself, Trump said that U.S. intelligence would continue to “assess” information but that the United States “may never know all the facts surrounding the murder.”

On whether the crown prince knew about or ordered the killing by Saudi agents in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Trump said in the statement, “maybe he did or maybe he didn’t!” He suggested that U.S. interests in Saudi oil production, weapons purchases and support for administration policies in the Middle East were more important than holding an ally to account, and he stressed the importance of staying in the kingdom’s good graces because they were spending money in the United States.

“They have been a great ally,” he said of the Saudis, and “the United States intends to remain a steadfast partner.” He added: “I’m not going to destroy our economy by being foolish with Saudi Arabia.”

Trump came under withering criticism from Democrats, human rights advocates and even some Republicans for his position, but he did not waver.

“I saved his ass,” Trump said of Mohammed during an interview with Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward for his 2020 book, “Rage.” “I was able to get Congress to leave him alone. I was able to get them to stop.”

Trump also encouraged the Saudis to buy American weapons, backed the kingdom’s position on Iran and generally defended their most controversial moves, such as jailing people for political reasons.

President Biden has called the kingdom a “pariah” and has vowed to be tougher on the Saudis but has approved an arms sale and talked to the king.

The former president has bragged to associates since leaving office about how profitable his golf courses were during the coronavirus pandemic, even as other aspects of his business struggled. He plays golf several days a week, advisers said.

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump’s dilemma on pleading the Fifth"

Quote

The big news Thursday was that a judge ruled that former president Donald Trump and two of his children must submit to depositions in a civil probe into the family’s business practices. Pending a planned appeal, that sets the stage for each of them to answer questions under oath in the next three weeks. That’s a very unhelpful development for the Trumps, given that they also face a criminal investigation involving much the same subjects.

But beyond that, there’s what Trump’s lawyer said about what those depositions might well entail: pleading the Fifth.

Somewhat undersold in the coverage of the judge’s decision Thursday was Trump lawyer Ronald Fischetti telegraphing that Trump would indeed invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination to avoid answering questions. Fischetti indicated that Trump would do so if he wasn’t granted immunity from the separate criminal probe — something which isn’t going to happen.

“If [New York Attorney General Letitia James] wants sworn testimony from my client, he’s entitled to immunity,” Fischetti said. “He gets immunity for what he says, or he says nothing.”

But Fischetti argued that it would be a regrettable position to put his client in.

“If he goes in and follows my advice, which will be you cannot answer these questions without … immunity, because that’s what the law provides, and take the Fifth Amendment, that’ll be on every front page in the newspaper in the world,” Fischetti said. “And how can I possibly pick a jury in that case?”

Why would it be a regrettable position? Well, in part because no less than Trump himself has said that pleading the Fifth implies guilt. “The mob takes the Fifth,” Trump said when Hillary Clinton aides did so. “If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?” He added in 2014: “If you are innocent, do not remain silent. You look guilty as hell!”

But also, pleading the Fifth isn’t such a simple matter in civil cases. While in criminal cases, pleading the Fifth can’t be used against you, the rules are different in this instance.

Eugene Volokh offered a useful primer on this for The Washington Post back in 2015. Here are some of the highlights:

What happens if you invoke the privilege against self-incrimination in a civil case?

1. You can do it, and you won’t be held in contempt for failing to testify. Though the provision says that no person “shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself,” the Supreme Court has made clear that this extends to compelling a person to testify in a civil case, when that compelled testimony could later be used against him in a criminal case.

...

2. But a decision to take the Fifth may be used against a party in a civil case (if the party is the witness who refuses to testify, or is closely enough connected to the witness). In a criminal case, the judge and the prosecutor may not tell a jury “that it may draw an inference of guilt from a defendant’s failure to testify about facts relevant to his case.” But that’s not so in a civil case.

The Supreme Court case cited for Point No. 2 is 1976′s Baxter v. Palmigiano. In it, the court stated that “the Fifth Amendment does not forbid adverse inferences against parties to civil actions when they refuse to testify in response to probative evidence offered against them.”

That’s the federal standard. Many states have more stringent rules against drawing adverse inferences in state-level civil cases. But New York, where the Trump civil case is playing out, does not.

What might that adverse inference be? That’s largely up to the judge, as the New York State Bar Association summarized in 2020:

The Second Circuit has also made clear that there are no “hard and fast rule[s]” governing when and how an adverse inference should be applied in the wake of a Fifth Amendment invocation, and that “how [the court] should react to any motion precipitated by a litigant’s assertion of the Fifth Amendment in a civil proceeding … necessarily depends on the precise facts and circumstances of each case.” Thus, the Second Circuit has held that devising an appropriate remedy for a Fifth Amendment assertion should be left to the discretion of the trial court.”

