I wonder if the lefties spread disinformation as much as the right/magats...I know that left leaning propaganda doesn't show up in my TikTok feed.
The bullshit from the magat camp is unbelievable. A constant barrage of false bullshit. Similar to the shit we are seeing where three Pearl Jam shows in Kansas City have been cancelled due to the Butker comments. None of these people fact check anything they just automatically believe it.
Point being...this is fucking dangerous. I see constant posts about tRump's rally crowds that are actually Obama and/or other rallys/concert crowds. Constant bullshit about how corrupt Biden is, how Biden wanted to assassinate tRump, etc.
Remember the Thomas Nine !! (10/02/2018)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago 2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy 2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE) 2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston 2020: Oakland, Oakland:2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana 2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville 2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
I wonder if the lefties spread disinformation as much as the right/magats...I know that left leaning propaganda doesn't show up in my TikTok feed.
The bullshit from the magat camp is unbelievable. A constant barrage of false bullshit. Similar to the shit we are seeing where three Pearl Jam shows in Kansas City have been cancelled due to the Butker comments. None of these people fact check anything they just automatically believe it.
Point being...this is fucking dangerous. I see constant posts about tRump's rally crowds that are actually Obama and/or other rallys/concert crowds. Constant bullshit about how corrupt Biden is, how Biden wanted to assassinate tRump, etc.
I wonder if the lefties spread disinformation as much as the right/magats...I know that left leaning propaganda doesn't show up in my TikTok feed.
The bullshit from the magat camp is unbelievable. A constant barrage of false bullshit. Similar to the shit we are seeing where three Pearl Jam shows in Kansas City have been cancelled due to the Butker comments. None of these people fact check anything they just automatically believe it.
Point being...this is fucking dangerous. I see constant posts about tRump's rally crowds that are actually Obama and/or other rallys/concert crowds. Constant bullshit about how corrupt Biden is, how Biden wanted to assassinate tRump, etc.
i think the most obscene and dangerous of all the things he has ever said is that biden is wanting to, or actually attempted to assassinate him. his crazy followers believe that, and i am terrified that biden or someone close to him will be attacked like that guy almost killed pelosi's husband.
his rhetoric is downright dangerous and it is going to get someone killed. and our fucking media normalizes it. it should be the lead story on every newspaper and evening cable "news" show, and after the lead it should be immediately debunked.
Post edited by gimmesometruth27 on
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.- Hemingway
I wonder if the lefties spread disinformation as much as the right/magats...I know that left leaning propaganda doesn't show up in my TikTok feed.
The bullshit from the magat camp is unbelievable. A constant barrage of false bullshit. Similar to the shit we are seeing where three Pearl Jam shows in Kansas City have been cancelled due to the Butker comments. None of these people fact check anything they just automatically believe it.
Point being...this is fucking dangerous. I see constant posts about tRump's rally crowds that are actually Obama and/or other rallys/concert crowds. Constant bullshit about how corrupt Biden is, how Biden wanted to assassinate tRump, etc.
i think the most obscene and dangerous of all the things he has ever said is that biden is wanting to, or actually attempted to assassinate him. his crazy followers believe that, and i am terrified that biden or someone close to him will be attacked like that guy almost killed pelosi's husband.
his rhetoric is downright dangerous and it is going to get someone killed. and our fucking media normalizes it. it should be the lead story on every newspaper and evening cable "news" show, and after the lead it should be immediately debunked.
This is an example of reliance on societal norms biting us in the ass. How long was the "fourth estate" seen as critical to a well-informed citizenry? And yet, who ever enforced that the "fourth estate" be honest and not self-serving? Politics in modern democracy are just "who can exploit vulnerabilities in their supporters' minds to yield the most votes" - not "who can govern best" (another norm being betrayed).
'05 - TO, '06 - TO 1, '08 - NYC 1 & 2, '09 - TO, Chi 1 & 2, '10 - Buffalo, NYC 1 & 2, '11 - TO 1 & 2, Hamilton, '13 - Buffalo, Brooklyn 1 & 2, '15 - Global Citizen, '16 - TO 1 & 2, Chi 2
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
I wonder if the lefties spread disinformation as much as the right/magats...I know that left leaning propaganda doesn't show up in my TikTok feed.
The bullshit from the magat camp is unbelievable. A constant barrage of false bullshit. Similar to the shit we are seeing where three Pearl Jam shows in Kansas City have been cancelled due to the Butker comments. None of these people fact check anything they just automatically believe it.
Point being...this is fucking dangerous. I see constant posts about tRump's rally crowds that are actually Obama and/or other rallys/concert crowds. Constant bullshit about how corrupt Biden is, how Biden wanted to assassinate tRump, etc.
i think the most obscene and dangerous of all the things he has ever said is that biden is wanting to, or actually attempted to assassinate him. his crazy followers believe that, and i am terrified that biden or someone close to him will be attacked like that guy almost killed pelosi's husband.
his rhetoric is downright dangerous and it is going to get someone killed. and our fucking media normalizes it. it should be the lead story on every newspaper and evening cable "news" show, and after the lead it should be immediately debunked.
