This is not a “ha ha” story about Donald Trump’s misfortunes, no – Hurricane Milton promises to be yet another devastating storm that will upset lives for years, taking some forever. So it is best to start off with the hope and prayers needed for the people on Florida’s western coast. The center of that coast includes Sarasota, a town in which Truth Social is located and this story is more about them not needing this storm on top of what’s already been a bad year.
As a quick review, as of this writing, HUrricane Milton is a top Category Four hurricane with wind speeds of 150 mph. As someone who went through Katrina in Southern Mississippi and personally seeing 110 mph winds just 60 miles inland, I cannot even imagine the strength this storm punches. Every minute in a storm sounds like a freight train going by. The forecast indicates it will directly hit Sarasota as a high Category Three or low Four storm, probably as soon as late tomorrow night. Sarasota has various evacuation levels based on location from recommended to mandatory. A map of the orders can be found here.
Through the miraculous electric Google machine we can peer in on 401 N. Cattlemen Rd., Ste. 200 Sarasota, Florida 34232 or the exact address of Truth Social’s headquarters as listed by its formation papers originally dug out by Rawstory and now placed on a map right here. As you can see the headquarters are not in the worst mandatory areas but they certainly are not in a “good area” either. Additionally – and this matters – the “Suite 200” would seem to indicate a second floor office. Height is everything when it comes to storm surge. If you cannot get out of the way evacuating to the side, one should at least go “up.” So Truth Social could actually be in a worse position.
Barely.
This is a company that is bleeding money. But unlike nearly every other Trump property, this one oozes shareholder money. Trump ran his businesses – for better or worse – as a family affair without public shareholders and had never taken a company public before. That reality might be telling regarding whether Trump put his heart into the company’s operation or whether it was more like “Trump University” which would allow him to walk away with a ton of other people’s money. I don’t know. Few would.
What I do know is that Rawstory reports that Truth Social stock opened for trade at $66.00 per share and the stock recently hit $20. It is a loss of 66% – even using math as taught in Florida. Were that not enough, the $20 share price is actually a high coming out of August. Presumably the high hit before news of the hurricane.
Again, this is not “ha ha” funny because Florida is home to a lot of Trump supporters, many of whom probably live on the west coast and some of whom likely bought some Truth Social stock. It really doesn’t matter. The storm will hit everyone with massive losses without any political implications. To those people about to lose homes or be displaced we should extend sympathies and – if able – some action.
Going through Katrina, I recall the elation when spotting a “Dominoes” trailer making free pizzas, the sight of a massive pickup with barrels of gas in the back, even the opportunity to applaud the appearance of utility trucks from New York – even Ontario. Additionally, losing power for weeks can be a devastating loss for those who make money on the net.
Truth Social will be fine on the scroll because the whole purpose of a “net” is that there is no center. The network will hold. But the corporate headquarters, the home managing the system will likely be down. Tellingly, it probably will not be temporarily operated out of Mar-a-Lago. Whether Trump ever put enough energy into the company is left undetermined.
What can be said is that he did not put sufficient effort to keep it from failing if he could at all. NO effort could predict or stop a hurricane like this. This is a company and an area that have had a bad year – it’s not “ha-ha.”
God Bless:Â I can be reached at [email protected] and @JasonMiciak
Karma does have a sense of humor.
Sorry but for me it’s definitely “ha, ha!”
I have lived through several hurricanes as a child and adult. They are scary as hell. We rode out Donna safely and with no property loss in 1960 at home. when schools reopened, my bus couldn’t get closer than two blocks. I carried my shoes,and socks and walked home barefoot. Of course I went to school;the nuns regarded Donna as a minor nuisances and not an excuse for smoking school. We got hit by a second hurricane shortly thereafter and Dad went on a scheduled business trip. He could not get the cab any closer than a half mi!e and swam the rest of the way home. He’d ridden out the second hurricane in his hotel.
And that, folks, is how bad a hurricane is. Donna,was so awful they retired the name for storms. And we were far inland.