Sep 5, 2023 - Economy

Trump scores big social media vote victory

Illustration of a happy Facebook emoji that resembles Donald Trump

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

Truth Social, former President Trump's social media platform, got a major reprieve on Tuesday, courtesy of shareholders in the blank-check company seeking to take it public.

Driving the news: Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC) will get another 12 months to complete its troubled merger with Trump Media & Technology Group.

  • Had the shareholder vote failed, DWAC would have liquidated and Trump would have needed to find another deep pocket.
  • DWAC had launched a major lobbying effort in recent weeks to secure the vote, including sending emails to all Truth Social users (even if they weren't shareholders).
  • This is the merger's second one-year closing extension.

Investor reax: DWAC shares climbed on the news, although remain a far cry from where they traded when the merger was originally announced.

The bottom line: This doesn't necessarily mean the merger will close — providing Truth Social with hundreds of millions of dollars — but it's much more likely now than it was just 24 hours ago.

Go deeper: Trump could keep control of Truth Social, even if he sells most of it

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