'A suckers bet': Forbes says Trump's Truth Social platform has 'big hill to climb'

Former president Donald Trump's new media venture is "a suckers bet," according to Forbes magazine senior contributor Chuck Jones.

Trump's Truth Social platform is part of Trump Media & Technology Group, which is set to merge with Digital World Acquisition Corp.

Despite a jump this week in the stock price of Digital World, Jones notes that both are companies "with no revenue or earnings."

"We have neither engaged in any operations nor generated any revenues to date," according to Digital World's IPO prospectus.

"This can also be said of TMTG," Jones writes. "It is a business starting from ground zero with multiple hurdles in front of it. From its press release TMTG's business will be, 'create a rival to the liberal media consortium and fight back against the "Big Tech" companies of Silicon Valley, which have used their unilateral power to silence opposing voices in America.' Along with a social network, named 'TRUTH Social.' It will be a large hill to climb going against established social media companies."

He goes on to note that Trump "has a very poor track record running companies."

Trump has previously run only one publicly traded company, called Trump Entertainment Resorts, which included many of his Atlantic City casinos, the Washington Post reported this week.

"The company operated for roughly two decades, starting in 1995," the Post reported. "For Trump's investors, it was a disaster: The company lost more than $1 billion, its stock price nosedived, and it filed for bankruptcy three times, in 2004, 2009 and 2014. ... But Trump himself did well: The struggling company paid him more than $44 million in salary, bonuses and other compensation."