Trump’s social media start-up is inspired
Here at Woods Towers, I can’t help feeling I’ve missed a trick with the news Donald Trump has emerged from his petulant purdah to set up his very own social media site called, without a scintilla of irony, Truth.
Am I jealous? Let’s just say I feel like a pregnant Mumsnetter on discovering her sister-in-law has only gone and stolen her baby name. So, yes, I’m storm-the-capitol furious.
Could it be I lack the necessary heroic hubris of those so convinced of their own importance, they feel honourbound to share their crackpot rantings with the rest of humanity on a personalised platform?
Quite possibly. After all, I can’t compete with Louise Mensch, chick-lit author turned Conservative MP turned rabid anti-trump conspiracy theorist who left these shores amid much fanfare to set up a rival to Twitter, called Menshn.
What’s that you say? No, best not to Menshn it, as it didn’t exist for very long, and she’s back on Twitter, with the tag line “unhinged British witch” – incidentally, an epithet that could be applied to some of my favourite people.
More recently, we had little Matt Hancock, who started up his own app in 2018 back when “health secretary” was considered a plum job, not a doorway to Seventh Circle hellishness.
He announced the app would offer “a chance for you to tell me what you think, and to engage with others on issues that matter to you”. But it became a go-to destination for lewd pranksters, trolls and one digital whizz who posted a Tiktok edit of Hancock running from news cameras superimposed onto the Rainbow Road course from Mario Kart Wii.
Lord knows what they’d post now after his rule-breaking infidelity, resignation and ignominious encounter with the HR team at the World Health Organisation. It’s academic, though, because he has, tragically, taken down the “Have Your Say” section. On reflection, if I were to have my own site it would be much less satirical and far more pedestrian-andpeevish. Pretty much what I imagine the Donald’s contribution to global debate will be. Still, the Truth will out.