On Trump’s Social Network: Ads for Miracle Cures, Scams and Fake Merchandise
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Between posts about conspiracy theories and right-wing grievances was an unusual advertisement: a photo of former President Donald J. Trump holding a $1,000 bill made of gold, which he was apparently offering free to supporters.
But there were a few catches: The bill was not free, it was not made of gold, and it was not offered by Mr. Trump.
The ad appeared on Truth Social, the right-wing social network started by Mr. Trump in late 2021, one of many pitches from hucksters and fringe marketers dominating the ads on the site.
Ads from major brands are nonexistent on the site. Instead, the ads on Truth Social are for alternative medicine, diet pills, gun accessories and Trump-themed trinkets, according to an analysis of hundreds of ads on the social network by The New York Times.
The ads reflect the difficulty that several far-right platforms, including Rumble and Gab, have faced in courting large brands, preventing the sites from tapping into some of the world’s largest ad budgets. It could be particularly problematic for Truth Social. Although the site has gained influence among the far right, becoming a vibrant ecosystem brimming with activity, its business is in need of cash.
Truth Social raised about $37 million , mainly from Republican political donors, but it is burning through about $1.7 million each month, according to William Wilkinson, a former executive at Trump Media & Technology Group, the social network’s parent company. And two federal investigations have put about $1.3 billion of much-needed funding in jeopardy.
Devin Nunes, the chief executive of Trump Media, said in an announcement last year that the company’s ad strategy would help it “displace the Big Tech platforms” as a major way to reach Americans.
The Spread of Misinformation and Falsehoods
But ad experts say the wariness from prominent brands on far-right social networks, which have positioned themselves as free-speech alternatives to Silicon Valley giants like Meta and Google, is driven by the kinds of conspiracy theories and hyperpartisan politics often found on the sites.
In addition, they say, Truth Social has a relatively small user base and many older users, who are less desirable for the brands. Marketers have complained that Truth Social’s ad-serving technology, run by Rumble, a right-wing video streaming website, offers limited tools for tracking an ad’s performance or for showing ads to users based on their demographic profiles. Those tools, now standard among larger ad networks operated by Google and Meta, are vital for determining an ad’s success.
“The more you stray from that safe center, the more you become the fringe or the extreme on anything, then the less money you’re going to get,” said Tom Denford, the chief executive of ID Comms , an advertising consulting firm.
Truth Social and Trump Media & Technology Group did not respond to requests for comment.
Some ads echoed conservative talking points.
These ads include a series of children’s books about the dangers of communism, an “anti-woke” life insurance company and a vaccine exemption card.
Some ads pushed coins, bills and gold-plated bars.
These ads often used Mr. Trump’s portrait. While the items are often described as “gold,” the checkout pages describe them as gold-plated, meaning they may have a patina of real gold. Mr. Trump’s supporters have been inundated with the ads since before his electoral victory in 2016.
Many ads offered Trump-themed merchandise.
Hats, T-shirts and other items often feature Mr. Trump’s slogan or portrait, though the merchandise was never sold through the former president’s official storefronts.
Some ads drifted into outright fabrication.
One ad for a $2 bill showed a fake tweet from President Biden calling for the Federal Reserve to outlaw the bill.
Many ads focused on guns and survival.
The ads targeted gun enthusiasts and so-called survivalists with knives, ammo and tactical gear.
But the bulk of ads used disturbing images.
Most of the ads from Truth Social reviewed by The Times used images designed to catch a user’s attention, like grotesque eyeballs and skin abnormalities, typically selling alternative medicines and miracle cures.
Note: The ads were gathered using a tool developed by Stanford University’s Internet Observatory, with assistance from Konrad Iturbe, a developer based in Spain who added additional features.
Companies can typically use tools offered by digital ad services to prevent their ads from appearing near words or phrases that might upset customers — like war, assault or suicide. In a reflection of the wariness that brands have over Mr. Trump and his politics, the word “Trump” ranked as the 11th most common blacklisted term provided by advertisers in 2019, according to data from Integral Ad Science , a company focusing on brand safety.
“It’s really dangerous for major advertisers to be closely associated with a political figure and also a political movement,” said Bob Hoffman, an advertising industry veteran and the author of The Ad Contrarian , a newsletter critical of the industry. “It’s not in their best interest to get involved in that quagmire.”
Similar challenges faced Twitter after Elon Musk bought the company and said he would create a more permissive environment for free speech. Advertisers fled that platform or paused their campaigns in response, causing a significant drop in revenue .
“They pulled off Twitter because they are not sure that Twitter can fulfill their brand safety guidelines, and they will stay off until they are reassured,” Mr. Denford said.
Mr. Musk also welcomed Mr. Trump back on Twitter, reinstating his account in November . Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, announced this week that it would reinstate the president’s accounts after he was barred in 2021 from the social media services, which said Mr. Trump’s posts ran the risk of inciting more violence after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Mr. Trump is obligated to make his posts available exclusively on Truth Social for six hours, and he has not posted to other social networks since Truth launched. That deal expires in June but can be renewed.
Rumble, the video streamer that manages ads for Truth Social, earns $15 million to $25 million annually, according to estimates from Similarweb , a company that analyzes websites. Rumble did not respond to requests for comment.
Building an Audience
Rumble, a video streaming website, is one of the most popular right-wing platforms, towering over social networks like Truth Social, Gab and Parler.
