Trump’s plaything Truth Social is reportedly about to collapse. Why am I not surprised? | Arwa Mahdawi

From Boris Johnson to Ghislaine Maxwell, there's one thing rich people seem to have in common - they hate paying bills

Truth Social, we hardly knew you! Just six months after its chaotic launch, it looks as if Donald Trump's social media network could be on the verge of collapse. As first reported by Fox Business, Truth Social allegedly owes about $1.6m to RightForge, the internet infrastructure company that hosts the app. Paying that back might be tough since Truth Social doesn't seem to make money and is facing a number of problems, including declining traffic and the recent denial of its trademark applications. Trump Media & Technology Group, Truth Social's parent company, is also embroiled in a federal investigation about whether it violated securities laws.

While all that sounds pretty bad, everything is rosy in the alternative universe Trump appears to inhabit. On Monday, the former president said that rumours of Truth Social's demise are greatly exaggerated. And, to be fair, while multiple reputable news outlets have reported that Truth Social hasn't paid RightForge since around March, the CEO of the hosting company - which targets its services at conservatives - hasn't publicly confirmed these reports. Instead, Martin Avila told Fox Business that RightForge believes in the mission of President Trump's free speech platform". Believing in free speech can be very expensive, I guess.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist