Trump fired as head of his media company

(AFP) – Former President Donald Trump was removed from his post as director of his own media company shortly before the company 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 the Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which includes his Truth Social social media platform. .

Truth Social said the story, first reported Thursday by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, the Florida city where TMTG is based, was “fake news” and insisted that Trump was still president of the society.

TMTG is under investigation by US financial regulators and New York prosecutors for its use to publicize a front company called Digital World.

TMTG’s filing to the Florida State Department to remove Trump as director was dated June 8, just weeks before Digital World received legal documents ordering directors and other executives to testify.

The TMTG website has a page called “board of directors” but it is empty.

The official Truth Social account issued a statement on Thursday saying the Sarasota Herald-Tribune story was incorrect, but did not deny that Trump had been removed from his post as director.

“Donald Trump remains on the board of directors of Trump Media and Technology Group,” the message read, adding that his title was “president.”

AFP has contacted TMTG for clarification.

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

He was accused of using social media to incite his supporters to use force in a bid to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election.

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

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