Site Suffers Mass Layoffs

With Its Top Investor in Jail, a Pro-Trump Social Media Site Suffers Mass Layoffs

Gettr was promoted by MAGA heavies like Steve Bannon and Jason Miller. It’s now close to shutting down, sources say.

DAN FRIEDMAN

A pro-Trump social media site that was launched with great fanfare less than three years ago has now laid off much of its staff and is close to shutting down, current and former employees say.

Gettr, which was founded in 2021 as a MAGA-aligned alternative to Twitter, has floundered in the wake of the indictment and imprisonment of fugitive Chinese mogul Guo Wengui, who federal prosectors allege controlled Gettr and financed it with fraudulently obtained funds. Gettr also faces competition from Donald Trump’s Truth Social site, from other right-leaning social media sites, and from X, formerly Twitter, following Elon Musk’s effort to amplify far-right accounts there.

“EVERYBODY at Gettr was let go,” said one former employee, via text message, who asked to remain anonymous. A current employee who also requested anonymity said Gettr has undergone “major layoffs” since January and currently does not have the funds to remain in operation for long. Gettr’s board has not approved a budget since December, leaving the company’s status unclear, these sources said.

Gettr has previously said it had hundreds of employees and contractors, many working out of a plush office on Manhattan’s Columbus Circle. The company announced last July that it had surpassed 10 million users. Mother Jones couldn’t verify those figures.

Gettr CEO Ken Huang and its former CEO, Trump adviser Jason Miller, referred Mother Jones’ requests for comment to Robin Mokhtar, who recently stepped down from a job as the company’s chief financial officer. Mokhtar did not respond to questions.

Gettr was among various media ventures once touted by Guo, a self-described billionaire who got rich in Chinese real estate before fleeing to the United States in 2015 ahead of charges for corruption and financial crimes in China. He denies wrongdoing. Guo, who has sought political asylum in the US, so far without success, styled himself as a vocal critic of the Chinese Communist Party and an ardent Trump supporter, a brand that helped him cultivate ties to right-leaning figures close to Trump, along with fierce support from thousands of Chinese emigres.

Guo in 2017 began working closely with Steve Bannon, who Guo paid lavishly to offer advice on his various ventures, including Gettr. Sources told Mother Jones last year that Gettr paid Bannon’s War Room broadcast $50,000 per month to ensure Bannon’s use of the site as his primary social media outlet. Gettr has acknowledged paying prominent right-wing figures—including Turning Point USA leader Charlie Kirk, Dinesh D’Souza, Jack Posobiec, and Andy Ngo—to use the site.

Gettr was based on a social media application that Guo had previously developed, and its tech staff was substantially made up of Chinese-speaking contractors working at companies with links to Guo. But Gettr, under Guo’s direct instructions, attempted to downplay his influence, instead highlighting the role of Miller and other former Trumpworld figures who took positions at the company. While working as CEO of Gettr, Miller claimed that Guo had only invested in Gettr only via a family foundation, and not involved in the company’s daily operations, even as reporting by Mother Jones and others revealed that Guo exerted substantial influence over the company. Miller left Gettr last February to work as a senior adviser to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.

Federal prosecutors last March charged Guo with running a massive fraud that allowed him to embezzle hundreds of millions of dollars that he solicited from his supporters in the Chinese diaspora as supposed investments in various business schemes. Guo, who has pleaded not guilty, has been jailed since then, based on prosecutors’ arguments that he would pose a major flight risk if released on bond.

In court filings following Guo’s arrest, federal prosecutors said that Guo “controls” Gettr “through a series of shell companies.” Prosecutors seized more than $300 million from bank accounts linked to the Hamilton Opportunity Fund, which was nominally Gettr’s main investor, alleging the money came from proceeds of Guo’s fraud. Hamilton is a Hong Kong-based investment fund founded by William Je, who was indicted alongside Guo. Je is currently a fugitive. Prosecutors have said they believe Je is somewhere in the United Arab Emirates. A third defendant in the case, Yvette Wang, a longtime Guo aide, also played a senior role at Gettr. She, too, has pleaded not guilty and remains jailed without bond.

People familiar with Gettr’s operations said it is now effectively run by a longtime Guo lawyer, Aaron Mitchell. “Mitchell has been the one and only board member” since Miller left in February 2023 to work for Trump, the former employee said. Mitchell didn’t respond to a request for comment.

In charging Guo, prosecutors revealed that they had previously seized $2.7 million from an account marked Gettr USA. Last week, in a federal bankruptcy case in Connecticut, where Guo has sought Chapter 11 protection from creditors, a US Trustee filed a motion seeking to recover $21 million in funds that Gettr received from Hamilton.

The trustee has also sought to claw back $353,000 that a different company Guo allegedly controlled paid to Miller. That payment appears to have been part of Miller’s compensation as Gettr’s CEO. Miller declined to comment on the trustee’s filing. The bankruptcy trustee has also filed motions seeking to recover $270,000 that the same company allegedly paid to Warroom Broadcasting & Media Communications, as well as $250,000 that yet another Guo company paid to Bannon Strategic Advisors. In another motion, the trustee sought to claw back about $264,000 that one of the Guo-controlled companies paid to Fox News.

The public portions of those bankruptcy court filings, which also contain sealed attachments, do not specify the date or purpose of those payments. The filings charge that the transactions were part of the fraud carried out by Guo and his codefendants, but they do not allege any wrongdoing by the recipients of the funds. Bannon and Fox News did not respond to requests for comment.