Trump Media & Technology Group aims to fuel growth by selling faster access to President Trump’s Truth Social posts for up to $100,000 a month. CEO Kevin McGurn told investors Monday that the company has signed up “more than 10” customers for its Truth API, or application programming interface, data feed, which he said came primarily from high-frequency securities trading firms seeking an edge by potentially seeing the president’s posts milliseconds before they reach Truth Social’s broader audience. Contracts for the new service generally range from $60,000 to $100,000 a month, McGurn said. The Truth API includes access to the social network’s main accounts, not just Trump’s, the company has said. Continued access to the Truth API feed could give traders and investors a small but significant advantage when making investment calls based on Trump’s posts, such as announcements about tariffs and foreign policy. That could raise ethical concerns, financial experts said. McGurn also said Trump Media is in “active conversations” with large cloud computing companies, artificial intelligence companies and news organizations about subscribing to the Truth API. Over time, the company also plans to market the data feed to everyday investors, he said. “We are encouraged by the initial demand for Truth API, and we look forward to rolling out the product to other sectors, including retail investors,” McGurn said on a call with Wall Street analysts to discuss the company’s latest financial results. Seeking direction Trump Media & Technology Group, which has never turned a profit since its founding in 2021, has struggled to establish a business strategy capable of generating reliable revenue growth. Advertising revenue on the Truth Social platform, President Trump’s main social media megaphone, fell in the second quarter, according to an Aug. 10 regulatory filing, although the company did not provide financial details. To fuel growth, Trump Media has expanded into a variety of startups, diversifying into financial products like ETFs with patriotic investment themes and buying billions in cryptocurrencies to transform into a crypto treasury company. Trump Media is also merging with fusion energy company TAE Technologies, which McGurn said Monday will provide Trump Media “a rare opportunity to play a key role in ensuring America’s energy independence.” On Monday, the company’s second-quarter revenue rose 89% to $1.67 million, but its losses widened 10-fold to $238 million as the value of its cryptocurrency holdings fell, according to Trump Media’s latest earnings report. The Truth API, announced in July, could boost revenue by selling what could be the company’s most valuable asset: immediate, automated access to Trump’s public statements. Truth Social continues to publish Mr. Trump’s posts and those of other top users, making them available to everyone at the same time. But the API delivers the information directly to customers’ computers, potentially allowing them to detect posts before a human user can notice them in their feed. Shares of Trump Media, which trade under the symbol DJT, the same as the president’s initials, fell nearly 6% on Tuesday. The stock has lost about 49% of its value over the past year, while the S&P 500 has gained 21%. Ethical concernsThe Truth Social API service is drawing scrutiny from ethics experts and Democratic lawmakers over whether investors should be able to pay a company partially owned by the president for faster access to his public statements. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, introduced a bill that would prohibit social media companies from selling special access to the accounts of government employees who share market-moving information. Trump frequently turns to Truth Social for major announcements, including the introduction of new tariffs and progress in diplomatic talks with Iran and other nations. The president has also been a driver of the market’s best and worst five days since his return to office, CNBC reported in May, citing Fundstrat research. Fundstrat, which did not respond to requests for comment, found that the S&P 500’s biggest single-day jump last year came on April 9, 2025, when the president announced he was suspending his tariffs, sending the index soaring 9%. On Monday’s investor call, McGurn defended the Truth Social API service by noting that it only provides access to public posts, albeit “milliseconds” faster. “Our clients will be published in publicly available publications much faster,” he said. He called the ethical criticism “misguided.” But “milliseconds make a difference” for high-frequency traders, Richard Painter, a professor of corporate and securities law at the University of Minnesota who served as chief ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, told CBS News. High-frequency trading firms could face particular legal risk because their automated systems can execute trades in fractions of a second, Painter said. Although Mr. Trump’s posts are publicly available when the API sends them to clients, Painter said the government information source, as well as clients who paid for access, are legally required to wait to trade on that information until the data has had time to be reflected in market prices, or else risk violating insider trading laws. Trump Media dismissed such concerns. “The structure gives the president a personal financial interest in the impact of his own official statements on the market,” Jessica Tillipman, associate dean of studies government procurement law at George Washington University Law School. He added: “I have made similar arguments about members of Congress and why they should not be allowed to profit from the information trading they receive in office. Unlike the congressional context, this involves a company that the president owns and sells access to information he creates in his official capacity.” become a significant and lasting contributor.” Edited by Alain Sherter More from CBS News Go deeper with The Free Press In:
