Truth Social reports record activity during week of House GOP drama

Amid signs of growing audience and customer features, Truth Social reported Tuesday the platform started by former President Donald Trump achieved record activity during the extraordinary week of Republican tumult that preceded House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s election Friday night.

In a statement posted on its site, the fledgling social media platform reported it has experienced strong growth after being added to the Google Android app store in October, after earlier debuting in the Apple iOS app store. That growth, the company said, struck record heights during the drama that played out in the Capitol last week.

“Truth Social hit record activity levels in the first week of January. We also hit record levels for the 4th quarter of 2022 after becoming fully available on all devices in October,” Truth Social said. “It seems that free speech is in demand.”

Truth Social, which debuted with a beta app last February, has consistently been adding millions of customers and several new features. It started the new year with a new direct messaging function allowing users to communicate with one other after unveiling an Instagram-like timeline of favorite content last year.

The app debuted in the Apple store in April, and that same month migrated to a cloud environment developed by the Rumble video service that is cancel culture proof. In August, Truth Social launched an advertising capability through Rumble.

In an interview Tuesday with Just the News, Trump hailed the steady progress his social media platform has made as important in the fight for free speech.

“I'm really proud of Truth. I think Truth is fantastic,” he said during an interview on the John Solomon Reports podcast.

He said he was particularly proud that the platform has managed to keep fake accounts that have plagued other social media sites – known as bots – off the platform so that engagement is authentic and cannot be hijacked by political or foreign influence trolls.

"It's got real stuff and it doesn't have the bots and the dots and all of the different things the fake accounts as they call them, millions and millions of fake accounts," he said. "And we have a tremendous following."

Trump said Truth Social success has been compelling enough to persuade him from not returning to Twitter, where new owner Elon Musk restored his once-censored account.

"You know, I'm back on Twitter, but I haven't used it because Truth is so good," he said. "And Truth gets put into Twitter, it gets put into everything. It's just taken off, and people love it."

A Special Purpose Acquisition Company was formed to raise millions of dollars and eventually merge with Truth Social but it has been sidelined by a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation launched by the Biden administration.

Trump suggested the investigation was unfair.

"The SEC goes after the people that want to do the financing piece," he said. "These poor people. They come in, they want to do the financing, and they end up under investigation. They could finance anything else in the world, no problem. But they want to finance something that's with Trump and they end up under investigation."

Trump signaled he is committed to the platform no matter what happens to the SPAC.

"I wouldn't mind if something ever happened. I'd keep it private," he said. "I have a lot of money and I'd keep it private."