Trump Media Expands Truth Social Business

Trump Media & Technology Group is rolling out a new venture where paying customers get access to posts from prominent Truth Social accounts, which include that of President Donald Trump, much sooner. The venture, known as Truth API, has already landed the firm more than 10 clients.

Clients are paying around $60,000 to $100,000 each month for access to the information. In an interview, interim CEO Kevin McGurn confirmed that the business has earned the company modest revenue from the deal so far but expects the venture to become a permanent one.

Posts from prominent Truth Social accounts will be delivered to customers in a machine-readable format mere seconds after they appear on the platform. The posts will continue to be publicly accessible and customers will just receive them a bit sooner.

Lawsuit Challenges the Service

Legal issues have arisen due to the launching of the service. The news organization, The Intercept, and the nonprofit group, Freedom of the Press Foundation, have filed a lawsuit against President Trump and other officials of the administration, claiming that providing paying customers with prior notice about presidential announcements through his private communications channels is unconstitutional.

They claim that people have a constitutional right to be informed about what the president says. Experts say that this claim is unprecedented and will have to be tried in court.

Also, there are concerns whether this practice might run into trouble regarding the violation of the securities law of the federal government.

Wall Street Firms Are Early Customers

The initial users will be mainly the high-frequency trading firms who will benefit from even a few extra milliseconds of speed in reacting to market-moving news.

There have been times in the past when Trump’s tweets have affected the financial markets in connection with the policies that he mentions, especially the issue of tariffs, Fed, and war.

According to Trump Media, all Truth API does is provide a commercial license to access information which is already out there in the public domain..

Financial Pressure on Trump Media

Truth API is launched amid growing financial troubles at Trump Media. The company lost over $238 million in the second quarter. The company incurred losses from Bitcoin investments and also had legal fees related to the merger lawsuit.

The company’s shares have already dropped almost 40 percent this year. The number of users visiting Truth Social website has been declining, as it was found by Similarweb that there was a 36% decline in monthly traffic in July compared to the previous July.

According to finance professor Jay Ritter, the service is now very profitable because its cost is minimal, though he is not sure about the potential size of the market in case more trading companies get access to the same data.

Growing Political Scrutiny

In addition, the enterprise has also gained the interest of policymakers. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff, together with Representatives Ritchie Torres and Angie Craig, have asked for an investigation of the Securities and Exchange Commission to find out whether the Truth API violates the securities law in the United States.

On the other hand, Representative Jamie Raskin has also requested documentation that would include information regarding communication with government officials, customer and account information under the API, pricing, marketing material, and revenue projections.

The family of the president is still the main shareholder in the corporation, but that of the president is in a revocable trust handled by his son Donald Trump Jr. At the end of Thursday's trading session, President Trump's stock is worth close to one billion dollars, from four billion in 2024.

A New Test for Presidential Communication

In Trump’s second presidency, he makes use of Truth Social and is followed by about 13 million people. The messages he posts there have become a very significant platform for making announcements.

The legal controversy involving Truth API lies in whether a sitting president can make profit out of quick access to the information he disseminates through his official communications.

Legal scholars are divided regarding the possible outcome of the case, which would set new precedents regarding presidential communication, social media, and financial markets.