Former users of Parler, the defunct right-wing social media app, got an email from Donald Trump on Tuesday.“Reports state that I could receive a maximum sentence of 400 YEARS IN PRISON despite being a totally and completely innocent man,” the email reads, referencing the former president’s indictment over allegations that he stole classified documents. “It sounds like something Stalin or Mao did to eliminate their opposition. But instead, it’s happening here in America. Communism has finally come to our shores.”The email goes on to ask readers to “make a contribution to peacefully stand with me and SAVE the greatest country in history,” with a series of links for suggested campaign donations ranging from $24 to $250. How is he messaging users of an app whose users can’t even use it? Via the data Parler has retained. Trump is paying for access to Parler’s list of user emails.For years, Parler’s treated its email subscribers to the kind of trashy advertising you see in the gutters of news websites, including miracle cures for belly fat and “CryptoTrump” NFTs. Truth Social’s meager advertising is much the same. Initially, Parler’s newsletter often featured actual misinformation-filled news, but the non-advertising content has slowed to a trickle. The only recent news in the newsletter that isn’t marketing material comes from American Wire News, a conservative outlet owned by Parler’s new parent company Starboard.Starboard is run by CEO Ryan Coyne, Parler’s current head honcho. Reached for comment about the political emails, Coyne said, “All [presidential] candidates rent every list on the market all day long,” but didn’t answer questions about plans for Parler or its email list. The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. When Twitter banned Donald Trump over his calls for the January 6th insurrection, Republicans coalesced around the idea that they needed their own social media network free from Silicon Valley’s “agenda.” Parler led this so-called “Alt-Tech” movement for a time, but fell by the wayside after a series of controversies. Now, the movement is all but finished, in part thanks to Elon Musk’s newly right-wing Twitter, in part thanks to general disinterest. A conservative media conglomerate called Starboard bought Parler in April and indefinitely shuttered the platform for a “strategic reassessment.” As a social media platform, Parler is dead, but its ghost lives on in an email newsletter.Today, Parler doesn’t even have a functioning website. What it does have is a list of emails collected when people registered their accounts. A cohort of like-minded internet users is a valuable marketing asset, and the messages former Parler users received over the last few months are almost entirely marketing content.Trump isn’t the only one trying to make a buck off his indictment. This Wednesday, Parler email subscribers were treated to an ad for a “free kids gift” that “tells the Truth about Trump.” The email comes from a company run by former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. Here, a smiling and bearded Huckabee stands next to a crudely-drawn cartoon of Trump, taking the oath of office on an enormous Bible held by George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. This “free*” Kids Trump Guide actually costs $1 in shipping and handling — and comes with two automatically renewing subscriptions totaling $31.85 a month. Don’t worry, you can cancel anytime.The Parler newsletter features a who’s who of right-wing darlings asking for charity and making sketchy pitches aimed at senior citizens. Actor and outspoken Republican Chuck Norris hucks a “FREE 2023 IRS Loophole Kit.” James O’Keefe, the founder of the far-right propaganda machine Project Veritas, who is being sued by his own organization, begs you to support his legal defense fund. Nixon speech writer turned actor Ben Stein has a guide for sale that “could save your retirement!”Ron DeSantis, Florida Governor, candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination, and former Guantanamo Bay Detention Center employee, makes an appearance in the Parler emails as well. A May 31st message celebrates DeSantis for turning Florida into a “citadel of freedom against the left’s insanity,” and asks for donations to his campaign.There are plenty of products for sale as well. Recent Parler emails include an ad for a “Trumpinator” bobble head doll, gambling ads for DraftKings, and a promotion for a weight-loss supplement called Superfood Tabs. There are also ads for Garnuu, a menstrual product brand promising to serve women who “hate woke period brands that pay transgender men to promote feminine products.” Unlike the emails for the Parler crowd, Garnuu’s actual website makes no direct mention of the transgender community.Starboard, which changed its name from Olympic Media the day it announced the Parler sale, owns a number of other businesses aimed at the political right. That includes the news sites BizPac Review and the aforementioned American Wire News, as well as We the People, a wine brand that billed as the “Wine for Conservatives.”Coyne, Starboard’s CEO, is no stranger to the political scene. Coyne’s Instagram account features the entrepreneur meeting with Trump in 2022 and posing with former Vice President Mike Pence. The BLEXIT Foundation — an organization run by extremist provocateur Candace Owens that advocates for Black Americans to abandon the Democratic party — paid Olympic Media $1.8 million for “fundraising and media” in 2020, according to IRS filings. Despite the overtly partisan bent of his businesses, Coyne told Gizmodo in an exclusive interview in April that he isn’t interested in running a “politically motivated advocacy organization.” Parler was funded by billionaire heiress and Republican megadonor Rebekah Mercer, who originally tried to keep her involvement a secret. Neither Parler nor Truth Social managed to turn their operations into functioning businesses. Running a social network is hard, and there may not be enough conservatives who want to own the libs on platforms that don’t have any libs on them.Parler, in particular, has had a rough ride. Once the darling of conservatives, Parler showed early promise by attracting big names in the American Right, including Sen. Ted Cruz, conspiracy leader Alex Jones, and notable extremist groups such as the Proud Boys and the Atomwaffen Division, a neo-Nazi domestic terrorist network.But the site’s promise dwindled after the January 6th attack on the Capital. App data, which included GPS tags, showed Parler’s members breaching the Capitol Building. The company wasn’t thrilled about any of this, and Parler reported the activity to the FBI more than 50 times after the riot. That wasn’t enough to shield the app from post-insurrection fallout. Parler ran into legal trouble and was temporarily banned from the Apple and Google app stores for failing to moderate its platform.Parler never recovered from the steam it lost during that chapter. In 2022, Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) said he would buy the beleaguered platform, but Parler called off the deal the same day Ye declared his love for Hitler in an interview. In January 2023, Parler laid off nearly all of its employees. Most recently, the second man convicted of crimes related to the January 6th riots sued Parler from jail. The man used the social media site to make interstate threats, which earned him jail time and a ban from Parler. This, he says, violated a controversial Texas state law, which prohibits social media companies from “censoring” people for their political views.Trump, a man who posted his way to the White House, has always loved Twitter. After Elon Musk unbanned him from his favorite platform, which prompted an unbanning from Facebook, reports in January said Trump is eager to return to tweeting. The only thing holding him back is a reported exclusivity contract with Truth Social, which apparently ends this month. Sources who spoke to Rolling Stone said the former president is already workshopping his first tweet. When that tweet inevitably comes, it may close the book on Alt-Tech, a movement many observers said was doomed from the start. It’s likely that the only thing left will be disappointed internet users who bought into a dream, and grifters poking around in the ashes for one last score.