CEO of shell company aiming to take Truth Social public uses QAnon show to ask shareholders to delay merger

Written by Alex Kaplan

Published

The CEO of a shell corporation formed to merge with the company running former President Donald Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, went on a QAnon show to advocate for his own shareholders to delay the merger.

On October 5, Patrick Orlando, the CEO of Digital World Acquisition Corp., appeared on the QAnon-supporting MatrixxxGrooove Show. DWAC is a so-called special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) aiming to merge with Trump Media & Technology Group — the company running Truth Social — in order to take the media company public. The planned merger has come under government scrutiny, leading to its delay and an October shareholders vote to extend the merger deadline. Orlando has been urging Trump and Truth Social CEO Devin Nunes to raise awareness of the shareholder vote.

During his appearance on the QAnon-supporting show, Orlando openly promoted the vote and asked shareholders to cast their votes to “extend the amount of time” to complete the “business combination” and shared ways for them to vote by email or phone. He also said that “a show like this is incredible to get the awareness out there.” 

In turn, co-hosts and QAnon influencers Jeffrey Pedersen (known online as “intheMatrixxx”) and Shannon Townsend (known online as “ShadyGrooove”) praised Orlando for his efforts for “an amazing platform,” urging viewers to buy “one share of DWAC” and for shareholders to vote “to support and fund Donald Trump's Truth Social.” 

The Truth Social SPAC CEO appearing on a QAnon show in an effort to reach his company’s own shareholders is yet another connection between the QAnon community and Trump’s social media platform. The platform’s leadership — Nunes and Kash Patel, who has served on Truth Social’s board — have openly appealed to and praised the QAnon community as part of their business model, with Patel saying “we try to incorporate” QAnon “into our overall messaging scheme to capture audiences.” The platform has also verified numerous QAnon influencers and shown QAnon ads; Trump himself has even repeatedly amplified QAnon accounts and QAnon content on Truth Social, including posting video that contains a QAnon-connected song.

From the October 5, 2022, edition of MatrixxxGrooove Show

PATRICK ORLANDO (DWAC CEO): We do have many stockholders that we don’t have phone numbers and emails for. So, you know, a show like this is incredible to get the awareness out there. You know, just make sure that everybody that you know that is interested in DWAC that may have held shares on August 12 figures out how to get their vote in. 

JEFFREY PEDERSEN (CO-HOST): Excellent, excellent. And you know, again, we know your time is limited, sir. You know, we see some of the mainstream news hit pieces on it, about a mailbox, all this other stuff. It’s — they’re attacking you just like they would Donald J. Trump and even just people that voted the wrong way in the last election, allegedly, right? So, you know, do you want to address any of the rumors or anything like that that you can talk about publicly? 

ORLANDO: So once again, you know, there’s a Q&A. That is our latest round of addressing, you know, any rumors. Address changes — sometimes you change your address for whatever reason you think is appropriate. So the way that, you know, let’s say a run of the mill actions are portrayed sometimes, everyone can judge whether or not that’s a fair portrayal, right? But, you know, we will answer questions through Q&A, through public filings. Keep your eyes peeled. You can follow me on Truth Social. 

… 

PEDERSEN: And, you know, this is a big deal. This is to support and fund Donald Trump’s Truth Social. We call it that, Truth Social. It’s an amazing platform. Thank you for stepping up to the plate and lining up the investors required to actually get this platform up. You know, we’ve got a lot of censorship out there. And I think the people that watch this show right now thank you very much for, you know, moving forward with the finance and the expansion of this platform. 

ORLANDO: All right, excellent, guys. You know, I’ll get back to work. We’re working diligently and it was wonderful to be able to talk about the vote and the importance of the vote and how to vote. We really want to make sure that there’s nobody that wanted to vote that doesn’t get counted.

…

PEDERSEN: And, you know, if everybody on Truth Social just bought one share of DWAC, it would make a difference, folks.