This is an example of reliance on societal norms biting us in the ass. How long was the "fourth estate" seen as critical to a well-informed citizenry? And yet, who ever enforced that the "fourth estate" be honest and not self-serving? Politics in modern democracy are just "who can exploit vulnerabilities in their supporters' minds to yield the most votes" - not "who can govern best" (another norm being betrayed).
The 4th Estate used to be made up of tons of independent media markets consisting of AM radio, small town/big city newspapers, some with multiple outlets, and 3 television stations. The "4th Estate" is a completely different beast these days, often owned and consolidated or even decommissioned, leaving some towns and cities without the local news coverage critical to a functioning democracy. Ronnie Rayguns, through elimination of the fairness doctrine, and Goebbles knew this well. Rupert Murdick should be deported.
I wonder if the lefties spread disinformation as much as the right/magats...I know that left leaning propaganda doesn't show up in my TikTok feed.
The bullshit from the magat camp is unbelievable. A constant barrage of false bullshit. Similar to the shit we are seeing where three Pearl Jam shows in Kansas City have been cancelled due to the Butker comments. None of these people fact check anything they just automatically believe it.
Point being...this is fucking dangerous. I see constant posts about tRump's rally crowds that are actually Obama and/or other rallys/concert crowds. Constant bullshit about how corrupt Biden is, how Biden wanted to assassinate tRump, etc.
i think the most obscene and dangerous of all the things he has ever said is that biden is wanting to, or actually attempted to assassinate him. his crazy followers believe that, and i am terrified that biden or someone close to him will be attacked like that guy almost killed pelosi's husband.
his rhetoric is downright dangerous and it is going to get someone killed. and our fucking media normalizes it. it should be the lead story on every newspaper and evening cable "news" show, and after the lead it should be immediately debunked.
This is an example of reliance on societal norms biting us in the ass. How long was the "fourth estate" seen as critical to a well-informed citizenry? And yet, who ever enforced that the "fourth estate" be honest and not self-serving? Politics in modern democracy are just "who can exploit vulnerabilities in their supporters' minds to yield the most votes" - not "who can govern best" (another norm being betrayed).
The 4th Estate used to be made up of tons of independent media markets consisting of AM radio, small town/big city newspapers, some with multiple outlets, and 3 television stations. The "4th Estate" is a completely different beast these days, often owned and consolidated or even decommissioned, leaving some towns and cities without the local news coverage critical to a functioning democracy. Ronnie Rayguns, through elimination of the fairness doctrine, and Goebbles knew this well. Rupert Murdick should be deported.
That's all true - my point was just that at the end of the day it's still a "reliance on norms" issue that's biting society in the ass. No one ever guaranteed that the 4th estate would primarily be focused on education, that was just a naive assumption from the population. No one ever guaranteed that there would be a peaceful transfer of power from one POTUS to another, that was just another assumption. These assumptions are dangerous when an exploitative entity realizes that they can deviate from the expected (but not mandated) path, for their own interests.
'05 - TO, '06 - TO 1, '08 - NYC 1 & 2, '09 - TO, Chi 1 & 2, '10 - Buffalo, NYC 1 & 2, '11 - TO 1 & 2, Hamilton, '13 - Buffalo, Brooklyn 1 & 2, '15 - Global Citizen, '16 - TO 1 & 2, Chi 2
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 36,284
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Trump's Truth Social struggles to grow its user base, according to new data
The
former president's media company is worth more than $8 billion on the
stock market despite posting under $800,000 in revenue last quarter.
Stefani Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images
May 24, 2024, 6:12 PM EDT / Source: CNBC.com
By Kevin Breuninger, CNBC
Nearly
two-and-a-half years after its launch, Truth Social is struggling to
hang onto its small U.S. user base, according to new data on the
microblogging platform launched by former President Donald Trump’s media company.
So
far in May, U.S. daily visits to Truth Social have dropped more than
21% from April, and more than 35% compared to March, according to
digital intelligence platform Similarweb.
The
site’s average number of monthly visits over the past year — just over 4
million from May 2023 to April 2024 — plummeted more than 39% from the
prior 12-month period, from May 2022 to April 2023, Similarweb reported.
The
traffic has declined even as Trump — the most prominent Truth Social
user and the majority shareholder of its parent company, Trump Media — has saturated the national news with coverage of his criminal trial and White House bid.
And
while the app saw a surge in visitors in the lead-up to Trump Media’s
public trading debut in March, Similarweb’s most recent data show that
those gains have already been erased.
The user and
engagement data from Similarweb and two other data firms, collected and
analyzed exclusively for CNBC, offers a glimpse into how Trump Media’s
flagship product is developing — one that the company itself has yet to
provide.
The company claims it does not track key indicators that
social media platforms traditionally use to monitor their performance.
