Truth Social Dealing With Fallout Of Trump Conviction After Clause From Merger Agreement

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Forbes reporter Zach Everson joins "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss how Truth Social planned for his conviction before he was even charged.   Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript   Stay Connected Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com

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00:00Big news out of New York City. Last week former President Donald Trump was

00:05convicted on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. But you had

00:10an interesting take for Forbes. You've reported this that Trump's social media

00:15business planned for his conviction before he was even charged. So take us to

00:20the planning. When did that start and what did that look like? The earliest

00:25that we saw it publicly was back in October 21, I believe, with the merger

00:31agreement between Digital World Acquisition Corp, which was the SPAC, that

00:35merged with Trump Media Technology Group, which is the parent company of

00:39True Social. And they had a couple clauses in there that were very

00:43interesting and not typical boilerplate in these merger agreements. They had

00:49announced that there would be, they had said there were going to be two possible

00:52material disruptive events that they identified. One of them would be Trump

00:56running for, announcing he would run for public office. And the other would be Trump being

01:00convicted of a felony. And now the company is dealing with both of those

01:04material disruptive events. So the company is dealing with both of these. I

01:09know, I'm not sure about your contract, but in mine that does not have that type

01:13of clause. So you're saying this isn't normal for a business to have? No, I'm

01:18going to go reread mine. I don't anticipate any felony convictions for

01:22myself coming through anytime soon, but I probably should check that out. But

01:26yeah, yeah. So I spoke with three experts in IPOs and SPACs, and they said, yeah,

01:31this is not common language to rule this out for a felony. I mean, obviously, the

01:35presidential carve out was something explicitly for Trump. But they said the

01:39same thing with the felony conviction, that that is not something you would

01:43typically find in these documents. So what did the contingency plan say if

01:48these material disruptive events happened, like Trump is convicted of a

01:52felony, like if he announced he was running for office because both are

01:56happening simultaneously?

01:59Right. Well, the phrase they use to quote is the company's principal

02:02ownership and position in the company, excuse me, the company principles

02:05ownership and position in the company shall be structured in such a way as to

02:09eliminate the need for restructuring of ownership or changes in position where

02:13material disruptive event to occur. That is the extent. There are no details at

02:17all about that. So if you're an investor, I'm not sure what you're supposed to

02:19make out of this. What it appears that meant, though, in hindsight, is that they

02:24have minimized Trump's role in the company beyond owning about 65 percent of

02:29it. He's not an executive with the company. He's not even on the board of

02:33directors. So the experts that I reached out to said that, yeah, this this it's

02:38his conviction is not really going to disrupt the company.

02:41So can you talk about since he isn't the CEO or on the board of directors, who is

02:46and how does his status as a convicted felon impact them?

02:52Well, if you can't get Donald Trump on the board of directors, what's the next

02:56best thing? Donald Trump, Jr., he is on the board of directors, as are three

03:01former Trump administration officials, Kash Patel, Robert Lighthizer and Linda

03:06McMahon. And Devin Nunez, the former Republican congressman from California,

03:11who I believe sued a account over a fictional cow. He is currently the CEO.

03:17So you've certainly got some Trump loyalists who are in charge of this

03:20company. So where he's not directly doesn't have those roles directly, no

03:24doubt he has some sway over the people who do.

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