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    Trump Launches New Streaming Platform

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s media company announced the launch of a new video streaming platform this week.

    The Daily Caller reported that Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), the parent company of social media platform Truth Social, went public after shareholders approved a merger with Digital World of Acquisition Corporation (DWAC) in March. Trump’s media company detailed its plans to roll out its “new live TV streaming platform” in an email announcement.

    “Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. (NASDAQ:DJT) (‘TMTG’ or the ‘Company’), operator of the social media platform Truth Social, announced today that after six months of testing on its Web and iOS platforms, the Company has finished the research and development phase of its new live TV streaming platform and will begin scaling up its own content delivery network (‘CDN’),” the announcement reads.

    The Daily Caller has more:

    Trump’s streaming platform will be introduced in three phases, the announcement states. First, it will appear on the Truth Social app. Next, the streaming app will become available separately for download on phones, tablets and additional devices. Phase three of its rollout will encompass Trump’s streaming platform becoming available for download as an app on TVs.

    Trump’s streaming service will host content “that has been cancelled, is at risk of cancellation, or is being suppressed on other platforms and services,” the announcement reads. Genres of content include “news networks, religious channels, [and] family-friendly content including films and documentaries.”

    Report: Trump Set To Become One Of World’s Most Wealthy People

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    0

    Former President Donald Trump will become one of the 500 richest people in the world after his media company begins public trading on Tuesday, according to a report by Bloomberg News.

    The Daily Caller has more:

    Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, established the Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) in February of 2021 to develop an alternative social media website, following his removal from Twitter after the events of Jan. 6, 2021, with the new website “Truth Social” being unveiled in 2022. On Monday, TMTG completed a merging process with DWAC, a special-purpose acquisition corporation, that would allow the company to be publicly traded on the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations stock exchange, also known as the “Nasdaq” exchange, with Trump’s 58% stake in the company being valued at $3.9 billion, according to Bloomberg News. 

    The share price of DWAC increased by 35.22% to close at $49.95 on Monday when the closing of the deal was announced, with the new company retaining the TMTG name and changing its stock ticker to Trump’s initials, “DJT.” The process will increase Trump’s net worth to $6.4 billion, according to Bloomberg.

    Trump’s net worth, which until recently has primarily comprised real property of The Trump Organization, has been subject to varying estimates. The Australian Financial Review estimated his net worth to be $9.8 billion following the TMTG acquisition process, while Forbes maintains his net worth at $2.6 billion as of Monday — making him the 1,265th richest person in the world — with its highest-ever estimate for his net worth being $4.5 billion in 2016.

    Truth Social has reported many losses since its creation, with Trump being the primary user of the platform with the largest number of followers. He often announces major legal and campaign decisions on the platform, similar to his use of Twitter during his presidency.

    Trump will not be able to sell his stake in TMTG for at least six months following the commencement of trading

    Trump Returns To Twitter – Now X

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    Photo via Pixabay images

    Former President Donald Trump’s official X account is back…for now.

    The first ad, posted at 2:54 am, included a voiceover from Ronald Reagan and was captioned, “Are you better off now than you were when I was president? Our economy is shattered. Our border has been erased. We’re a nation in decline. Make the American Dream AFFORDABLE again. Make America SAFE again. Make America GREAT Again!”

    Another ad was published at 3:00 am and read, “They want to silence me because I will never let them silence you. They’re not coming after me, they’re coming after you. I just happen to be standing in their way and I’m never moving. We will Make America Great Again!”

    Musk and Trump will talk live on X at 8 pm ET and Musk has already addressed the technical issues that have plagued past events – including the glitchy of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) presidential campaign last spring.

    “Am going to do some system scaling tests tonight & tomorrow in advance of the conversation,” Musk wrote on X ahead of the event.

    Trump had been banned from Twitter, which Musk bought for a staggering $44 billion and renamed X, after the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.

    Trump has only posted once since Musk restored his Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump, as the former president reserves his social media usage for Truth Social, which he owns. In August of 2023, Trump post his Fulton Country jail mugshot with a link soliciting donations.

    Trump Media Investor Convicted Of Insider Trading

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    3
    Arrest image via Pixabay

    On Thursday, a Manhattan grand jury found financier Bruce Garelick guilty of insider trading charges in a scheme that involved the merger of former President Donald J. Trump’s social media company with a publicly traded shell company.

    Federal prosecutors had charged Garelick with five counts of securities fraud and conspiracy. 

    Authorities claimed Garelick shared confidential information with his boss and at least one other person that Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, was close to announcing a merger with Digital World Acquisition Group, the shell company.

    Mr. Garelick, 54, a former hedge fund manager, had been a board member of Digital World. 

    The New York Times has more:

    The information helped two brothers — Michael Shvartsman and Gerald Shvartsman — make nearly $23 million in illegal trading profits by buying Digital World securities in advance of the announcement, which sent the stock soaring. Mr. Garelick, who worked for Michael Shvartsman at a small Miami-based venture capital firm called Rocket One, made about $50,000 by trading off what authorities said was nonpublic information.

