Donald Trump promised his Truth Social platform would offer a home for free speech, an unfiltered way to reach people.
Six months later, the former US president’s amplification of conspiratorial memes and messages after the FBI searched his Mar-a-Lago estate indicates that extremist content has flourished.
Still, with midterm elections looming, an AFP analysis shows his new bullhorn may be far less politically relevant than his past pronouncements on Twitter and Facebook.
“His reach is much smaller,” said Mike Rothschild, the author of a book on the QAnon conspiracy theory. “Truth Social is pretty much MAGA-only territory.”
Trump’s August 30 posting spree on Truth Social indicates a lurch toward the darkest corners of conspiracy theory, almost two years after he lost the presidency to Joe Biden.
The meme Trump shared referenced “the storm,” a mass unsealing of indictments promised in QAnon lore that would culminate in his return to the White House.
He also re-posted images that put the words “your enemy is not in Russia” over the faces of top Democrats, including Biden.