Technology and Science01 August, 20263 min read
Trump Media Launches Truth API Selling Real-Time Truth Social Posts for Up to $100,000 Monthly
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Truth API offers high-speed, real-time access to Trump's Truth Social posts for $100,000 monthly. Trump Media launched Truth API, offering rapid access to posts for Wall Street traders.
Truth API goes live
Donald Trump’s Truth Social posts moved into a paid data lane as Trump Media and Technology Group rolled out Truth API on Saturday, offering paying customers faster, real-time access to Truth Social posts from Trump and other high-profile accounts. The service is priced at a fee of up to $100,000 per month, and it is intended to provide businesses with “a direct, licensed, real-time feed of the platform’s most market-moving Truths,” interim CEO Kevin McGurn said in a release announcing the launch. The Guardian reported that the offering gives Wall Street traders early access to Trump’s announcements about economic policy and global affairs, with the move raising questions about insider trading and using public office for private gain.
As of Saturday, Trump’s @realDonaldTrump account had 13 million followers, and the Guardian said the Truth API service begins offering sneak peeks of posts to traders willing to pay up. Critics framed the launch as a corruption risk tied to Trump’s role as both the largest shareholder of the publicly traded parent company and the platform’s most influential user, with the NPR report noting the service could give institutional investors a leg up in high-frequency trading where milliseconds matter.
Legal and political pushback
Democratic senators Adam Schiff and Elizabeth Warren urged the Securities and Exchange Commission to examine the new service, and in a letter dated Tuesday and sent to SEC chair Paul Atkins they wrote, “This 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,”. NPR quoted Renée Jones, a Boston College professor and former top official at the Securities and Exchange Commission, saying the paid offering appears to run afoul of insider trading laws and pointing to federal securities laws prohibiting schemes in which non-public information is misused to give a trader an unfair advantage. Jones said the law states that sharing such information is a breach of “a duty or trust of confidence,” and she argued that if the president’s Truth Social posts are being monetized and some people get special access, it is “misappropriated information.”
Trump Media & Technology Group spokeswoman Shannon Devine dismissed the letter as partisan wrangling, and she said in a statement that offering an early preview of posts “does not amount to insider trading.” The Intercept described the launch as “a clear and unacceptable pathway for corruption,” and it said the offering is uniquely positioned to fuel presidential graft by giving Wall Street expedited access to statements and data from the president and other government officials.
Market stakes and adoption
The Guardian said Truth API could expand Trump Media’s revenue sources if it proves successful, and it reported that trading firms can access the posts earlier than other users “for a fee of up to $100,000 per month.” NPR reported that Trump Media & Technology Group says customers have already started signing up, but it also quoted a Wall Street executive who called the idea “It’s insane,” and said, “In another administration, this would be considered criminal.” NPR said it reached out to 12 other major players in finance, brokers, hedge fund managers and other investors, and none would speak publicly about the service with some saying the risk of landing in Trump’s crosshairs was too high.
New York Magazine reported that Truth Social’s parent company is launching Truth API on Saturday and that it provides Trump’s posts to subscribers within milliseconds, while also noting that high-frequency traders buying and selling at the fraction of a blink of an eye may find it worth the investment. The Guardian also reported that on Friday, one day before Truth API’s debut, shares of Trump Media climbed 5.5% to $10.39 shortly before the market closed, and it said Trump Media’s stock has fallen by more than 70% since the president took office last year, wiping out roughly $6bn (£4.4bn) in shareholder value.