    Last month, the Shvartsman brothers decided to forgo a trial and pleaded guilty to securities fraud charges. In their plea agreements, prosecutors have recommended a sentence of roughly four to five years for Michael Shvartsman; and three to four years for his younger brother.

    Digital World raised about $300 million from investors in its initial public offering in September 2021. A little over a month later, the SPAC announced a deal to merge with Trump Media. After a long delay, the merger was completed in March and Trump Media became a publicly traded company. Mr. Trump’s nearly 70 percent stake in the firm is worth about $6 billion.

    In a closing argument, Daniel Nessim, a federal prosecutor, described Mr. Garelick as a “sophisticated professional” who “cheated” and used inside information to benefit himself and his boss, Michael Shvartsman.

    Garelick could face at least 25 years in prison.

    This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

    Trump Names 3 A-listers As Special Ambassadors To ‘Very Troubled’ Hollywood

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    1
    Austin Green, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

    President-elect Trump announced three special envoys on Thursday with the purpose of promoting business in Hollywood.

    Those special ambassadors will be Jon Voight, Mel Gibson, and Sylvester Stallone, Trump said. All three actors are conservative and have appeared publicly with Trump or praised him publicly in the past. Stallone, for example, praised Trump as “the second George Washington” while introducing him at the America First Policy Gala in Palm Beach in November.

    “It is my honor to announce Jon Voight, Mel Gibson, and Sylvester Stallone, to be Special Ambassadors to a great but very troubled place, Hollywood, California,” Trump wrote in a Thursday Truth Social post. “They will serve as Special Envoys to me for the purpose of bringing Hollywood, which has lost much business over the last four years to Foreign Countries, BACK—BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!”

    “These three very talented people will be my eyes and ears, and I will get done what they suggest,” Trump added. “It will again be, like The United States of America itself, The Golden Age of Hollywood!”

    The actors’ support for Trump is particularly significant given the strong anti-Trump sentiment voiced by many Hollywood progressives, such as George Clooney, who embrace politicians like former President Barack Obama.

    “When George Washington defended his country, he had no idea that he was going to change the world,” Stallone said of Trump in November. “‘Cause without him, you can imagine what the world would look like. Guess what, we got the second George Washington.”

    Trump’s Truth Social Merger Deal Hits A Pause

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    0
    Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    It’s a bad time to be Trump…

    New reports indicate the potential merger deal with the former President’s Truth Social platform is dead in the water.

    The Daily Beast reports:

    The public shell corporation that has been preparing to merge with former President Donald Trump’s technology firm—the parent company of his social media platform, Truth Social—announced Thursday that it was dropping its plans to pursue the merger through a specialized process called a ​​private investment in public equity (PIPE) transaction. The company also said it planned to return $533 million it had raised from investors to complete the deal. The merger between Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC), a special purpose acquisition company, and Trump Media & Technology Group failed to materialize by a September 2022 deadline set by U.S. regulators, giving DWAC the option to back out of the deal. A TMTG spokesperson claimed in a release Thursday that the two companies still planned to merge and said the development was, in fact, a positive step—but declined to comment when pressed by Reuters to say how backing out of the PIPE deal would benefit either party.

    This is a breaking news story. Click refresh for the latest updates.

    Facebook Admits ‘Mistake’ In Censoring Iconic Trump Assassination Attempt Photo

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    2
    Photo via Pixabay images

    On Monday, a Facebook spokesperson admitted the platform wrongly called the popular image of Donald Trump pumping his fist in the air after an assassination attempt against him an “altered photo.”

    Meta Public Affairs Director Dani Lever later explained on X it was done in error as the systems were meant to detect a separate version of the image.

    “This was an error. This fact check was initially applied to a doctored photo showing the secret service agents smiling, and in some cases our systems incorrectly applied that fact check to the real photo. This has been fixed, and we apologize for the mistake,” Lever wrote.

    Lever confirmed the mistake when Fox News Digital reached out for a comment.

    The altered image Lever referenced featured the Secret Service members surrounding Trump smiling. USA Today and AFP United States previously fact-checked the images as “altered,” though it confirmed the accuracy of the original image.

    “None of the agents in the original image are smiling as they surround Trump, who has blood on his face and his right arm in the air. The image – which was captured by Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci and distributed by the AP – appeared with coverage of the shooting by CNN, The Atlantic, Business Insider and many other legitimate news outlets,” USA Today explained.

    USA Today’s fact-check on the altered photo was used as a “third-party fact-checker” when Facebook corrected the photo.

    Google has recently come under criticism for omitting search results for Trump’s recent assassination attempt.

    Family of Isaac Hayes Sues Trump Over Playing Hit Song

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    5
    Gage Skidmore Flickr

    The family of late soul singer Isaac Hayes is suing former President Donald Trump for using the icon’s music at his rallies, Isaac Hayes III announced last week.

     The filing accused the former president and the Republican Nation Committee of “willfully and brazenly” engaging in 134 counts of copyright infringement.

    A letter to Trump and his campaign from the Georgia-based law firm Walker & Associates reads:

    Our firm has been retained by the family and Isaac Hayes Enterprises, who own the copyright to the musical composition and recording “Hold On (I’m Coming)” (the “Song”). It has come to our attention that you or the campaign have authorized the illegal public performance of the Song on multiple occasions during various rallies for your political campaign without authorization from the copyright holder, despite being asked repeatedly not to engage in such illegal use by our client.

    Upon information and belief, you, your campaign, and/or the RNC and other parties have willfully and brazenly engaged in copyright infringement in violation of several provisions of Title 17 U.S.C., including § 501, of the Copyright Act of 1976, as amended, over one hundred times. We have attached for your convenience a non-exhaustive list attached hereto as Exhibit A. As we prepared this letter, there was an additional use in Montana just two nights ago, even with your office apparently aware that you had no permission. We and the family hereby demand that you cease the continual infringement of our copyright and stop all unauthorized use of the Song.

    The suit further demands Trump pay $3 million, stop using the song, and to remove any campaign multimedia of the song being played at rallies. Hayes’ estate also demanded Trump issue a statement acknowledging he played the song without permission.

    Watergate Prosecutor Says ‘Trump Is Toast’ In Fraud Trial 

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    6
    Slowking4, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

    Former Watergate prosecutor Nick Ackerman said former President Trump is “toast” in his New York civil fraud case.

    New York Attorney General Letitia James’ case accuses Trump, his two adult sons, the Trump Organization, and top executives of falsely inflating the values of Trump’s real estate properties and other assets in order to get tax benefits and better loan terms.

    James seeks around $250 million in damages, and she wants to bar Trump and his co-defendants from running another business in New York.

    According to The Hill, Ackerman argued people are not only focused on the former president’s testimony but also his deposition with James’s lawyers last summer, where he invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 400 times.

    “Now what does it mean to take the Fifth Amendment? It means that you are refusing to answer a question, because a truthful answer would tend to be incriminating,” Ackerman said. “Then what did Donald Trump do last week? He went into court and said, ‘Oh, I didn’t do anything fraudulent, I wasn’t involved in a fraud.’ Which is just the opposite what in effect he was saying when he took the Fifth Amendment in his deposition.”

    “So you’ve got contradictory testimony,” Ackerman continued. “You can use his assertion of the Fifth Amendment against him to basically find that he’s lying, that he’s manipulating the system when he goes in, refuses to answer questions, answers the questions in a half-baked manner.”

    Earlier this week when Trump took the stand he fiercely defended his business practices and condemned those involved in the case as politically motivated “Trump haters.”

    “I just don’t see how this judge at the end of the day is not going to find that, with respect to Donald Trump … ‘Liar, liar, pants on fire,’” Ackerman said.

    Ackerman said that in his more than 40 years of civil law experience, he has never seen anyone “do such a stupid move as to suddenly start testifying” after they’ve taken the Fifth Amendment.

    Trump Scores Support From Another Billionaire

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    1
    Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    Trump is scoring big…

    Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood said she would vote for former President Trump over President Biden in the November presidential election.

    Wood took part in an interview with ‘Meet Kevin’ financial analyst and YouTuber Kevin Paffrath, during which she was asked the popular question, “Trump or Biden?”

    Wood told the host she has three children with whom she has discussed the upcoming election and its consequences.

    “As I’ve said to them, ‘Look, I am going to vote for the person who’s going to do the best job for our economy,’” Wood told Paffrath. “I am a voter when it comes to economics, and on that basis, Trump.”

    She further explained that Laffer Associates founder and chairman Art Laffer “describes the first three years of the Trump presidency as the best in U.S. economic history, not the last one because of COVID, and I would agree.”

    Watch:

    The informal endorsement comes on the heels of several billionaires sending money and support toward Trump’s presidential campaign. (RELATED: Billionaire Makes Massive Political Contribution To Trump)

    Timothy Mellon, heir to the Mellon banking fortune, made a $50 million contribution to the pro-Trump super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc.

    In a memo following Mellon’s donation, the PAC announced it had reserved $100 million in advertising through Labor Day.

    The New York Times continues:

    Mr. Mellon is now the first donor to give $100 million in disclosed federal contributions in this year’s election. He was already the single largest contributor to super PACs supporting both Mr. Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running as an independent. Mr. Mellon has previously given $25 million to both.

    Billionaire Stephen Schwarzman, the CEO and co-founder of Blackstone, announced last month he will back Trump in the 2024 race after he previously called for the Republican Party to turn to a “new generation of leaders.”

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    © Great America News Desk 2022