Wall Street traders hoping for a market edge are forking out up to $100,000 a month for high-speed access to Donald Trump’s social media posts.
The boss of Trump Media & Technology revealed more than ten customers have already signed up to a service offering first sight of the most influential accounts on the US President’s Truth Social platform – including his own.
The update came as the company posted ballooning quarterly losses of £176million as it counted the cost of a slump in the value of the cryptocurrency it owns.
The Truth API service was launched at the start of August and costs $60,000 to $100,000 a month – or £45,000 to £75,000 – handing traders early access to posts including major policy announcements by Trump.
Trump Media chief executive Kevin McGurn said early customers are mostly in high-frequency trading firms who can cash in on information gained just fractions of a second early through automated bets on subsequent moves in shares, bonds and currencies.
Donald Trump launched the Truth Social platform in 2022
The paid for service has been criticised amid claims it is a vehicle for Trump and his allies to profit from his presidency.
‘[Trump is] selling expedited, privileged access to information about what he is doing as president,’ Kathleen Clark of Washington University School of Law told the Associated Press last month. ‘It’s yet more brazen corruption, an improper exploitation of government power to enrich himself.’
McGurn brushed aside these concerns, saying: ‘Providing licensed real-time public data through commercial APIs is a well-established business practice across the technology, financial information and media industries. This is no different.’
He added: ‘This can grow into a meaningful, durable contributor, but it’s just one piece of a broader media technology strategy.’
The comments came as Trump Media posted a second quarter loss of £176million in the three months to the end of June.
That was more than ten times the £15million it lost in the same period last year.
The firm is counting the cost of branching out into businesses outside media, such as crypto, online betting, finance and even nuclear energy.
It said it would largely ditch many of the new ventures and refocus efforts on its social media mission and acting as a forum for users to post their views.
McGurn said: ‘We made the disciplined choice to pivot in order to invest more time and resources in our most important initiatives.
‘We will say no to things or change course as warranted.’
But he confirmed Trump Media’s nuclear fusion business would continue under the new strategy, with aims to complete a previously-announced merger with energy company TAE Technologies by the end of 2026.
Trump launched Truth Social in 2022 after he was banned from other platforms.Â
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