Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), the company behind US President Donald Trump's social media platform Truth Social, has begun selling financial firms faster access to posts that can move global markets. The product, called 'Truth API,' will deliver posts from the 10 most influential accounts to customers at a significantly faster pace than a regular push notification on the Truth Social platform, a spokesperson said.
The feed is designed for organizations 'most impacted by the cost of a delay in information', such as algorithmic trading firms, the company said in a statement. According to the BBC, the service was anticipated to become available to institutional customers from 1 August.
A new revenue stream built on presidential posts
Trump has made several announcements through his Truth Social handle that have jolted markets worldwide, including his 'Liberation Day' tariffs and posts regarding trade restrictions on China, making the platform a crucial feed for traders, businesses and financial institutions. TMTG's interim chief executive, Kevin McGurn, has said the company simply formalises what firms were already trying to do informally: 'Markets already move on Truth Social posts ... As adoption grows, we expect Truth API to become a meaningful, ongoing source of revenue for the company,' TMTG's interim CEO Kevin McGurn said.
According to the BBC, the Financial Times reported that customers could be charged as much as $100,000 a month for high-speed access, but TMTG has not confirmed the figure. The launch marks TMTG's first step into data licensing, and opens up a new revenue stream for the company, which has faced challenges in scaling its media business amid stiff competition from larger social media firms.
Conflict of interest concerns
The arrangement has drawn scrutiny because Trump remains one of TMTG's largest shareholders while serving as president. Ethics attorney Virginia Canter of the watchdog group Democracy Defenders Fund called it a huge conflict of interest, arguing that the president is funneling public information through a private channel in which he has a direct financial interest.
“"He has an obligation to the American people to convey information to them publicly, and he's now funneling it through a private channel in which he has a private interest as one of its largest shareholders," Virginia Canter told reporters.”
According to NBC News, Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff have urged the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether Trump Media is violating the law by selling faster access to the president's posts. The senators wrote that the subscription 'appears to be an outrageous abuse of the President's office for his personal benefit that undermines everyday investors and the integrity of our markets, while enriching Wall Street and other wealthy insiders.'
TMTG has pushed back on suggestions the product resembles insider trading. Trump Media spokeswoman Shannon Devine has argued that Truth API merely provides faster access to publicly available information and that critics have invented a novel theory of insider trading. Supporters argue that the posts become public moments later and therefore cannot legally constitute insider trading, though there is legitimate debate over that legal question.
Limited appeal beyond high-frequency traders
Not everyone in the trading industry is convinced the product will find many buyers. Joe Saluzzi, co-founder of Themis Trading, told the BBC that Truth API was 'worthless' to trading firms, including his own, which did not have the complex systems already set up to perform transactions at 'nanosecond level fast'.
Saluzzi suggested high-frequency trading firms would be among the most likely to sign up, not only because of the money-making potential, but also because they'll be thinking 'if I don't do it, somebody else will'. 'This is not for retail investors, this is not even for sophisticated institutional investors,' he says.
For international observers, the episode adds to a wider debate over how a sitting president's business interests intersect with the powers of his office. European regulators and investors, accustomed to stricter separations between a head of state's public role and private commercial ventures, are likely to watch closely how the SEC and US Congress respond to the calls for an investigation.
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