I spent a week on Trump's new social media app Truth Social. I felt like I was exploring a ghost town.

Donald Trump promised to launch his own social media platform after he was kicked off Facebook. On February 21, 2022, he launched Truth Social.

I downloaded the Truth Social app on launch day and created an account, but was told I was on a wait list. I was finally allowed to use the app on March 14.

I didn't find very much. It was like a ghost town that had been overrun by machines.

The company behind Truth Social, Trump Media and Technology Group, is trying to get people to use its app instead of the big social media platforms, which banned Trump for inciting violence during the US Capitol insurrection.

Truth Social is a flop.

Downloads and time spent on the app have gone down since it was launched. According to an analysis by Similarweb, it has fallen from being the number one download on the US App Store to number 173.

The app keeps people locked out for weeks because of the lengthy wait list. When I got off the waitlist and into the app, I scrolled through my feed, but there wasn't much to see or do.

Here is what I found.

Rosie Bradbury/Insider

I followed 50 suggested accounts after completing the setup process for new users.

Trump had an account with 850,000 followers. Sean Hannity was a Fox News anchor. Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of all charges in November of last year after he shot and killed two people during protests over the police.

The official NASA account had 113,000 followers, as well as an account entitled "Hot Chicks Golfing" which had 61,000.

After following these accounts, my feed started filling up, but with very little original content. Most of the posts in my feed were just linked-out articles on websites, which were posted automatically via RSS feeds.

Rosie Bradbury/Insider

Some media outlets, including Fox-owned tabloid TMZ and right-wing UK newspaper The Daily Mail, had Truth Social presences.

CNN, NBC, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal were not present.

Fox News, which was once Trump's news network of choice, didn't appear to have a presence. There was an account called Fox News Channel that only had 5,920 followers and only posted 30 Truths.

The Fox Sports website had 76,300 followers, but the account that aggregated the RSS was not affiliated with Fox itself.

Rosie Bradbury/Insider

Conservatives were active on Truth Social.

Sean Hannity had 372,000 followers and was posting several truths a day. congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene had 71,600 followers and congressman Paul Gosar had 12,400.

These accounts were not the norm. A host of prominent Republicans and conservative commentators were not present.

I couldn't find any verified US Senators or Democrats through the app's profile finder.

I found a few Republicans. Neither of the representatives had posted any truths. There were 4,320 users and seven posts there.

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