What smart people are saying about Trump Media charging for early access to the president's Truth Social posts

Trump Media & Technology Group launched Truth API on Saturday. Aaron Schwartz / AFP Trump Media launched Truth API on Saturday. Truth API sells early access to posts from prominent Truth Social users like President Donald Trump. Reuters reported that Trump Media considered selling that access for $100,000 a month. There's a new way to make and lose money. Trump Media has officially launched the Truth API, a business-to-business data feed that provides customers with faster access to posts from prominent Truth Social accounts. That includes President Donald Trump , whose constant stream of posts can cause shifts in financial markets. Institutional customers gained access to the service on Saturday. A few hours later, Trump announced on Truth Social that he was, again, close to a deal to end his war on Iran. On any other day, that post would have affected oil futures, and anyone with early access could have made a buck. "Markets already move on Truth Social posts," said Kevin McGurn, interim CEO of Trump Media, said in a press release. "Truth API delivers a direct, licensed, real-time feed of the platform's most market-moving Truths while advancing our strategy to monetize proprietary assets through a high-margin, recurring revenue stream." Trump Media has not publicly disclosed how much the service is costing customers. Reuters reported that the company discussed charging up to $100,000 a month, or $60,000 a month as part of a three-year plan. The whole thing got people talking. Here's what smart people in finance, academia, and policy are saying about Truth API. Jim Bianco Jim Bianco , the president of Bianco Research, a market analysis firm, said in a post on X that Truth API could result in "more frequent market-moving posts" on the social media site. "Trump will want them to be happy with their new service," Bianco wrote on Saturday, referring to Truth API customers. Shaun Maguire Shaun Maguire , a venture capitalist and partner at Sequoia Capital who is a vocal supporter of Trump, said he isn't a fan of the service in an X post on Sunday. "Moves like this cheapen Trump's policy wins (of which there have been many)," Maguire said. Dean Baker Dean Baker, cofounder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said the service may work at the expense of everyday Americans. "And, since reporters are too lazy to tell people, the money that insider traders pocket is money taken from the 401(k)s and IRAs of normal people who work for a living," Baker said in an X post on Saturday. James Surowiecki On Sunday, finance journalist and author James Surowiecki said he believes Truth API violates insider trading laws. "Trump is disclosing information (in this case, information about some of his future public statements as president, including statements about policy) that belongs to the US government in exchange for money. That violates his duty of trust and confidence to his employer (the govt), and is illegal," Surowiecki said on X. "And anyone who pays for the feed is knowingly paying for misappropriated information, which is illegal as well." Jason Calacanis "All-In" podcast cohost Jason Calacanis said the Truth API was evidence that those close to Trump aren't giving him "good feedback." "They're simply too scared to lose their position close to the Oval to just say 'this is a very dumb idea.' Everyone needs someone who says 'that's a dumb idea' around them — especially successful people," Calacanis said on Sunday. "The country is going to have endless, justified investigations into these 'projects.'" In a separate post, Calacanis said: "Imagine you're running the SEC and the administration says for $1.2m a year he will let you front run the market!" Joe Saluzzi Joe Saluzzi, cofounder of Themis Trading, a brokerage for institutional investors, said in an interview with the Associated Press that Truth API will enable its customers to bypass other traders. "Somebody who buys the info and has a system built to process it will be able to act quicker than you and me," Saluzzi said. "The loser is always the retail investor." Zach Everson On Bluesky, Zach Everson, the director of Public Citizen's Trump Accountability Project, called the notion that Trump wouldn't profit during a presidency a "farce." "But you're telling me Trump Media decided to sell Wall Street the fastest access to Trump's posts without running it by him first?" Everson said after the service was first announced. The president is owns a majority stake in Trump Media. Vuk Vukovic Vuk Vuković, founding partner of hedge fund Oraclum Capital, said on X that his team would compare Trump's Truth Social posts with market reactions to determine whether there were any "meaningful signals." "Spoiler: there aren't," Vuković said on Sunday. "The tweets are complete noise. Even when you capture a few strong moves before they happen, you will lose so much on the rest of it that it's not worth it. He simply tweets too much, and 90% of the time, the market doesn't react at all. When it does, sometimes it's even the opposite of what you might expect." Vuković said people who buy options or futures each time Trump makes a Truth Social post will likely see losses offset gains. "All in all, he's selling you noise," Vuković said. "I would avoid buying this both on principle and on the fact that you're buying snake oil." Read the original article on Business Insider