Tweets From Trent  ## Metadata - Author: [[@trentlapinski on Twitter]] - Full Title: Tweets From Trent - Category: #tweets - URL: https://twitter.com/trentlapinski ## Document Notes ## Highlights - Omg it gets so much worse. I just read the other lawsuit from the former personal assistant who was hired by Audrey Capital. She was paid only $60k a year (which in San Francisco is poverty wage), forced to move to San Francisco from Texas, and forced to work 24/7 nonstop without holidays, vacations, or breaks. She wasn’t even allowed to leave the city, and was monitored and under surveillance 24/7 by Matt’s Mom. She thought the position would only last a few months but it ended up lasting years and she didn’t have the means to leave. She was also witness to the same abuse and harassment as the nurse, but for an even longer period of time and under much worse conditions. She was told the job was to be a personal assistant but essentially was used as a maid or worse. Matt’s Mom even asked her to spy on him, and his girlfriends during sex. I don’t even have the words to finish this tweet. I cannot believe anyone could treat another human being this way. This is essentially slavery. ([View Tweet](https://twitter.com/trentlapinski/status/1845718004673265722)) - I can’t believe what I just read. The lawsuit against Matt Mullenweg and his Mother by her former nurse just took a seriously dark turn. 🚨 The former nurse who cared for Matt’s Mother is accusing him and his company, Audrey Capital, of being a shell used for fraud. Apparently, it’s not even a real VC firm, but a way to fund Matt’s assistants, consultants, and even his Mom’s nurses. What’s worse? The lawsuit accuses Matt and his mother of racism, homophobia, transphobia, religious discrimination, and sexual harassment. His mother reportedly shared explicit details about Matt’s sex life—including threesomes with Asian women—with this nurse and other staff. 🫣 Matt supposedly knew of his Mother’s behavior, and did nothing other than retaliate against those who spoke up. He also refused to pay this nurse an equal wage to her male counterpart. Some key accusations: Failure to Pay Overtime – The nurse claims she worked 12+ hour days with no proper overtime pay. Hostile Work Environment – Allegations of daily harassment about her religion, with no intervention. Retaliation – After she complained, her workload increased, and she was defamed. Wrongful Termination – She was forced to quit due to unbearable conditions. Defamation – False claims about her competence spread to medical professionals, ruining her reputation. If that’s not enough, these fraud allegations echo what WP Engine also claimed in their lawsuit against Matt, and Automattic. Audrey Capital, Automattic, the WordPress Foundation, and WordPress .org have all now been accused of shady practices and fraud. While these lawsuits are still pending, and these are currently still just accusations, none of this looks good for Matt considering his recent actions against WP Engine. I would argue these personal allegations are almost worst, as they speak not to just shady business practices, but immoral and unethical behavior in Matt’s personal dealings as well. I absolutely hate that I’m even publishing this, and this is even somewhat relevant to what’s happening with WordPress. I just don’t understand how or why VCs gave this person nearly a billion dollars and total control over much of the Internet. How are his investors okay with anything that’s happening right now? ([View Tweet](https://twitter.com/trentlapinski/status/1845700375589826701)) - 8.4% of Automattic took the buy-out—at the upper range for dissenters (which is somewhere between 5-10%). Psychology shows group dynamics break down into 4 types: 10-20% leaders, 20-30% active followers, 50-70% passive majority, and 5-10% dissenters. So if 8.4% left, that means 34-46% of the company may disagree with leadership but stayed for other reasons— or are unable to leave. Alignment? Not quite. Automattic's CEO has been accused of committing extortion, fraud, and other criminal behavior, and could even face jail time for his actions if Federal investigators get involved. For 8.4% of people to leave within a few days of these allegations being brought means nearly 1 in 2 people at Automattic don't fully agree with their CEO's actions. Not quite the rosy picture being painted by those who agree with their CEO. ([View Tweet](https://twitter.com/trentlapinski/status/1842243146773667953)) ## New Highlights added 2026-05-27 at 7:20 PM - I obviously don’t want any harm to come to WordPress. Which is why this whole situation is so conflicting. On one hand, private equity can have disastrous consequences on an open source project. I don’t want WordPress to be crushed by private equity. On the other hand, what https://t.co/EZ7uTcLJgb ([View Tweet](https://x.com/trentlapinski/status/2059739587237548132)) ## New Highlights added 2026-09-12 at 8:48 AM - Not sure what Zach is talking about and now he’s blocked me. Not cool dude. We weren’t exactly friends but I still have a ton of respect for what you did. Just because I don’t agree with all the dumb things Matt is doing doesn’t mean I support private equity. I am not a fan of https://t.co/X4uMehokrU  ([View Tweet](https://x.com/trentlapinski/status/2098621834467881299)) ## New Highlights added 2026-09-12 at 5:48 PM - @chrisfromthelc Yeah it’s not good. There’s really not a lot of options left. Even if Matt resigned, and new exec team took over there will still probably be another round of layoffs. I really can’t imagine there’s any VC left out there willing to give Matt a penny. ([View Tweet](https://x.com/trentlapinski/status/2098869114445971631)) - Thoughts on Automattic and WordPress: To get his CEO title back, if Matt stacked the board, held an emergency board meeting fired everyone then appointed a new board to reinstate him as CEO and fire the interim CEO then he now risks a shareholder class action lawsuit. The ([View Tweet](https://x.com/trentlapinski/status/2098852701475946687)) ## New Highlights added 2026-09-12 at 6:48 PM - @jeffr0 Entirely possible. The most tragic part is revenue was already in decline, and he was trying to hire the CEO of WP Engine to come run Automattic because WP Engine was profitable when Automattic’s revenue was declining. Matt clearly saw her as a path back to profitability. ([View Tweet](https://x.com/trentlapinski/status/2098897669854785859)) - @adamjfpickering This complex and there’s a lot of moving pieces so there’s no TLDR. I can put it in bullet points though: • Board put Matt on leave and named CFO Mark Davies interim CEO; Matt says they “conspired” and he voted no. • Matt likely stacked the board, held an emergency meeting, ([View Tweet](https://x.com/trentlapinski/status/2098884684596081052)) ## New Highlights added 2026-09-12 at 8:48 PM - @DuaneStorey Andrew Nacin and others tried as well. At the end of the day we still had to run everything by Matt and he wouldn’t approve anything. It wasn’t real governance. ([View Tweet](https://x.com/trentlapinski/status/2098922412024717785)) ## New Highlights added 2026-09-15 at 6:57 AM - Called it. Matt stacked the board. CFO, legal, and at least two board members confirmed gone. They’re likely not commenting to the press because they’re most likely in the process of exploring legal options and preparing a shareholder lawsuit. https://t.co/x6JEBMfWGv ([View Tweet](https://x.com/trentlapinski/status/2099499330503671816)) ## New Highlights added 2026-09-16 at 6:42 PM - Wow. This gets even crazier. Now it sounds like the board and exec team at Automattic removed Matt so they could pay themselves knowing Matt would just come back as CEO and fire them. Now Matt has two choices. 1) He can honor the severance agreements they signed and they shut https://t.co/k3Rig9ojUb ([View Tweet](https://x.com/trentlapinski/status/2100317306832159064)) ## New Highlights added 2026-10-16 at 6:08 PM - @photomatt @silverlake_news I actually agree with you. It isn’t a world I want to live in. I also understand they were starting trouble for you first. I even agree they were not respecting your trademark fully, but I also thought your licensing terms were not realistic or rational. When you needed to play ([View Tweet](https://x.com/trentlapinski/status/2111163275769442478))