Truth Social’s parent company announced a paid data feed on July 16 that will give banks and trading firms millisecond-faster access to posts from the platform’s most influential accounts, marking an unprecedented monetization of presidential communications. The product, called Truth API, will launch August 1 and already has signed up institutional customers, according to Trump Media & Technology Group.
The API will deliver posts from the 10 most influential Truth Social accounts to paying subscribers in milliseconds, significantly faster than the regular push notifications available to ordinary users. Trump Media said the service is designed for organizations “most impacted by the cost of a delay in information,” such as algorithmic trading firms.
Trump Media pitched the service to potential customers for licensing fees of up to $100,000 per month, according to Reuters reporting. Interim CEO Kevin McGurn told Axios the API can be expanded to more accounts for customers willing to pay additional fees. “Markets already move on Truth Social posts,” McGurn said in the company’s announcement, noting the platform has become a primary outlet for President Trump’s official communications on policy matters including tariffs, trade restrictions, and military actions.
President Trump’s @realDonaldTrump account is Truth Social’s largest, with 12.9 million followers as of mid-July. Trump holds roughly 41 percent of Trump Media through a revocable trust, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. His sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, as well as prominent supporters like Dan Bongino, are also among the platform’s most-followed accounts.
The move has drawn swift criticism from lawmakers and securities experts who argue it creates an unequal playing field for investors. Rep. Ritchie Torres, a New York Democrat, sent a letter to SEC Chair Paul Atkins on July 21 urging the agency to investigate whether the API raises securities law or market manipulation concerns before its August 1 launch.
“There is a fundamental difference between a social media platform licensing ordinary data and a company substantially owned by the sitting President selling sophisticated traders faster access to his market-moving policy announcements,” Torres wrote, noting the president’s roughly 41 percent stake in the company through a revocable trust.
Three securities law experts told Fortune that the core concern is whether the key markers of a fair market—transparent, timely, and comparable information—are being eroded. Tyler Gellasch, CEO of Healthy Markets Association and former SEC counsel, said milliseconds matter in algorithmic markets, and the Truth API “results in a two-tiered market where a handful of connected insiders will have the information” and everyone else doesn’t. “When you have a market that looks like that, it looks rigged,” Gellasch told Fortune.
Renée Jones, the SEC’s former director of corporation finance and a Boston College Law School professor, raised a separate concern: “Material nonpublic information belongs to the U.S. government or to the American people, not to Truth Social or President Trump,” she told Fortune. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the Truth API “the definition of insider trading” in a post on X.
Trump Media’s spokesperson responded that the company offers “the fastest way to ingest publicly available Truth Social data” and that critics are falsely accusing them of anti-free-market behavior while “pressuring businesses into boycotting a product, all in a coordinated effort to harm a publicly traded company.”
The service represents Trump Media’s first major foray into data licensing and comes as the company has struggled to turn a profit. The company reported a $405.9 million net loss in the first quarter of 2026 alone. Trump Media went public in March 2024 through a blank-check merger and has traded under the ticker DJT on the Nasdaq, though its stock is down 84 percent since the merger.
Sources
- Reuters — Truth API announcement, pricing up to $100,000 per month, coverage of 10 most influential accounts, Trump’s 41% stake
- CNBC — API launch details, Trump’s @realDonaldTrump account follower count (12.9 million), company’s net loss figures, stock performance since merger
- Axios — Rep. Torres’ letter to SEC, Torres’ full quote on fundamental difference between ordinary data licensing and presidential communications, TMTG spokesperson response
- Fortune — Expert commentary from Tyler Gellasch (Healthy Markets Association, former SEC counsel) and Renée Jones (former SEC director of corporation finance), concerns about two-tiered markets and information asymmetry
- Engadget — Truth API millisecond delivery specification, historical archive dating to 2022, 24/7 coverage details