Those include metrics like a site’s active user accounts and its daily
and monthly visitor numbers, as well as its revenue per user and ad
impressions.
Trump Media says it believes tracking those
stats “might not align with the best interests” of the company or its
stockholders, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company also said it “may never collect, monitor, or report any or certain key operating metrics.”
CNBC reached out to Trump Media for comment on the firms’ findings, and asked if it could provide any data of its own.
“Why would we comment on a fake news network reporting on fake analyses?” the company said through a spokesperson.
But the new analyses could be warning signs for Trump Media, whose business depends in large part on growing its user base.
“If
you can’t demonstrate that you have a sizeable, active, engaged,
growing audience, I don’t understand how you create a successful
ad-supported social media business,” said David Carr, Similarweb’s
editor of insights, news and research, in an interview.
Trump Media relies entirely on ad sales for
its revenue, and discloses in its SEC filings that a decline in user
engagement could hurt its business by making Truth Social less
attractive to advertisers.
The data firms’ findings could also harden Wall Street analysts’ view of the company as a “meme stock” whose sky-high market capitalization is untethered to its business fundamentals.
“We
basically don’t see anything in these digital indicators that would
explain why the valuation is as high as it is,” Carr said.
Trump Media on Tuesday reported a first-quarter net loss of nearly $328 million on revenue of about $771,000, most of which came from advertising.
Nonetheless, as of Friday, the company had a market cap of slightly more than $8 billion.
The stock closed on Friday at $45.81 per share, which is roughly in the middle of the wide range of share prices, from a low of around $22 per share to a high of around $70, that TMTG shares have traded at since the company went public in March.
A single surge
Truth
Social’s monthly active user numbers declined significantly in the U.S.
in the final months of 2023, three different data firms told CNBC.
But
the platform’s traffic rebounded in the first quarter of this year, as
Trump Media closed in on a deal allowing it to start trading on the
Nasdaq under the ticker DJT.
Similarweb
tallied 781,954 active iOS and Android users on Truth Social in the
U.S. that month, a more than 58% surge from February. GWS Magnify
offered an even rosier analysis, calculating that Truth Social’s monthly
user numbers hit a new peak of 1.4 million in March, which carried over
into April.
Data firm Sensor Tower, meanwhile,
calculated that the social media platform’s U.S. monthly active user
level in the first quarter of 2024 rose 10% year over year.
But
all three analysts linked that rise to the heavy press coverage
surrounding Trump Media’s public merger and its highly volatile trading kickoff, when the stock rocketed up as much as 50%.
That meme-fueled frenzy seems
unlikely to establish a long-term gain in traffic: In the four-week
period ending May 19, for instance, daily active U.S. Truth Social users
were down 19.7% year over year, according to Similarweb.
Truth Social’s headwinds
Truth Social also faces two major obstacles to building an engaged user base, according to GWS Magnify.
The
first is a retention problem. Truth Social users on average check the
site fewer than two days a week — falling behind apps like Facebook, X,
TikTok, Reddit and Pinterest.
Truth Social users also
clock fewer minutes of engagement on the platform that do the users of
other social media networks. The vast majority of Truth Social users,
87%, also use Facebook. Another 51% are also on X, GWS Magnify reported.
“Compared
to other social media platforms, Truth Social users are accessing the
app much less frequently and are spending much less time on it per
session,” the firm’s CEO, Dr. Paul Carter, told CNBC in an email.
“That will have a bigger impact on the prospects for Truth than any media limelight,” Carter said.
He
added that a future decline in Truth Social’s numbers “will be because
the platform has failed to engage users in the way that the most
successful social media companies — TikTok most prominently — have
mastered.”
The second problem is that Truth Social
doesn’t offer anything to set it apart from bigger microblogging sites,
especially X, which it closely resembles.
Trump Media
says it is focused on adding new features to Truth Social, including
live TV streaming, according to its latest earnings report.
But
for now, its most unique feature is of Truth Social is Trump himself,
who uses the app regularly and occasionally makes news in his posts.
But despite the wall-to-wall national press coverage of Trump’s criminal trial and his campaign to President Joe Biden, Trump’s presence on Truth Social alone has not been enough to draw users away from its competitors.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 36,284
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 36,284
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
As reporters await a Biden campaign news conference outside the courthouse, Donald Trump supporters demonstrating in the park are shouting profane taunts targeting President Biden, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg — neither of whom is present — and the press, including “kill the media” and “we’ll eradicate all of you.”
What is the point of having Robert Deniro representing Biden today? How is this a good idea?
Is he “representing” Brandon or just a private citizen with “star power” sharing his personal views in a public forum of outside the courthouse? Seems there are private citizens representing POOTWH outside the courthouse so why can’t Robert, who lives in NYC, I believe, stroll down and speak to the assembled press and bystanders and “represent” Brandon.
I encourage everyone to speak up and out, even those with views I vehemently disagree with.
What is the point of having Robert Deniro representing Biden today? How is this a good idea?