Source: Similarweb
By The New York Times
When ads launched on Truth last year using Rumble’s platform, marketers complained that it offered limited ways to target ads to people based on their demographics — like age, gender or interests. It also offered no way to track whether the ad resulted in a sale, a feature coveted by advertisers and offered by large ad networks like Google.
Maxwell Finn, an online marketer, said in a YouTube video that he was one of Truth Social’s top advertisers, spending more than $150,000 on ads , including those for Trump-themed hats, shirts, coins and novelty bills.
In the video, he called the ad platform “frustrating” and “bare bones,” adding that it lacked even basic functionality, forcing his company to manually track ad performance — a method that would prove impossible for advertisers with larger budgets.
“Do I think this is a platform where you can be spending tens of thousands of dollars a day, especially if you only have a few products?” he said in another video. “No, probably. The audience is just too small.”
Over time, the low-quality ads on Truth Social have irritated its own users, who have complained to Mr. Trump after repeatedly seeing the same disturbing images or after falling for misleading gimmicks.
“Can you not vet the ads on Truth?” asked one user in a post directed at Mr. Trump. “I’ve been scammed more than once.”
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Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the 2024 Republican nominee for US president.
The nominee? LOL.
BTW There is nothing wrong with selling political mementos to raise money. Sports teams do it every day.
The problem with social media delivering "news" is that they basically are not the best place to go for unbiased information. They are a great place for politicians to get their message out, as Trump proved in 2016. That single event is why the major social media platforms turned to censorship in the years that followed. Thus we need laws that will allow all speech on social media.
This garbage is not "political mementoes".
I dont object to people buying this garbage with their own money. I do object to a former president and presidential candidate advertising this junk on his social media page. If you look at Trump's personal timeline on Truth Social, interspersed with Trump's "truths" are some of these ads. This is far far beneath the dignity of the US presidency, not to mention it is grifting.
That would be the radical son of a bitch that destroyed everyone's savings along with the nation's energy production while flooding the country will illegal migrants.
Ok, I gotta ask. With your obvious disdain for Trump why are you even a member of his Truth Social platform? I assume this is set up kind of similar to Twitter in that you have to follow the person to view their personal timeline? And are these ads sent by Trump or are they ads appearing on the side similar to what we see here on NT?
They say there's a sucker born every minute and they all seem to be Trump supporters.
The SPLC, Lincoln Project and BLM beg to differ.
All the MAGA talking points distilled into childrens books and assembled in one collection.
Socialism, cancel culture, fake news, christian nationalism, gun rights, Trump worship...... lol.
Fill their heads with nonsense while they are young.
Indoctrination.
I think they agree with me.
If they did, they wouldn't exist.
Or just leave it up to the public schools- aka Democrat reprogramming centers.
Where's the My Pillow Moron?
Is he an advertiser on this sham Truth Social?
They do agree with you SG and not the trumpturd supporters.
Did you get a public school education? Or homeschooled?
Public school of course.
What, do you think my parents were rich elitist liberals that would put me through private school? My mother ran a day care and believed every kid in her care should know their letters and numbers before reaching kindergarten. For her own children she set much higher goals.
But unlike many I had the privilege of knowing an Army Ranger that set me straight my junior and senior years in high school; and throughout my tenure in college. That and having to actually work my way through college. After a while not all of the leftist indoctrination BS in the world can sink when you are too tired and fed up with reality.
Also when you get turned down for every college grant, scholarship, and award just for being a white male. Makes you kind of jaded. Still managed the Honors List in High School; and the Dean's list in college- also graduated with College with Honors. Came out with far more debt than I wanted (paid my parents back in full and then some); and a healthy distaste for both Democrats and Republicans.
I was a very hard convert to being a fiscal conservative. Religious and social conservatism part never took- no matter how hard my parents tried. Guess it was all of the bad influences I hung around with from public school and college./S
You could have stopped at public school. I didn't waste my time reading the rest of your nonsense ranting
Every single one is a moron being fleeced by a moron.
Reminds me of the ads on NT! LOL!
Fortunately NT doesnt try to sell Trump garbage.
A few of them certainly are. Maybe the seeder should have not embarrassed the site by showing they use some of the same supposed "junk" ads as Truth Social is touting.
John is not embarrassing the site, that would be the trumpturd supporters/defenders/enablers/reality deniers.
NT doesnt sell Trump garbage.
Didn't say they did.......................
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The seeded article is from the New York Times yesterday. It has nothing to do with me, or Newstalkers.
But if Perrie wants to take it down she can take it down.
All you right wingers laid down with the dog for 7 years but now you object to having to get up with the fleas.
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Gee, you could have fooled 300 million people.
It is amazing that some people think all the garbage on his social media site is ok because "who cares"?
Imagine Lincoln, Roosevelt, Washington, Eisenhower or Reagan peddling such trash on their personal social media threads.
Trump has not rewritten all standards for behavior for a president, he has obliterated them. We live in a degraded nation.
So you are demanding that his social media site needs to follow different rules because TRUMP is associated with it? We see garbage ads on ALL social media sites every day. Facebook as come clean on their algorithms and how they use your own browser history to bring up ads to seem as if they are "personalized". Why should Truth Social be different than any other social media site?
If you want to buy a phony two dollar bill with trump's picture on it be my guest. It is beneath the dignity of the presidency and any other conclusion is just proof how far we have fallen.
But you didn't answer my question, you just deflected away from it.
Thanks to Total-T enhanced with Viagra and anything that starts with oxy I am now happily rubbed up and down by 3 sets of Vietnamese twins that advertise on NT.
Meta deleted on thread @5.2.