California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced on Thursday that he joined former President Trump’s Truth Social platform, saying in a tweet that he would be using it to call out and debunk “Republican lies.”
“I just joined Trump’s Truth Social. Going to be on there calling out Republican lies. This could get…interesting,” he wrote on Twitter.
“My first post — breaking down America’s red state murder problem,” he said, adding a link to his Truth Social post.
In a video supplementing his announcement, he said that red states made up the majority of those with the highest murder rates.
Newsom is likely referring to a stat offered by center-left think tank Third Way, which said in a report in March amid rising U.S. crime rates that “8 of the 10 states with the highest murder rates in 2020 voted for the Republican presidential nominee in every election this century.”
The addition of California governor, who has floated as a possible presidential candidate, is potentially a boon to Trump’s struggling social network, given that it could prompt other high-profile Democrats to join.
Trump started Truth Social after he was kicked off several social media platforms following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, when his supporters invaded the building in hopes of overturning the results of the 2020 presidential election. Trump has since been issuing statements through the platform, in addition to his Save America PAC.
Several weeks after it launched, the network was mired in a long waitlist for users seeking to join and not a lot of activity.
Trump recently issued a statement through Truth Social pushing back against the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot in response to its first public June hearing.