Will Wilkerson, a co-founder of Truth Social’s media parent company, told The Washington Post that Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump requested financial stakes in the social media platform despite having never worked for the company.
“They were coming in and asking for a handout,” Wilkerson told the Post in an article published Saturday. “They had no bearing in this company … and they were taking equity away from hard-working individuals.”
One of the first Trump Media & Technology Group employees, Wilkerson served as senior vice president of operations until he was forced off the board Thursday after sharing that and other allegations with the Post. Wilkerson’s other revelations included that Donald Trump had asked co-founder Andy Litinsky to relinquish his stock to Melania Trump.
“The gift would have meant a huge tax bill he couldn’t pay,” Wilkerson told the Post. “Trump didn’t care. He said, ‘Do whatever you need to do.’”
That request last October followed Truth Social receiving millions of dollars in new investments. Trump had already taken 90% of shares in Trump Media and left its employees to split the rest. Litinsky refused to part with his stock for Melania and was fired five months later.
“Ignoring these achievements [of launching Truth Social on the Apple and Google app stores to millions of downloads], the Washington Post published a story rife with knowingly false and defamatory statements and other concocted psychodramas,” Trump Media & Technology Group told Insider.
Wilkerson filed a whistleblower complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission in August. His attorney told the Post that he is currently cooperating with investigations into Trump Media by the SEC and by federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York.
He provided the SEC with a daily computer log that he, Litinsky and co-founder Wes Moss kept during their time at Trump Media. Obtained by the Post, it chronicled infighting in the Trump business and detailed what his lawyers called “fraudulent misrepresentations … in violation of federal securities laws.”
The log also showed the trio of co-founders debating how to market the Trump family’s ties to the business and showed one of them telling another that Trump Jr. “needs a bedtime story and some love.” Trump Media dismissed Wilkerson’s claims; Wilkerson said the company threatened him for speaking out.
“We weren’t trying to be Trump Org 2.0,” Wilkerson told the Post. “We always saw Trump as the rocket fuel to send this thing to space. I wanted this to succeed more than anything. … But these are glaring issues, and they’re threatening me now for calling them out. I couldn’t stay quiet anymore.”
