Trump Media & Technology Group has launched a paid data service offering rapid access to posts from influential Truth Social accounts, a move aimed at institutional investors and trading firms but now drawing scrutiny over market fairness, ethics and potential conflicts of interest.
The service, called Truth API, provides access to posts in milliseconds from what the company describes as the platform’s highest-ranking accounts. Trump Media has not said directly whether the feed includes posts from US President Donald Trump’s own account, but his presence on the platform is central to its influence. His account has about 13 million followers, making it the largest on Truth Social.
For financial markets, the issue is commercially significant because presidential statements can affect asset prices within seconds. Comments on tariffs, foreign policy, defence matters or regulatory action can influence shares, currencies, commodities and bonds. Trading firms already monitor public statements from political leaders, government agencies and major news outlets, often through automated systems built to act on new information at high speed.
Trump Media has positioned Truth API as a new revenue stream for institutional customers that need the fastest possible access to information. The company has said the product is designed for customers most affected by delays in receiving data, including algorithmic and high-frequency trading firms. The Financial Times has reported that access could cost as much as $100,000 a month, although Trump Media has not confirmed that figure.
The launch comes as Trump Media seeks more predictable revenue. The company, which owns Truth Social, has been loss-making, and paid data services are a familiar commercial model across financial markets. News organisations, exchanges and data vendors routinely sell feeds that allow professional customers to receive information faster and in formats suitable for automated systems.
That precedent has been cited by market structure specialists as one reason the product may not be unusual in commercial terms. Joe Saluzzi, co-founder of Themis Trading, told the BBC that comparable services already exist across the industry. However, he said the ethical questions were different because of the connection between the platform, the president’s public statements and his financial interest in the company.
Trump owns about 41% of Trump Media through a trust overseen by his children. That ownership structure means he could benefit financially if the new data product becomes a meaningful source of income for the company. Critics argue that this raises concerns where public statements by a sitting president may become part of a commercial service sold to professional traders.
Democratic senators Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff have asked the US Securities and Exchange Commission to examine whether the service raises legal issues. In a letter to the regulator, they said the arrangement appeared to benefit Wall Street and wealthy market participants while creating concerns for ordinary investors and the integrity of markets. The SEC has confirmed receiving the letter but has not commented on whether it will open an investigation.
One of the questions raised is whether any use of non-public government information could create insider trading concerns. Insider trading laws generally prohibit trading on material information that is not available to the public. Richard Painter, a former chief ethics lawyer in the George W Bush administration, told the BBC that liability can also arise where someone passes protected information to another person who then trades on it.
Painter said such concerns would depend on the content of any posts and whether they related to government business, such as tariffs, military action or other policy decisions. His comments were framed as a legal risk rather than a finding that any law had been broken.
Trump Media has rejected criticism of the service. In response to the senators’ letter, a company spokesperson said Democrats were mischaracterising Truth API and failing to distinguish between public and non-public information. The company has also said the senators appeared to be advancing a new theory of insider trading based on publicly available material.
A central distinction is whether a post made on Truth Social is public at the moment it appears on the platform, even if paying customers receive it faster through a direct data feed. Financial markets already operate with tiers of speed, where firms pay for direct access to exchanges, economic data, corporate filings and news feeds. The controversy in this case rests less on speed alone and more on the source of the information and the president’s financial connection to the platform.
It remains unclear which firms, if any, have signed up for the service. Trump Media has said customers registered ahead of the launch, but it has not disclosed names or numbers. The BBC reported that several major banks and high-frequency trading firms either declined to comment or did not respond when asked whether they had subscribed or planned to do so. The White House also declined to comment.
The service is unlikely to be aimed at ordinary investors. High-frequency trading firms use expensive infrastructure and automated systems to process information and place orders in fractions of a second. Saluzzi told the BBC that the feed would be of little value to firms without the systems needed to act at extremely high speeds.
The debate over Truth API is likely to continue because it sits at the intersection of political communication, market data and personal financial interest. The product may resemble existing fast data feeds in some respects, but the involvement of presidential statements means regulators, investors and political observers will be watching closely for how the service is used and whether any further oversight follows.