What’s clear is that the confluence of circumstances puts Trump somewhat between a rock and a hard place. Given the concurrent criminal and civil investigations, it seems rather obvious he would plead the Fifth (notwithstanding his past commentary on such things) to avoid divulging potentially revealing information that could be used against him in the former case. Indeed, defendants often concede in such cases that an indictment is imminent so the civil case can be delayed. But declining to testify in a civil case can hurt his cause there — even beyond the mere perception that he’s being evasive.

As Max Kennerly put it, pleading the Fifth in a federal civil case “is never helpful, is rarely harmless, and is typically very damaging.”

But while the concurrent investigations put Trump in a bad spot, the judge took a quite-different view of how they work in concert with one another. Judge Arthur Engoron said those under investigation “cannot use the Fifth Amendment as both a sword and a shield; a shield against questions and a sword against the investigation itself.”

Engoron added that Trump and his children “will have the right to refuse to answer any questions that they claim might incriminate them, and that refusal may not be commented on or used against them in a criminal prosecution. However, there is no unfairness in allowing the jurors in a civil case to know these refusals and to draw their own conclusions.”

And indeed, a former version of Trump would seem to agree that’s quite fair.

 

[CTRLZero]

2 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Former president Donald Trump’s company is angling to host events at his golf courses for the controversial Saudi golf league

This has been a topic of conversation in our household this week.  The name of the tour should be called the Saudi-funded Tour since, unlike the Asian, European, or Canadian tours, etc., there seem to be few or no Saudi golfers on the roster.  There is a lot of disgust in our local golf circles about Phil Mickelson’s attitude and comments.  Of course, it’s all about the money, and atrocities and human rights be damned.  My guess is that this Tour will not be sustainable, but probably great for money laundering while it lasts.  

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump’s new social media app, Truth Social, appears in App Store"

Quote

Truth Social, the app developed by former president Donald Trump’s new media company, became available for download in Apple’s App Store over the weekend ahead of an anticipated launch Monday.

The app says it is “America’s ‘Big Tent’ social media platform that encourages an open, free, and honest global conversation without discriminating against political ideology.” It was released in the App Store over the weekend and was updated late Sunday for “bug fixes.” (Truth Social’s website says it will be in the Google Play Store soon.)

A Washington Post reporter early Monday was able to download the app and submit an email address to create an account, but a verification email was not immediately received. Reuters reported that the app was set to be released in full on Monday, Presidents’ Day, according to an executive’s posts on a beta version of the platform.

The Post reported in January that it could be months after launch before the app is fully functional. Trump has been frustrated with the pace of the network’s development, people familiar with the matter told The Post at the time.

Trump announced the development of the network in October, saying, “We live in a world where the Taliban has a huge presence on Twitter, yet your favorite American President has been silenced.” He added, “This is unacceptable.”

Following the insurrection by a pro-Trump mob at the U.S. Capitol last year, Facebook and Twitter booted Trump from their platforms. He and other conservative politicians have long charged that popular social networks were trying to censor them.

After Trump’s new network was announced in October, a version of the site briefly became accessible to the public, allowing people to create accounts and claim usernames. One account under the handle “donaldjtrump” posted a photo of a pig defecating.

A representative for Trump Media and Technology Group, the company behind Truth Social, did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the timing of the app’s official launch.

The most recent news release on the firm’s website is a statement from Trump — in the style of his old tweets — about the “Freedom Convoy” protests against pandemic restrictions in Canada and elsewhere. He opined in the Feb. 4 statement that tech firms were targeting the protesters and that “TruthSocial is announcing today that we are welcoming the Freedom Convoy with open arms to communicate freely on TruthSocial when we launch — coming very soon!”

Purported screenshots of the Truth Social beta site show a platform similar to Twitter’s, including “Truths” and “Likes,” instead of tweets and likes.

After he lost his online platform in the spring, Trump launched a blog called “From the Desk of Donald Trump.” But as The Washington Post and others reported, the site had low readership.

The blog shuttered after 29 days amid reports that Trump was upset by media coverage about its small audience.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

No big surprise, the launch of TFG's new platform didn't go as planned. This is what you get when you put Devin Nunes in charge.

 

 

On another amusing note about TS, I saw this and laughed:

Quote

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Need a laugh?

 

[fraurosena]

5 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Need a laugh?

 

Yeah, I bet Putin was afraid of Trump... and of shitting his pants laughing.

[Howl]

Quote

Erma Gerd, this is the best thing ever in the History of Ever.  What's the over/under on how long Devin Nunes will last after the botched rollout of Truth-y Social?

He's probably already been screamed at and humiliated by Trump, but Nunes probably doesn't have a strong Plan B.  He's useless as a lobbyist if Trump doesn't have his back and he's not smart enough to be recruited for a think tank. 

 

Edited February 21, 2022 by Howl

[47of74]

Fuck knob fucked up bigly by contradicting what his attorneys said in a signed pleading with a screed

Quote

A letter from accounting firm Mazars USA that said it was dropping the Trump Organization was included in a court document filed last week. It declared that 10 years of financial statements it had created with records provided by the Trump Organization should no longer be considered reliable.

Trump blamed an ongoing investigation into him and his business by New York Attorney General Letitia James, whom he claimed “threatened” and “harassed” Mazars into the action. James is investigating whether Trump inflated asset values to obtain bank loans and entice investors, and reduced values to lower tax bills.

Trump boasted Tuesday in his lengthy statement on Mazars about his knowledge of the Trump Organization’s financial statements — and about padding the value of some of his business properties in 2014 with an arbitrary 30% Trump brand premium.

But that was just a day after his attorneys argued in court documents that Trump “denies knowledge” — and doesn’t even know enough “to form a belief” concerning just about every financial practice at his own company that may be scrutinized in James’ probe.

James has already sent a letter to the judge about how fuck face contradicted his own attorneys.  Ooopsie.

[AlmostSavedAtTacoBell]

2 hours ago, 47of74 said:

Fuck knob fucked up bigly by contradicting what his attorneys said in a signed pleading with a screed

James has already sent a letter to the judge about how fuck face contradicted his own attorneys.  Ooopsie.

I get absolutely GIDDY when his bigly boasting mouth gets him in trouble.  My favorite kind of evidence against Two Scoops is when his own words and actions come back to bite him in the ass, especially when those words and actions are based in bragging and blustering.

[formergothardite]

2 hours ago, 47of74 said:

Fuck knob fucked up bigly by contradicting what his attorneys said in a signed pleading with a screed

James has already sent a letter to the judge about how fuck face contradicted his own attorneys.  Ooopsie.

This is why his lawyers really don’t want him to sit for a deposition. He cannot keep his mouth shut. He can’t stick to a script and he is easily goaded into saying things that are not in his best interest. He is truly his own worst enemy. 

[Alisamer]

21 minutes ago, formergothardite said:

This is why his lawyers really don’t want him to sit for a deposition. He cannot keep his mouth shut. He can’t stick to a script and he is easily goaded into saying things that are not in his best interest. He is truly his own worst enemy. 

He's at the point now where his lawyers have to be quietly discussing among themselves the last resort option of claiming dementia to get him off the hook. Which, yeah, he has dementia and has for years. And it certainly seems to be getting worse. But he'd never admit it. And it doesn't excuse his lifetime of criminal awfulness. But it's possible that lawyers loyal to him (or ordered by Ivanka) might use that as a defense if he ever is held responsible for his many crimes. I could see them pulling out the "he has severe dementia and doesn't know what he's saying" defense if they think there's no other option. If it looks like he'd go to prison, they'd try to get him in a secure care facility or something instead if they could. 

Kind of like Josh Duggar's lawyers using the "he's too dumb to set up a computer partition" defense. And hopefully just as successful. 

[47of74]

22 minutes ago, Alisamer said:

He's at the point now where his lawyers have to be quietly discussing among themselves the last resort option of claiming dementia to get him off the hook. Which, yeah, he has dementia and has for years. And it certainly seems to be getting worse. But he'd never admit it. And it doesn't excuse his lifetime of criminal awfulness. But it's possible that lawyers loyal to him (or ordered by Ivanka) might use that as a defense if he ever is held responsible for his many crimes. I could see them pulling out the "he has severe dementia and doesn't know what he's saying" defense if they think there's no other option. If it looks like he'd go to prison, they'd try to get him in a secure care facility or something instead if they could. 

Kind of like Josh Duggar's lawyers using the "he's too dumb to set up a computer partition" defense. And hopefully just as successful. 

I wonder if the lawyers from that firm will soon ask permission of the court to withdraw from the cases and drop fuck face as a client.  Some lawyers really don't like that when a client sabotages their own cases. 

[47of74]

Fuck Face just took another hit from the Supreme Court

Quote

The Supreme Court said on Tuesday that it will not take up former President Donald Trump's case challenging the disclosure of his White House documents to the House January 6 investigation, a formal conclusion to his unsuccessful bid to keep those records secret.

The court had previously rejected Trump's emergency request to block the National Archives from turning over the materials while the court considered whether to take up the case. The documents Trump was trying to block in court are already in the hands of the House Select Committee investigating January 6.

Tuesday's order -- which included no further explanation of why the court was not taking up the case -- means that the lower court decisions approving the release of the documents will stand.

The National Archives continues to process Trump-era presidential and vice-presidential records requested by the House investigation.

 

[47of74]

Fuck Face shows what a fucking Putin tool he is

Quote

Former President Trump on Tuesday called Russia's recognition of two breakaway territories in eastern Ukraine a "genius" move ahead of its military invasion.

