Trump removed as director of his media company

Former US President Donald Trump was removed as director of his own media company shortly before the firm was subpoenaed, according to a legal filing seen by AFP on Friday.

The document also showed that Trump’s son, Donald Jr, and several others were also removed in June as directors of Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which includes his social media platform Truth Social.

Truth Social said the story, first reported on Thursday by the Sarasota Herald Tribune, the Florida city where TMTG is based, was “fake news” and insisted Trump still served as the company’s chairman.

TMTG is under investigation from US financial regulators and prosecutors in New York over its use to go public of a shell company called Digital World.

TMTG’s filing to the Florida Department of State to remove Trump as director was dated June 8, just weeks before it and Digital World were served with legal papers ordering directors and other executives to testify.

TMTG’s website has a page titled “board of directors” but it is blank.

Truth Social’s official account posted a statement on Thursday saying the Sarasota Herald story was incorrect but stopped short of denying that Trump had been removed as director.

“Donald Trump remains on the board of Trump Media and Technology Group,” said the post, adding that his title was “chairman”.

AFP has contacted TMTG for clarification.

Trump set up Truth Social after being banned from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube following the assault on the US Capitol on January 6 last year.

He faced accusations he had used social media to incite his followers to use force in a bid to overturn the result of the 2020 US presidential election.

Before being banned, he had some 89 million followers on Twitter and used the platform constantly.

However, the rollout of his personal media platform in February this year was plagued by glitches and it is still not available outside the United States.