Traffic to former President Donald Trump’s social media site, Truth Social, crashed the platform for hours as a massive swell of users keyed in to read Trump’s live posts with his comments in response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address, with the general election between the two likely ahead in about eight months.
Delays lasted intermittently for some users during the first part of Biden’s speech. For many others, however, the site was down for hours before they could visit again and read Trump’s comments, as Truth Social recorded all-time high traffic levels in anticipation of the former president getting in a debate preview for his supporters and undecided voters.
Donald Trump on Truth Social preempts Biden's blame shifting on the border many expect from tonight's SOTU address: pic.twitter.com/ahdz4ZZRwG
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) March 8, 2024
Trump got his followers excited about the multi-media event, allowing them to read Trump’s point-by-point response to Biden in real time on their phones as they watched the president give his speech live on television. Truth Social has grown its audience and user base in recent months — and Biden’s campaign even recently opened an account on the platform.
Trump posted dozens of responses during the State of the Union, writing at one point, “He’s talking about Violence, but Migrant Violence is leading to the Worst Crime Wave in History” — criticizing Biden’s open border policy and support for amnesty for illegal immigrants.
“Don’t shake his hand, he’s been coughing into it the entire night!” Trump teased in another post.
President Trump posted to Truth Social commenting on Biden’s SOTU address.
I agree with him completely. Biden is unhinged. pic.twitter.com/pOCTEUZ056
— The Great Resistance (@ResistanceGreat) March 8, 2024
The surge in traffic to view Trump’s responses shows the enthusiasm and numbers brimming behind his campaign. He has the support of a thriving base, and they are very energized. The website outages for Truth Social are like the overflow crowds that attend his campaign stops to listen to him speak and cheer him on for president.
According to data from Down Detector, Trump supporters could not access the platform starting around 9 P.M. ET Thursday. “Too much love or a DDOS attack is my guess,” said a user on Down Detector.
Others experienced glitches, such as one user who posted, “Truth won’t allow me to follow. This is an ongoing issue that happens almost every 2 weeks and the service desk never responds to my ticket. I tried clearing my browsing history and cache but that doesn’t work.”