Is he “representing” Brandon or just a private citizen with “star power” sharing his personal views in a public forum of outside the courthouse? Seems there are private citizens representing POOTWH outside the courthouse so why can’t Robert, who lives in NYC, I believe, stroll down and speak to the assembled press and bystanders and “represent” Brandon.
I encourage everyone to speak up and out, even those with views I vehemently disagree with.
Regardless of whether he's representing or just sharing his opinion, if a Democrat-leaning 'star' shows up at the courthouse where Trump's on trial to preach anti-Trump rhetoric, it's quite obvious that Trump will claim it shows interference from the Biden administration, and it's quite obvious that his base will agree. Does that matter? Who knows.
'05 - TO, '06 - TO 1, '08 - NYC 1 & 2, '09 - TO, Chi 1 & 2, '10 - Buffalo, NYC 1 & 2, '11 - TO 1 & 2, Hamilton, '13 - Buffalo, Brooklyn 1 & 2, '15 - Global Citizen, '16 - TO 1 & 2, Chi 2
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
What is the point of having Robert Deniro representing Biden today? How is this a good idea?
Is he “representing” Brandon or just a private citizen with “star power” sharing his personal views in a public forum of outside the courthouse? Seems there are private citizens representing POOTWH outside the courthouse so why can’t Robert, who lives in NYC, I believe, stroll down and speak to the assembled press and bystanders and “represent” Brandon.
I encourage everyone to speak up and out, even those with views I vehemently disagree with.
Regardless of whether he's representing or just sharing his opinion, if a Democrat-leaning 'star' shows up at the courthouse where Trump's on trial to preach anti-Trump rhetoric, it's quite obvious that Trump will claim it shows interference from the Biden administration, and it's quite obvious that his base will agree. Does that matter? Who knows.
I mean, he showed up with members of the Biden campaign team. He's also narrating a new tv ad for Biden.
It's just a tone deaf look when half the country already, albeit not necessarily correctly, views the dems as elites that are out of touch with ordinary Americans.
i'm trying to understand why they sent deniro in the first place.
was michael rappaport busy today?
in all seriousness, this was a dumb move. biden is trying to give the election away.
Why do you think it's dumb to call out the criminality of your political opponent?
To be clear, I'm not exactly for or against any such strategy, as I haven't thought about it deeply. But will DeNiro turn "non-committed" voters to Trump? I don't see how. In fact, how many non-committed voters can there really be with these two? I feel like it's 100% about turnout.
What is the point of having Robert Deniro representing Biden today? How is this a good idea?
Is he “representing” Brandon or just a private citizen with “star power” sharing his personal views in a public forum of outside the courthouse? Seems there are private citizens representing POOTWH outside the courthouse so why can’t Robert, who lives in NYC, I believe, stroll down and speak to the assembled press and bystanders and “represent” Brandon.
I encourage everyone to speak up and out, even those with views I vehemently disagree with.
Regardless of whether he's representing or just sharing his opinion, if a Democrat-leaning 'star' shows up at the courthouse where Trump's on trial to preach anti-Trump rhetoric, it's quite obvious that Trump will claim it shows interference from the Biden administration, and it's quite obvious that his base will agree. Does that matter? Who knows.
I mean, he showed up with members of the Biden campaign team. He's also narrating a new tv ad for Biden.
It's just a tone deaf look when half the country already, albeit not necessarily correctly, views the dems as elites that are out of touch with ordinary Americans.
Didn't know those facts, but given that, fully agree.
'05 - TO, '06 - TO 1, '08 - NYC 1 & 2, '09 - TO, Chi 1 & 2, '10 - Buffalo, NYC 1 & 2, '11 - TO 1 & 2, Hamilton, '13 - Buffalo, Brooklyn 1 & 2, '15 - Global Citizen, '16 - TO 1 & 2, Chi 2
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
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The Juggler
Behind that bush over there. Posts: 47,444
What is the point of having Robert Deniro representing Biden today? How is this a good idea?
Is he “representing” Brandon or just a private citizen with “star power” sharing his personal views in a public forum of outside the courthouse? Seems there are private citizens representing POOTWH outside the courthouse so why can’t Robert, who lives in NYC, I believe, stroll down and speak to the assembled press and bystanders and “represent” Brandon.
I encourage everyone to speak up and out, even those with views I vehemently disagree with.
Regardless of whether he's representing or just sharing his opinion, if a Democrat-leaning 'star' shows up at the courthouse where Trump's on trial to preach anti-Trump rhetoric, it's quite obvious that Trump will claim it shows interference from the Biden administration, and it's quite obvious that his base will agree. Does that matter? Who knows.
I mean, he showed up with members of the Biden campaign team. He's also narrating a new tv ad for Biden.
It's just a tone deaf look when half the country already, albeit not necessarily correctly, views the dems as elites that are out of touch with ordinary Americans.
Didn't know those facts, but given that, fully agree.
