Former US president Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against the co-founders of Truth Social, claiming that they should forfeit their shares in the recently public business due to their mismanagement of the social media network, as per a report in NBC News.

The IPO of Truth Social went public on March 26 while the lawsuit was filed on March 24. Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. requested a judge strip executives Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss of their company shares, claiming that their costly errors caused the company’s IPO to be delayed. The arguments were presented in papers filed last week in a Florida state court. The former President has alleged that both violated the agreement about the setup and “don’t deserve their 8.6% stake, currently valued at $606 million”, as per Bloomberg.

The two, who participated on Trump’s NBC programme “The Apprentice,” approached him with the concept of Truth Social after he was banned from Twitter in the wake of the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021. The lawsuit said that this turned out to be “a phenomenal opportunity for Moss and Litinsky” and that they were both “riding President Trump’s coattails.” It added, “Without President Trump, Truth Social would have been impossible.”

According to the lawsuit, the duo was entrusted with creating the new business’s corporate governance and locating a special-purpose acquisition firm that might help it go public and raise capital. The lawsuit stated they were unsuccessful on both occasions.

In February, Mr Moss and Mr Litinsky filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump’s business in Delaware Chancery Court, claiming that he was attempting to reduce the value of their shares by raising the company’s total authorised shares from 120 million to 1 billion.

Tesla and SpaceX Chief Elon Musk reinstated former United States President Donald Trump’s account on Twitter, now X, in November 2022, after he bought the microblogging platform for a whopping $43 billion. Mr Trump’s account was reinstated nearly two years after he was banned following the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. However, the former President has not been active on the platform and keeps his supporters updated with his own social media network- Truth Social.

Recently, a user on X posted that “it’s time for @realDonaldTrump to return to X”. The post caught the attention of the billionaire who replied to the post and said, “Yes.”

Since being shared, Mr Musk’s post caught the attention of several users who had mixed reactions to the same.

“I don’t think he can. He has billions on the line with Truth Social,” said a user.

Another user commented, “I hope you talked to him about it, @elonmusk !”

“It is time for his return,” added a person.

“The return will be epic,” said a user.

“I don’t think he should!” said a person.

An X user noted, “He can’t, that would undermine his own platform, he’ll probably just repost Truth Social statements here.”

Meanwhile, Elon Musk reinstated Donald Trump’s Twitter account after putting the decision up to a poll on the micro-blogging website. “The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated,” Mr Musk posted, shortly after the 24-hour poll on his account ended. More than 15 million people – out of 237 million daily users – voted on the poll. While 51.8 per cent voted in favour of reinstating Mr Trump’s account, 48.2 per cent voted against it. 

Donald Trump had more than 88 million users when his account was suspended. Previously, he had stated that he would not return to the popular platform but would instead remain on Truth Social, launched after he was banned from Twitter. 

Appearing via video at a gathering of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas, Mr Trump said he welcomed Mr Musk’s poll, and was a fan of the man himself, but appeared to reject any return. “I do like him… you know, he’s a character and again, I like characters,” he said, adding, “He did put up a poll and it was very overwhelming… but I have something called… Truth Social.”

As to whether he would return to the platform, he said, “I don’t see it because I don’t see any reason for it.”