Jason Miller Doesn’t Just Want Trump to Join Gettr, He’s Hoping Biden Will Too

Former Trump spokesman Jason Miller was interviewed by New York Times tech journalist Kara Swisher for her podcast, “Sway,” and spoke about who he’d like to see join Gettr, the social media platform he joined earlier this year as CEO. Miller told Swisher he’d not only like to see his old boss, former President Donald Trump, but he’d also like to see his successor, President Joe Biden — along with some other perhaps surprising Democratic names.

Trump was banned from Twitter, Facebook, and most other major social media platforms in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, and while he has expressed major frustration over his inability to broadcast his rants and raves directly to his followers, but he has not yet found a new online home other than his website.

Gettr had a stumbling, bumbling launch at the beginning of July, and it currently has “a little under two million users,” according the Times. One major hurdle the platform has still to overcome: recruiting Trump to join.

In the podcast, Swisher asked Miller about his decision to leave Trump’s team to become Gettr’s CEO, and about his plans for the company.

Miller told her that he had been introduced to the team that was funding and building the Gettr platform by another former Trump advisor, Steve Bannon. After two or three months discussion, Miller agreed to join them.

“O.K., so one glaring omission — I’m assuming one of the reasons they hired you — is Trump is not on your platform, despite your relationship. Why not?” Swisher asked.

Miller replied that he was “working it,” as Trump had “a number of different options that are in front of him,” they were “continuing to talk,” and he was “hopeful.”

“I’ve told him that I have his @RealDonaldTrump handle reserved for him,” Miller added. “It’s all ready.”

“How do you woo former President Trump to get on the platform?” Swisher asked him for specifics.

Miller demurred, saying it was “a little bit kind of like the ‘Fight Club.’ You can’t talk about ‘Fight Club.'”

“Yeah, but I’d like you to talk about Fight Club,” Swisher pressed on. “How do you get him to come on? Do you have to give him money? Do you have to give him equity, money, cash?”

“Everything is a negotiation,” said Miller, explaining that Trump wanted to be back on social media.

“I mean, his statements and things get picked up now, but he’d much rather be on social media itself,” he continued, acknowledging that Trump wouldn’t have been elected in 2016 if he hadn’t had “a way to circumvent the traditional media…that was kind of his superpower.”

Miller told Swisher that if Trump joined Gettr, he wouldn’t have special rules for him or anybody. “The rules that we have are the rules that we have, and that doesn’t get changed for anybody…Our rules are our rules, and we don’t have special rules for certain people.”

As part of a discussion about moderation of content and negative content on social media, Miller commented that he hoped to “make this fun” with the platform provided by Gettr and not just be about trolling or slamming people.

“I want to make sure that people don’t lose that ability for their political free speech,” explained Miller. “And again, not that everything on Gettr is political. I mean, one of the things that I’m making a very concerted effort to try to expand it out, get not just folks in the US, but people internationally in other countries. Making a very serious effort to try to get some left of center folks onto the platform as well.”

Swisher asked Miller who his “dream Democrats” would be that he would like to have sign up for Gettr.

“I’d love to get Bernie Sanders,” said Miller. “I mean, keep in mind that President Trump ended up getting somewhere in the neighborhood of, was it, 7% or 9% of Bernie Sanders supporters in the general election in 2016? I think there are actually a lot of Bernie supporters, kind of Bernie free speech advocates, that I think do appreciate what we’re trying to do. And then for the sake of having some fun, I’d love to get Rob Reiner, go and give me some of the Hollywood people to come in and have some fun with it.”

Miller also said he’d “love to get” Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

“Nancy Pelosi would be great,” he said.

Listen to the podcast episode and read the transcript at The New York Times.