My confidence levels in this campaign are sadly not high. Biden is currently losing to a guy who is staring down a possible criminal conviction this week....
i'm trying to understand why they sent deniro in the first place.
was michael rappaport busy today?
in all seriousness, this was a dumb move. biden is trying to give the election away.
Why do you think it's dumb to call out the criminality of your political opponent?
To be clear, I'm not exactly for or against any such strategy, as I haven't thought about it deeply. But will DeNiro turn "non-committed" voters to Trump? I don't see how. In fact, how many non-committed voters can there really be with these two? I feel like it's 100% about turnout.
it should have been an actual biden spokesperson.
deniro is talking to the choir here. what good is it for him to potentially get into a confrontation with trump supporters here? in my opinion more bad can come from it than good.
it is about turnout. but if i am from a rural community in the south, i am not going to listen to some loudmouth with a new york accent. kind of like how if i am from new york or california, i am not going to listen to some dude from south carolina or alabama or florida yelling at me about something i already know. i'm just not.
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.- Hemingway
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 36,284
Trump prosecutor focuses on 'cover-up' in closing arguments while defense attacks key witness
By MICHAEL R. SISAK, JENNIFER PELTZ, ERIC TUCKER and JILL COLVIN
8 mins ago
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump engaged in “a conspiracy and a cover-up,” a prosecutor told jurors during closing arguments Tuesday in the former president's hush money trial, while a defense lawyer branded the star witness as the “greatest liar of all time” and pressed the panel for an across-the-board acquittal.
The lawyers' dueling accounts, wildly divergent in their assessments of witness credibility and the strength of evidence, offered both sides one final chance to score points with the jury before it starts deliberating the first felony case against a former American president.
“This case, at its core, is about a conspiracy and a cover-up,” prosecutor Joshua Steinglass told jurors.
The trial featured allegations that Trump and his allies conspired to stifle potentially embarrassing stories during the 2016 presidential campaign through hush money payments , including to a porn actor who alleged that she and Trump had sex a decade earlier. Trump has denied having sex with both women. His lawyer Todd Blanche told jurors that neither the actor, Stormy Daniels, nor the Trump attorney who paid her can be trusted in their testimony.
“President Trump is innocent. He did not commit any crimes, and the district attorney has not met their burden of proof, period," Blanche said.
Following more than four weeks of testimony, the daylong summations teed up a momentous and historically unprecedented task for the jury as it decides whether to convict the presumptive Republican presidential nominee ahead of the November election. The political implications of the proceedings were unmistakable as President Joe Biden’s campaign staged an event outside the courthouse with actor Robert De Niro while Blanche reminded jurors that the case was not a referendum on their views about Trump.
Steinglass sought to defray potential juror concerns about witness credibility. He acknowledged that Daniels' account about the alleged 2006 encounter in Lake Tahoe hotel suite was at times “cringeworthy” but said the details she offered — including about the decor and what she said she saw when she snooped in Trump’s toiletry kit — were full of touchstones “that kind of ring true.”
The story matters, he said, because it “reinforces (Trump's) incentive to buy her silence."
“Her story is messy. It makes people uncomfortable to hear. It probably makes some of you uncomfortable to hear. But that’s kind of the point,” Steinglass said. He told jurors: “In the simplest terms, Stormy Daniels is the motive.”
He also tried to reassure jurors that the prosecution's case did not rest solely on Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and personal fixer who paid Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet. Cohen later pleaded guilty to federal charges for his role in the hush money payments, as well as to lying to Congress. He went to prison and was disbarred, but his direct involvement in the transactions made him a key witness at trial.
“It’s not about whether you like Michael Cohen. It’s not about whether you want to go into business with Michael Cohen. It’s whether he has useful, reliable information to give you about what went down in this case, and the truth is that he was in the best position to know,” Steinglass said.
Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, charges punishable by up to four years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing. It’s unclear whether prosecutors would seek imprisonment in the event of a conviction, or if the judge would impose that punishment.
Though the case featured seamy details about sex and tabloid industry practices, the actual charges turn on something more mundane: reimbursements Trump signed for Cohen for the hush money payments.
The reimbursements were recorded as being for legal expenses, which prosecutors say was a fraudulent label designed to conceal the purpose of the hush money transaction and to illicitly interfere in the 2016 election. Defense lawyers say Cohen actually did substantive legal work for Trump and his family.
In his own hourslong address to the jury, with sweeping denials echoing Trump's “deny everything” approach, Blanche attacked the entire foundation of the case.
He said Cohen, not Trump, created the invoices that were submitted to the Trump Organization for reimbursement and that there was no proof that Trump knew what staffers were doing with the payments. He disputed the contention that Trump and Daniels had sex, and he rejected the idea that the alleged hush money scheme amounted to election interference.
“Every campaign in this country is a conspiracy to promote a candidate, a group of people who are working together to help somebody win,” Blanche said.
Mimicking the term “GOAT,” used primarily in sports as an acronym for “greatest of all time,” Blanche labeled Cohen the “GLOAT" — greatest liar of all time. The lawyer also called Cohen “the human embodiment of reasonable doubt.” That language was intentional because, to convict Trump, jurors must believe that prosecutors proved their case beyond a reasonable doubt.
“He lied to you repeatedly. He lied many, many times before you even met him. His financial and personal well-being depend on this case. He is biased and motivated to tell you a story that is not true,” Blanche said.
The attorney's voice became even more impassioned as he revisited one of the more memorable moments of the trial: when Blanche sought to unravel Cohen's claim that he had spoken to Trump by phone about the Daniels arrangement on Oct. 24, 2016.
Cohen said he had contacted Trump's bodyguard as a way of getting a hold of Trump, but Blanche asserted that at the time Cohen was actually dealing with a spate of harassing phone calls and was preoccupied with that problem.
“It was a lie,” Blanche said. “That was a lie, and he got caught red-handed.”
In his testimony, Cohen acknowledged a litany of past lies, many of which he said were intended to protect Trump. But he said he had subsequently told the truth, at great cost: “My entire life has been turned upside-down as a direct result,” he said.
Steinglass used a bit of stagecraft to challenge the defense’s assertion that Cohen was lying about the subject of that phone conversation, demonstrating a hypothetical version of the call to show jurors how Cohen and the bodyguard, Keith Schiller, could have covered multiple subjects in less than a minute.
Cohen’s actual call to Schiller’s phone number lasted 96 seconds, according to phone records. Steinglass showed, with his hypothetical, that Cohen could’ve spoken to Schiller about the prank calls, asked him to pass the phone to Trump and then discussed the Daniels deal with Trump, all in 49 seconds.
The New York prosecution is one of four criminal cases pending against Trump as he seeks to reclaim the White House from Biden. It’s unclear if any of the others will reach trial before November's election.
___
Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price in New York contributed to this report.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Comments
The bullshit from the magat camp is unbelievable. A constant barrage of false bullshit. Similar to the shit we are seeing where three Pearl Jam shows in Kansas City have been cancelled due to the Butker comments. None of these people fact check anything they just automatically believe it.
Point being...this is fucking dangerous. I see constant posts about tRump's rally crowds that are actually Obama and/or other rallys/concert crowds. Constant bullshit about how corrupt Biden is, how Biden wanted to assassinate tRump, etc.
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
We're so fucked.
his rhetoric is downright dangerous and it is going to get someone killed. and our fucking media normalizes it. it should be the lead story on every newspaper and evening cable "news" show, and after the lead it should be immediately debunked.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
The fucking Spin Doctors could draw a bigger crowd.
read somewhere, cant recall now, the campaign only pulled a permit for like 3500 THEN claimed 25k attended.....
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
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Trump's Truth Social struggles to grow its user base, according to new data
Nearly two-and-a-half years after its launch, Truth Social is struggling to hang onto its small U.S. user base, according to new data on the microblogging platform launched by former President Donald Trump’s media company.
So far in May, U.S. daily visits to Truth Social have dropped more than 21% from April, and more than 35% compared to March, according to digital intelligence platform Similarweb.
The site’s average number of monthly visits over the past year — just over 4 million from May 2023 to April 2024 — plummeted more than 39% from the prior 12-month period, from May 2022 to April 2023, Similarweb reported.
The traffic has declined even as Trump — the most prominent Truth Social user and the majority shareholder of its parent company, Trump Media — has saturated the national news with coverage of his criminal trial and White House bid.
And while the app saw a surge in visitors in the lead-up to Trump Media’s public trading debut in March, Similarweb’s most recent data show that those gains have already been erased.
The user and engagement data from Similarweb and two other data firms, collected and analyzed exclusively for CNBC, offers a glimpse into how Trump Media’s flagship product is developing — one that the company itself has yet to provide.
The company claims it does not track key indicators that social media platforms traditionally use to monitor their performance. Those include metrics like a site’s active user accounts and its daily and monthly visitor numbers, as well as its revenue per user and ad impressions.
Trump Media says it believes tracking those stats “might not align with the best interests” of the company or its stockholders, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company also said it “may never collect, monitor, or report any or certain key operating metrics.”
CNBC reached out to Trump Media for comment on the firms’ findings, and asked if it could provide any data of its own.
“Why would we comment on a fake news network reporting on fake analyses?” the company said through a spokesperson.
But the new analyses could be warning signs for Trump Media, whose business depends in large part on growing its user base.
“If you can’t demonstrate that you have a sizeable, active, engaged, growing audience, I don’t understand how you create a successful ad-supported social media business,” said David Carr, Similarweb’s editor of insights, news and research, in an interview.
Trump Media relies entirely on ad sales for its revenue, and discloses in its SEC filings that a decline in user engagement could hurt its business by making Truth Social less attractive to advertisers.
The data firms’ findings could also harden Wall Street analysts’ view of the company as a “meme stock” whose sky-high market capitalization is untethered to its business fundamentals.
