Former President Donald Trump's team quietly launched a new social media platform, Gettr, on Thursday, calling it an alternative to Big Tech sites. However, most don't know and also his Trump's advisor Jason Miller didn't mention is that the new social platform Gettr is backed by a fugitive Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui.
Interestingly, Wengui posted a video only two days earlier on his site GNEWS urging viewers to back up their social media posts on Gettr. Wengui is an exiled Chinese billionaire who runs a Chinese-language media network with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and even once invited him to live on his yacht.
Voice of Trump
Miller, on Thursday, announced the launch of Gettr, a new social media app aimed at conservatives that promises to be "cancel-free." In no time thousands of Trump fans, who are wary of social media censorship on more prominent platforms like Twitter and Facebook, started signing up for the platform after Politico reported on the existence of the new site.
Gettr is being viewed as the logical extension of Trump's months-long battle with major social media companies like Twitter and Facebook, which had booted him in the aftermath of the Capitol riots on January 6. Although the former president hasn't yet committed to being on Gettr, it seems like the type of place where he inevitably would end up after having launched a failed professional blog of his own a few months back.
That said, what many don't know that Gettr received its initial funding form one of the many foundations run by Wengui and his family. When asked, Miller acknowledged to Daily Beast that Wengui's "family foundation" provided Gettr with early funding.
"Some of the initial seed money has come from his family foundation," Miller told the outlet about Wengui, who also goes by the name Miles Kwok.
What is Gettr?
Although Miller acknowledged Wengui link with the social media platform, he stressed that the Chinese billionaire isn't a direct investor in Gettr and also doesn't have a seat on its board or other formal role. Acording to Miller, Gettr was backed by a "consortium of international investors," but declined to name them, beyond the Guo foundation, or the total amount of money that has been invested in the new social-media property so far.
That said, other websites associated with Wengui portray Gettr as as his brainchild. That said, Gettr may not be that popular but has existed more than a year now. Prior to Thursday's announcement, Gettr has been in existence as a Chinese e-language social media network linked to Wengui and G-TV Media. It is also known for publishing anti-CCP content that had been promoted on a regular basis. In fact, the app is on Apple Store and has more than 1,200 reviews dating back months, primarily from users praising its anti-CCP stance.
Previous advertising for Gettr had been posted online before news broke of Miller's venture. Those advertisements include logos of several entities in the G-TV Media Group, a media company owned by both Bannon and Wengui.
Wengui's exact links with Gettr may not be known immediately but his G-TV Media in collaboration with Bannon has had a rocky history. The entity was the subject of a federal probe into its fundraising, with the FBI and SEC investigating the company's $300 million private fundraising round.
Also, links between Wengui and Bannon go back years. Interestingly, Bannon was arrested aboard Wengui's yacht in 2020 over fraud charges related to a separate crowdfunding project to help build a wall on the US-Mexico border. Prior to that, it was reported in 2019 that Wengui was a member of Trump's Mar-a-Lago club.
It now needs to be seen what Trump does, which is most likely, given that his supporters feel that he should get back to social media at the earliest. Gettr will officially be launched on July 4.
