Trump to Sell Early Access to His Social Media Posts

President Trump knows the world hangs on his every word—now he wants you to pay for it. His social media posts are going on sale on Saturday, when his Truth Social business begins offering sneak peeks of them to Wall Street traders willing to pay, per the AP. The move raises the prospect of big profits for Trump's company and big questions about insider trading and using public office for private gain. Similar fast-speed feeds are sold by other social media firms and media providers, but Truth Social doesn't just distribute the news, it makes it, regularly rattling markets as Trump posts policy changes on everything from war to central bank leadership to tariffs.

"If this was the CEO a public company, this would be jail time," says Irene Aldridge, head of Able Alpha Trading. "We have a president of the United States who has the front seat to all the action, who makes all the decisions, and he's disclosing this ahead of time to a select group." Asked about the propriety of the new service, dubbed Truth API, and whether White House lawyers had vetted it, Trump's press office declined to comment, referring questions to Truth Social's publicly traded parent. Trump Media & Technology issued a statement blasting Democratic critics for mischaracterizing the service "out of ideological opposition to free markets or a failure to grasp the distinction between public and nonpublic information—or, quite possibly, both."

A prolific poster, Trump has sent stocks, bonds, and currencies soaring and plunging with his online musings and threats. That presents opportunities for so-called high-frequency traders that specialize in buying and selling within milliseconds. In addition to Trump, the service will include posts from other "high ranking" Truth Social contributors, including possibly his two oldest sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, who along with their father are heavily followed by users.

Truth Social has said that the information will be released to traders and the general public at the same time, so there really isn't a fairness issue. But Themis Trading's Joe Saluzzi, a critic of high-speed trading, says that's a red herring, because when the posts are received, not when they're released, is what matters. "Somebody who buys the info and has a system built to process it will be able to act quicker than you and me," he says. "The loser is always the retail investor." More here.