“We basically don’t see anything in these digital indicators that would explain why the valuation is as high as it is,” Carr said.
Trump Media on Tuesday reported a first-quarter net loss of nearly $328 million on revenue of about $771,000, most of which came from advertising.
Nonetheless, as of Friday, the company had a market cap of slightly more than $8 billion.
The stock closed on Friday at $45.81 per share, which is roughly in the middle of the wide range of share prices, from a low of around $22 per share to a high of around $70, that TMTG shares have traded at since the company went public in March.
A single surge
Truth Social’s monthly active user numbers declined significantly in the U.S. in the final months of 2023, three different data firms told CNBC.
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But the platform’s traffic rebounded in the first quarter of this year, as Trump Media closed in on a deal allowing it to start trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker DJT.
Similarweb tallied 781,954 active iOS and Android users on Truth Social in the U.S. that month, a more than 58% surge from February. GWS Magnify offered an even rosier analysis, calculating that Truth Social’s monthly user numbers hit a new peak of 1.4 million in March, which carried over into April.
Data firm Sensor Tower, meanwhile, calculated that the social media platform’s U.S. monthly active user level in the first quarter of 2024 rose 10% year over year.
But all three analysts linked that rise to the heavy press coverage surrounding Trump Media’s public merger and its highly volatile trading kickoff, when the stock rocketed up as much as 50%.
That meme-fueled frenzy seems unlikely to establish a long-term gain in traffic: In the four-week period ending May 19, for instance, daily active U.S. Truth Social users were down 19.7% year over year, according to Similarweb.
Truth Social’s headwinds
Truth Social also faces two major obstacles to building an engaged user base, according to GWS Magnify.
The first is a retention problem. Truth Social users on average check the site fewer than two days a week — falling behind apps like Facebook, X, TikTok, Reddit and Pinterest.
Truth Social users also clock fewer minutes of engagement on the platform that do the users of other social media networks. The vast majority of Truth Social users, 87%, also use Facebook. Another 51% are also on X, GWS Magnify reported.
More from CNBC
“Compared to other social media platforms, Truth Social users are accessing the app much less frequently and are spending much less time on it per session,” the firm’s CEO, Dr. Paul Carter, told CNBC in an email.
“That will have a bigger impact on the prospects for Truth than any media limelight,” Carter said.
He added that a future decline in Truth Social’s numbers “will be because the platform has failed to engage users in the way that the most successful social media companies — TikTok most prominently — have mastered.”
The second problem is that Truth Social doesn’t offer anything to set it apart from bigger microblogging sites, especially X, which it closely resembles.
Trump Media says it is focused on adding new features to Truth Social, including live TV streaming, according to its latest earnings report.
But for now, its most unique feature is of Truth Social is Trump himself, who uses the app regularly and occasionally makes news in his posts.
But despite the wall-to-wall national press coverage of Trump’s criminal trial and his campaign to President Joe Biden, Trump’s presence on Truth Social alone has not been enough to draw users away from its competitors.
“It just hasn’t happened,” Carr said.
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Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
As reporters await a Biden campaign news conference outside the courthouse, Donald Trump supporters demonstrating in the park are shouting profane taunts targeting President Biden, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg — neither of whom is present — and the press, including “kill the media” and “we’ll eradicate all of you.”
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
I encourage everyone to speak up and out, even those with views I vehemently disagree with.
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
was michael rappaport busy today?
in all seriousness, this was a dumb move. biden is trying to give the election away.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
It's just a tone deaf look when half the country already, albeit not necessarily correctly, views the dems as elites that are out of touch with ordinary Americans.
To be clear, I'm not exactly for or against any such strategy, as I haven't thought about it deeply. But will DeNiro turn "non-committed" voters to Trump? I don't see how. In fact, how many non-committed voters can there really be with these two? I feel like it's 100% about turnout.
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
deniro is talking to the choir here. what good is it for him to potentially get into a confrontation with trump supporters here? in my opinion more bad can come from it than good.
it is about turnout. but if i am from a rural community in the south, i am not going to listen to some loudmouth with a new york accent. kind of like how if i am from new york or california, i am not going to listen to some dude from south carolina or alabama or florida yelling at me about something i already know. i'm just not.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump engaged in “a conspiracy and a cover-up,” a prosecutor told jurors during closing arguments Tuesday in the former president's hush money trial, while a defense lawyer branded the star witness as the “greatest liar of all time” and pressed the panel for an across-the-board acquittal.
The lawyers' dueling accounts, wildly divergent in their assessments of witness credibility and the strength of evidence, offered both sides one final chance to score points with the jury before it starts deliberating the first felony case against a former American president.
“This case, at its core, is about a conspiracy and a cover-up,” prosecutor Joshua Steinglass told jurors.
The trial featured allegations that Trump and his allies conspired to stifle potentially embarrassing stories during the 2016 presidential campaign through hush money payments , including to a porn actor who alleged that she and Trump had sex a decade earlier. Trump has denied having sex with both women. His lawyer Todd Blanche told jurors that neither the actor, Stormy Daniels, nor the Trump attorney who paid her can be trusted in their testimony.
