WaPo:

Former president Donald Trump has failed to win another vote — this time, by the shareholders of an investment ally his social network Truth Social had been counting on for cash.

Digital World Acquisition Corp., a special-purpose acquisition company, said Thursday it had not yet gained enough shareholder votes to extend its deadline for merging with Trump’s start-up — a necessary step to unlock $1.3 billion in raised funds.

The company was scheduled for liquidation Thursday unless its investors approved the extension or the company’s sponsor paid to push back the deadline itself.

But Digital World’s chief, Patrick Orlando, said late Thursday that the company would instead postpone a long-awaited meeting until Oct. 10 without offering further detail, indicating the company was still scrambling to garner enough shareholder support.’

The company has said in filings that Arc Capital, the Shanghai-based investment advisory firm that funds and sponsors Digital World, could pay $2.8 million to give the company another three months to seal the deal without shareholder approval.

Even that might not be enough time. Ongoing investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission and federal prosecutors have frozen the merger indefinitely. In an SEC filing Wednesday, Digital World reprinted an item from a pro-Trump blog post urging the SEC to “wrap up its probe.”