Truth Social, Digital World reach 'crucial milestone' en route to long-delayed merger

The Trump Media & Technology Group and Digital World Acquisition Corp on Monday announced that they had cleared an "crucial milestone" in advancing the long-delayed merger that would allow the listing of former President Donald Trump's Truth Social platform on the stock exchange.

Digital World is a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), a publicly traded entity created for the purpose of buying or merging with another. Merging Digital World with the firm that controls Truth Social would allow Trump to take his nascent social media firm public, presenting an opportunity to raise investor capital and finance a major expansion. The original merger plans were delayed due to scrutiny from the Securities and Exchange Commission, forcing the companies in August to extend the merger deadline to the end of the year. The original deadline was slated for Sept. 8.

DWAC's Monday announcement stated that the companies had amended their original registration statement with the SEC, marking the latest development in the process toward completing the merger. The companies filed an amended S4, which is still subject to SEC review, but marks one of the final steps toward completing the merger.

"We believe that today marks a monumental milestone toward completing the Business Combination, and we look forward to working with the SEC to bring this deal to a close as quickly as possible," TMTG CEO Devin Nunes said. "Truth Social aims to be more than a social media platform-we aspire to become the centerpiece of a movement, as well as a method for Americans to invest in their freedom."

DWAC CEO Eric Swider called the filing a "crucial milestone" toward the eventual merger, adding "[t]his development highlights our ongoing efforts to provide clear and detailed information throughout this process."

"Our teams have worked tirelessly to reach this stage, and this achievement reflects their dedication and expertise. We are excited to continue our collaboration with TMTG to bring this merger to fruition," he continued. 

The persistent delays led some to speculate that the SEC was deliberately prolonging the process for partisan reasons. Nunes, in April of this year, highlighted the litany of Trump critics working at the SEC and suggested they were deliberately trying to deny the company access to public markets.

"[Y]ou've got [SEC Chairman Gary] Gensler there, who[m] we outed as the guy who actually was the CFO for the Hillary campaign, who actually wrote the check to Fusion GPS," he said at the time. "You have Peter Strzok's wife, who is there, the disgraced FBI agent who was running the Russia hoax."

"You have the general counsel there at the SEC, happens to be she used to work for Pelosi [and] has now graduated up. So you have three people that are clearly involved in this transaction or non-transaction, trying to basically kill our ability to have access to the public markets, the public capital markets," he alleged. "That's what this is really about."

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.