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“President Trump is innocent. He did not commit any crimes, and the district attorney has not met their burden of proof, period," Blanche said.
Following more than four weeks of testimony, the daylong summations teed up a momentous and historically unprecedented task for the jury as it decides whether to convict the presumptive Republican presidential nominee ahead of the November election. The political implications of the proceedings were unmistakable as President Joe Biden’s campaign staged an event outside the courthouse with actor Robert De Niro while Blanche reminded jurors that the case was not a referendum on their views about Trump.
Steinglass sought to defray potential juror concerns about witness credibility. He acknowledged that Daniels' account about the alleged 2006 encounter in Lake Tahoe hotel suite was at times “cringeworthy” but said the details she offered — including about the decor and what she said she saw when she snooped in Trump’s toiletry kit — were full of touchstones “that kind of ring true.”
The story matters, he said, because it “reinforces (Trump's) incentive to buy her silence."
“Her story is messy. It makes people uncomfortable to hear. It probably makes some of you uncomfortable to hear. But that’s kind of the point,” Steinglass said. He told jurors: “In the simplest terms, Stormy Daniels is the motive.”
He also tried to reassure jurors that the prosecution's case did not rest solely on Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and personal fixer who paid Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet. Cohen later pleaded guilty to federal charges for his role in the hush money payments, as well as to lying to Congress. He went to prison and was disbarred, but his direct involvement in the transactions made him a key witness at trial.
“It’s not about whether you like Michael Cohen. It’s not about whether you want to go into business with Michael Cohen. It’s whether he has useful, reliable information to give you about what went down in this case, and the truth is that he was in the best position to know,” Steinglass said.
Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, charges punishable by up to four years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing. It’s unclear whether prosecutors would seek imprisonment in the event of a conviction, or if the judge would impose that punishment.
Though the case featured seamy details about sex and tabloid industry practices, the actual charges turn on something more mundane: reimbursements Trump signed for Cohen for the hush money payments.
The reimbursements were recorded as being for legal expenses, which prosecutors say was a fraudulent label designed to conceal the purpose of the hush money transaction and to illicitly interfere in the 2016 election. Defense lawyers say Cohen actually did substantive legal work for Trump and his family.
In his own hourslong address to the jury, with sweeping denials echoing Trump's “deny everything” approach, Blanche attacked the entire foundation of the case.
He said Cohen, not Trump, created the invoices that were submitted to the Trump Organization for reimbursement and that there was no proof that Trump knew what staffers were doing with the payments. He disputed the contention that Trump and Daniels had sex, and he rejected the idea that the alleged hush money scheme amounted to election interference.
“Every campaign in this country is a conspiracy to promote a candidate, a group of people who are working together to help somebody win,” Blanche said.
But as expected, he reserved his most animated attack for Cohen, with whom he tangled during a lengthy cross-examination.
Mimicking the term “GOAT,” used primarily in sports as an acronym for “greatest of all time,” Blanche labeled Cohen the “GLOAT" — greatest liar of all time. The lawyer also called Cohen “the human embodiment of reasonable doubt.” That language was intentional because, to convict Trump, jurors must believe that prosecutors proved their case beyond a reasonable doubt.
“He lied to you repeatedly. He lied many, many times before you even met him. His financial and personal well-being depend on this case. He is biased and motivated to tell you a story that is not true,” Blanche said.
The attorney's voice became even more impassioned as he revisited one of the more memorable moments of the trial: when Blanche sought to unravel Cohen's claim that he had spoken to Trump by phone about the Daniels arrangement on Oct. 24, 2016.
Cohen said he had contacted Trump's bodyguard as a way of getting a hold of Trump, but Blanche asserted that at the time Cohen was actually dealing with a spate of harassing phone calls and was preoccupied with that problem.
“It was a lie,” Blanche said. “That was a lie, and he got caught red-handed.”
In his testimony, Cohen acknowledged a litany of past lies, many of which he said were intended to protect Trump. But he said he had subsequently told the truth, at great cost: “My entire life has been turned upside-down as a direct result,” he said.
Steinglass used a bit of stagecraft to challenge the defense’s assertion that Cohen was lying about the subject of that phone conversation, demonstrating a hypothetical version of the call to show jurors how Cohen and the bodyguard, Keith Schiller, could have covered multiple subjects in less than a minute.
Cohen’s actual call to Schiller’s phone number lasted 96 seconds, according to phone records. Steinglass showed, with his hypothetical, that Cohen could’ve spoken to Schiller about the prank calls, asked him to pass the phone to Trump and then discussed the Daniels deal with Trump, all in 49 seconds.
The New York prosecution is one of four criminal cases pending against Trump as he seeks to reclaim the White House from Biden. It’s unclear if any of the others will reach trial before November's election.
___
Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price in New York contributed to this report.
___
Follow the AP's coverage of former President Donald Trump at https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14