Parler, the popular social network among members of the far right, was well aware that having then President Donald Trump as a user would do wonders for his popularity. And he was ready to court him with a strategy that appealed to the president, who always praised his supposed ability to close deals. As part of negotiations to make Parler Trump’s main social network, the company ended up offering the Trump Organization a 40% stake in the company, reports BuzzFeed News. As part of the deal, Trump would commit to posting everything on Parler first and waiting at least four hours before posting on any other platform.
It is unclear how much the former president got involved in the negotiations, but the BuzzFeed report makes it clear that these were not casual and casual conversations. Negotiations between the Trump Organization and Parler began last summer. It appears that former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale played a key role, as he had considered creating an account for the president on the site as early as 2019. Parscale was the one, along with campaign attorney Alex Cannon, later met with Parler CEO John Matze and two partners to discuss the idea. Matze said earlier this week that he was fired from the company.
As soon as it heard of the talks, the White House council office immediately put a stop to the talks, warning that any deal would violate ethical rules. But discussions resumed after Trump lost his re-election. Apparently, the whole conversation stopped after the Capitol riot and both Google and Apple removed Parler from their app stores. It was later taken offline when Amazon decided to stop hosting it. Parscale told BuzzFeed that Trump “was never part of the discussions” and they “were never so substantive”. Still, some experts say at least that the mere negotiations and the subsequent offer would justify an investigation. “While then President Trump was bragging that the ethical rules did not apply to him, bribery laws do apply and the courts considered that Trump’s social media posts constituted official business while he was in office,” said Scott Amey, general counsel for the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group.
Last month, Matze said in a lawsuit that Trump had considered creating an account in Parler under the pseudonym “Person X”. Matze said Amazon Web Services knew of this possibility and stopped hosting the site as a way to deny Trump a social media platform. Amazon denied the charge, insisting that the suspension “had nothing to do with politics”.
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