Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif. is resigning from his congressional seat to become CEO of Donald Trump’s new media company, Trump Media & Technology Group, or TMTG, that aims to launch its own social media platform in the future.
The California Republican will give up his seat in the middle of his 10th term and begin his new career despite having a lack of experience working in the tech industry.
Nunes is just the second member of the 117th Congress to resign before the end of his term.
“Recently, I was presented with a new opportunity to fight for the most important issues I believe in,” Nunes wrote in an email to his constituents.
Nunes would have been in line to become chairman of the powerful, tax-writing Ways and Means Committee if the GOP regains majority control of the House in the 2022 midterm elections.
Nunes said in the press release that he is “humbled and honored that President Trump asked him to lead the mission and the world-class team that will deliver on this promise.”
In his final month in office, and just two days before the deadly Jan. 6 invasion of the Capitol, Trump awarded Nunes the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Trump’s company is aiming to be a future competitor of Twitter and other social media giants, as they shared generic, thinly detailed plans for their launch of a platform called “Truth Social.”
TMTG and DWAC announced an agreement to raise $1 billion in “committed capital” from a group of unnamed investors in a so-called PIPE, or private investment in public equity, that would be received once the two firms consummated their deal.