“Nobody can doubt the power of former President Donald Trump to draw and keep an audience. But is their allegiance so pure and enduring that they’ll follow him to a new company, announced Wednesday night – a business that promises a social media outlet to take on Twitter (called Truth Social), ‘non-woke’ streaming video news and entertainment to compete with CNN and Disney, podcasts, and cloud software and services to go up against Microsoft, Google and Amazon? A public statement announcing the merger of the newly formed Trump Media & Technology Group, of which Trump is chair, and a speculative ‘blank-check’ company named Digital World Acquisition Corp. promises that TMTG will enter all these media spaces to ‘fight back against the ‘Big Tech’ companies of Silicon Valley, which have used their unilateral power to silence opposing voices in America.’ At least that’s Trump’s pipe dream. There’s nothing new about the comic grandiosity of TMTG’s ambitions, revealed in its corporate slide deck.”

“It only conforms with Trump’s long-held belief that ‘truthful hyperbole’ is the key to selling real estate – or any of the crap products (steaks, mattresses, water, men’s wear, vodka, perfume, eyeglasses, coffee) Trump has hawked to resistant customers. Trump is a moderately successful businessman when he sticks to his specialties – real estate and hotels. But all those overpriced, shoddy namesake products failed in the marketplace because Trump didn’t know how to compete with people who really understood those businesses” – Jack Shafer, Politico.