Democrat senators ask US SEC to probe Trump Media’s fast feed sale
Trump Media has discussed charging as much as $100,000 a month for the Truth API product for buyers to get first access to top 10
Trump Media has discussed charging as much as $100,000 a month for the Truth API product for buyers to get first access to top 10 accounts, including Trump’s. United States Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff have asked the US securities regulator to probe whether Truth Social parent Trump Media’s plan to sell early access to US President Donald Trump’s social media posts breaks the law, according to a letter reviewed by the Reuters news agency. Trump Media, or TMTG, unveiled a paid, licensed data feed this month that will give trading firms “the fastest” access to posts from the 10 most influential Truth Social accounts, including Trump’s. The letter, sent on Tuesday, ramps up pressure on the product, as well as any Wall Street firms that may have bought the feed, potentially increasing what some industry sources said they believed to be legal, political and regulatory risks.
“This appears to be an outrageous abuse of the President’s office for his personal benefit that undermines everyday investors and the integrity of our markets, while enriching Wall Street and other wealthy insiders,” Warren and Schiff said in the July 28 letter to Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins. A spokesperson for the SEC and Atkins, a free-market Republican appointed to the role by Trump who has generally taken a softer stance on enforcement, confirmed receiving the letter but declined to comment further. “Senate Democrats continue to mischaracterize Truth API either out of ideological opposition to free markets or a failure to grasp the distinction between public and nonpublic information — or, quite possibly, both,” said a spokesperson for TMTG in an emailed statement. The White House referred requests for comment to the company. Early access for a price Trump Media has discussed charging as much as $100,000 a month for the Truth API product, Reuters and other media outlets have reported.
Trump’s social media posts have moved markets in the past, and the profits of many top trading firms, hedge funds and financial services firms depend heavily on the speed at which they can trade off such news. Trump, who owns about 41 percent of Trump Media through a trust his children oversee, stands to profit from the paid access model. The company said it has already signed up customers in advance of the August 1 launch, but did not identify them. Truth API is the latest example of the president mixing his personal business with presidential affairs, raising ethical issues, Warren of Massachusetts and Schiff from California said. Trump reported last month, for example, that he made more than $1.4bn last year from his family’s crypto projects, including his Official Trump memecoin that critics have alleged is being used to sell access to the president and can be a channel for bribery.
The BriefWire