President Trump’s first year in office has been tumultuous, to say the least. His popularity among the American people has dropped, and his administration continues to make controversial decisions, like pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement and criticizing federal judges who disagree with his immigration policies. This behavior has had serious consequences for one small business, Truth Social Media LLC, based in Seattle, Washington.
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The Problem
Truth Social, a startup company focusing on creating a community-driven platform for social media, has fallen victim to Trump-related financial losses due to the uncertainty of the American public. As an example, Amazon and Kickstarter are two leading crowd-funding websites that were two of their main sources of fundraising. Both companies decided to pause contributions to TruthSocial in order to avoid any conflict with potential customers.
Despite popular sentiment towards Trump wavering over recent months, it is still clear that this decision had a negative impact on TruthSocial – henceforth highlighting an uncertainty for those who are interested in entrepreneurship during these uncertain times.
The site has since switched its attention away from funding and towards introducing new features and content until they have more clarity about America’s social environment.
Troubled Start
Social Media startup TruthSocial faces financial losses due to President Trump’s continued controversies, trademark denial, and stiffed vendors. The company was founded by former Uber employee Sean Walsh as a way to connect users with trusted news sources through online media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus. The idea was welcomed as a way to combat fake news that has permeated across social media platforms in recent years. And while this idea seemed promising when it was first released, the campaign season took an unexpected turn for the worse with the nomination of Donald Trump in July of 2016. Soon after this nomination and throughout his campaign trail, segments of President Trump’s rhetoric have been reported inaccurate by trustworthy outlets such as NBC News and CNN.
The Underlying Issue
Truth Social Media Network was founded by Dan Kelleher to help bring political discourse back to a level of civility. One thing that I thought Trump would do as president was get us talking again, said Kelleher, explaining that he expected Donald Trump to run an issues-based campaign rather than a gutter campaign, but unfortunately, that is not what has happened. Though many don’t like to admit it, politics have become a blood sport and those who lack public relations finesse will be cast aside.
The issues facing Trump are varied and pervasive. He is facing resistance from many of his former supporters, including those that had seen their lives improve under Obama but still felt neglected by Hillary Clinton’s efforts to gloss over his policies and promote her own as more effective than Obama’s. As a result, Trump has lost approval among voters of color. To make matters worse, he was upset by New York judges who rejected attempts to deny trademark protection for the Asian-American band The Slants whose name was deemed disparaging. The rejection is another reminder that he does not have full control over our courts; any time there are limits on what can be done by the government, it will reflect poorly on Trump.
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A Look into the Future
In early December 2016, social media startup, Truth Social, officially announced they were shutting down operations due to a decline in funds. The company stemmed from popular Trump supporters to be an extension of Trump’s popularity and success on Twitter. The company ran out of funding when Donald Trump became less popular following controversy after controversy.
The most recent trouble for Truth Social came at the beginning of November when their trademark application was denied by the USPTO because it is too similar to other trademarks already in use by other companies, like The Truth Project. Though there have been talks about a possible change in leadership or rebranding, there has not been any indication that these plans will become reality.
Following these developments, continued controversies surrounding Donald Trump, including allegations of sexual assault and criminal activity, have hurt his popularity. The once cult-like following of Trump supporters on social media has now turned into a group full of dissenters who continue to threaten to boycott any businesses or people who still support Donald Trump. As a result, many businesses now risk major financial losses due to lost profits if they continue their association with Donald Trump. To make matters worse for those connected to him financially, Trump himself is still in legal trouble regarding his unregistered charity known as The Trump Foundation and an ongoing FBI investigation over Russian collusion in both the election and current affairs.
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