In an interview on "The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show," Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin's recognition of the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics in eastern Ukraine on Monday was "smart" and "pretty savvy."

"I went in yesterday, and there was a television screen, and I said, 'This is genius,'" he said. "Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine — of Ukraine — Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful."

"I said, 'How smart is that?' He's going to go in and be a peacekeeper," added Trump, who regularly praised and sought close ties with Putin during his time in office. "That's the strongest peace force. We could use that on our southern border. That's the strongest peace force I've ever seen. There were more army tanks than I've ever seen. They're going to keep peace, all right."

He's a piece of shit.  That's the nicest thing I can say about him.

[47of74]

Burn....

 

[Cartmann99]

 

[Cartmann99]

 

[47of74]

10 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

 

I'd phrase it a bit differently but it would probably get me an extended stay in Twitter's prayer closet. 

[GreyhoundFan]

Putting the treasonous cowpoke in charge has not paid off for TFG. I’m on my phone, which is being fussy, but here are some quotes from a WaPo article  

 

Spoiler

Former president Donald Trump, a longtime critic of how Democrats debuted Healthcare.gov, is facing a bungled website launch of his own. His long-promised social network, Truth Social, has been almost entirely inaccessible in the first days of its grand debut because of technical glitches, a 13-hour outage and a 300,000-person waitlist. Even Trump supporters made jokes about the early slog. Jenna Ellis, a former member of his legal team, posted to Instagram a photo showing Trump with his finger hovering over a laptop, “letting us on to Truth Social one at a time.”

…

But early glimpses at Truth Social suggest its offerings are almost identical to what Twitter and other sites have offered for years — except tweets are called “truths,” and retweets “retruths.” The site’s early struggles also have fueled doubts that Trump’s company will be able to handle tougher long-term challenges, such as policing for dangerous content and guarding against cyberattacks. “The basic thing they needed to actually get right, to get someone in the door, they couldn’t get right,” said Bill Fitzgerald, a privacy researcher. The “ineptitude of the rollout,” he added, could be a warning of future issues ahead: “There is no better sign of a rushed implementation than the fact that you can’t onboard anybody. So I’m hard-pressed to understand why anyone would trust that these people would keep their information safe.”

The site’s problems extend beyond its waitlist: Its logo — a broken capital 'T' with a period — is identical to the logo of Trailar, a British seller of truck solar panels. A company executive told The Washington Post that it is “seeking legal advice to understand next steps and options available to protect our brand.”

…

Truth Social’s problems were evident from the start, even though the site’s developers have had months to retool already-used software for the site’s launch. On Sunday, people who’d “preordered” the app from Apple’s App Store were sent an alert that it was available, sending it sailing to the top of the free-app download charts

…

But many who tried to actually sign up to use the app faced obstacles immediately. People reported they’d been given error messages or “failure to register” warnings when they entered their birthday. Or they submitted their email address as requested, then never received a sign-up response. The site was unavailable for most of its first day, Presidents’ Day, and its operators reported that “overwhelming demand” had triggered an outage lasting more than 13 hours. During that time, even the company’s terms of service were offline. The developers wrote on an internal updates page Monday afternoon that they had “stabilized the account creation process.” But on Tuesday, many were still reporting that they were around 300,000th in line. (Some even went backward: One person reported they’d gone from No. 215,406 on the waiting list Monday night to No. 295,046 by Tuesday afternoon.)
 

There were other signs that Truth Social’s growing pains were just getting started. The app for now is available only for iPhones in the United States. On a ‘help’ page, the site’s own name is misspelled. The Truthsocial.com website, which allowed for early sign-ups, got about 350,000 visits last week, down from 2 million visits the week of its announcement in October, according to estimates from Similarweb, an analytics firm that tracks and estimates Web traffic. Facebook and Twitter each get hundreds of millions of visits a week.

Company representatives have not responded to requests for comment. On Sunday, CEO Nunes predicted the site would be “fully operational” by the end of March. Last week, he told Sebastian Gorka, Trump’s former deputy national security adviser, “We’re having to build this from scratch to make sure we can’t be canceled and can’t be shut down.”

But far from being built from scratch, the site’s code shows it is based heavily on the open-source software Mastodon, which provides free, prebuilt social-networking sites that users can then edit and customize. Truth Social also depends on code from eight other outside development teams to handle text, images, security and other data, its own documentation shows  

The glitchy debut also suggests Trump will face big challenges as he scrambles to secure his place in the online spotlight and build an alternative social media platform that can compete with similar sites, including Gab, Gettr, MeWe and Parler — the latter of which Trump’s wife, Melania, said earlier this month she would make “Her Social Media Home.”

 

…

 

I love how the help page has the site name misspelled. And then Melanie saying Parker is her home. Too funny.