Traders could pay US$100,000 a month to see Truth Social posts milliseconds ahead of everyone else
Trump Media & Technology Group has pitched Wall Street firms as much as US$100,000 a month for the fastest access to US President Donald Trump's Truth Social posts.
Reuters reported that the speed advantage could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars on a single large trade, citing people familiar with the matter.
The company unveiled the product, Truth API, on July 16.
It delivers posts from the platform's 10 most influential accounts, including Trump's, milliseconds before the public sees them.
Reuters also reported a discounted US$60,000 rate for firms committing to three years; TMTG published no pricing but said it had already signed customers ahead of the August 1 launch.
The appeal for high-frequency desks is speed, since a lead of a few milliseconds can decide large gains and Trump's posts routinely move markets.
On April 9, 2025, US indexes jumped after he said in a post that he would pause many of his new tariffs for 90 days, Reuters noted.
His posts on subjects from the Iran conflict to US equities have repeatedly swung asset values as algorithmic strategies react automatically, the Financial Times reported.
Interim CEO Kevin McGurn said markets "already move on Truth Social posts."
He told Reuters in a statement that the Truth API could become an ongoing revenue source for the loss-making company as adoption grows.
TMTG reported a net loss of US$405m in the quarter to end-March, and its shares have shed about 27 percent this year, closing near US$9.66 for a market value of roughly US$2.7bn.
The structure drives the criticism.
The Donald J Trump Revocable Trust, overseen by his children, holds about 41 percent of TMTG, and the president is the beneficiary of income flowing into it.
Senator Ron Wyden, ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said the plan would benefit the Trump family and "make Wall Street traders rich," while Senator Elizabeth Warren called it "an egregious scheme to profit off the presidency and enrich Wall Street," both according to Reuters.
Ethics specialists agreed on the optics while splitting on the law.
Donald Sherman of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington told Reuters the arrangement would be "wildly unethical," though he said it was unclear whether it was illegal.
Securities lawyer Robert Frenchman offered the counterpoint, telling the same outlet that "a tech platform can tier its distribution of information without violating federal securities laws."
Financial media ran hotter.
CNBC's Steve Liesman told MS NOW the plan made him "want to puke, literally puke," a remark a Truth Social spokesperson dismissed to Fox News Digital as "ill-informed at best," arguing that firms routinely pay for similar feeds from platforms including X and Reddit.
Virginia Canter of Democracy Defenders Fund told CNBC the product is "a huge conflict of interest".
Not everyone saw a new problem.
Mark Spiegel, portfolio manager at Stanphyl Capital Partners, told Reuters that uneven trading opportunities already exist and that Trump is effectively the only market-moving poster on the platform.
