The social media company owned by former President Donald Trump plans to charge a premium for high-speed, prioritized access to his posts, drawing significant opposition from Wall Street. Executives across the financial industry are resisting the paid service and expressing concerns about potential legal risks.
Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), the Nasdaq-listed company operating the Truth Social platform, launched a new data service last week. It promises to give institutional clients priority access to posts from top accounts, including Trump's, with millisecond-level latency. According to multiple sources familiar with the matter, the monthly fee for this service is set at a steep $100,000.
This new product represents another avenue for Trump to monetize his status as a former president. Financial disclosures from last month revealed that his diverse business empire generated $22 billion in revenue in 2025, spanning areas from cryptocurrency to Bible-themed merchandise.
However, the service presents a series of legal quandaries for Wall Street firms. Financial institutions and their legal teams must assess the compliance risks of paying for early access to a president's views and potential policy signals. Several lawyers have stated the product is fraught with legal pitfalls.
Richard Painter, a corporate law professor at the University of Minnesota and former White House ethics counsel for President George W. Bush, noted that institutional subscriptions could invite legal scrutiny.
"If I were the general counsel for any institutional investor, I would say absolutely not, unless Truth Social puts in writing that no posts related to U.S. government executive action will be released early," he said.
A White House spokesperson declined to comment, referring questions to Trump's media company. A company spokesperson responded, "TruthAPI helps clients capture all publicly available data from Truth Social at the fastest possible speed. Critics are inventing a novel theory that public information can somehow constitute insider trading."
Given the unpredictability of the current administration's policy direction, hedge funds and large investment firms have long viewed Trump's Truth Social posts as a key variable influencing stock, currency, commodity, and bond markets.
While TMTG's official announcement did not explicitly highlight Trump's personal posts, a promotional presentation obtained by media outlets and shown to potential clients listed ten market-moving posts from the former president.
Notable examples include: a post last year about "Liberation Day" tariffs that triggered a 12% drop in U.S. stocks, and a June post threatening to "hit Iran hard" which caused a sharp spike in international oil prices.
The promotional material also implied that some investors had placed large bets just before Trump posted significant policy announcements. It cited an instance where an institution placed a $580 million bet on March 23, just before a Trump post about positive U.S.-Iran negotiations sent oil prices lower.
TMTG stated last week that several institutions had already signed up. However, since the product's launch, Trump's posts have not contained any obviously market-moving content. When Trump announced a new tariff plan this Monday, he did not do so via his Truth Social account.
Despite this, lawyers warn that subscribing still carries legal risks, partly because Trump holds $11 billion worth of stock in the company.
James Cox, a professor of corporate and securities law at Duke University, commented, "Trump and his White House team are not entitled to commercialize information generated in the course of their official duties." He characterized the paid early-access service as Trump leveraging information related to his public office for private gain.
One lawyer analyzed that the risk of federal securities law liability may not be the highest, but state attorneys general possess independent investigative powers, posing a more immediate threat. "State regulators have all kinds of tools in their arsenal to pursue this," the lawyer said.
The high-speed data feed holds the most value for high-frequency trading (HFT) firms. In the world of HFT, receiving information mere milliseconds ahead of competitors can translate to massive profits.
A macro hedge fund executive admitted, "His posts can move markets, so we're forced to pay for access. The absurdities keep piling up; at this point, nothing surprises me anymore."
Another macro hedge fund executive called the arrangement "utterly scandalous" but conceded that some funds might feel compelled to subscribe due to their fiduciary duty to clients, to avoid falling behind in a competitive industry.
"This is a blatant abuse of public office. The optics are terrible and completely inconsistent with the neutral, impartial position a president should hold," remarked a cryptocurrency trader.
Many other institutions, however, indicated that their trading strategies do not require millisecond-level advantages.
A third hedge fund executive noted, "It's just a few milliseconds. That's the loophole they're exploiting. For firms not engaged in ultra-high-speed trading, this edge is actually quite limited."
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