President Trump’s social media company has a new business venture: selling faster access to the president’s posts.
Trump Media & Technology Group said Thursday it planned to sell a real-time feed of its influential Truth Social posts starting next month, replacing the need for users to manually monitor the platform.
The product, Truth API, is aimed at algorithmic trading companies, for whom an edge of mere milliseconds in access to information can be extremely valuable. The service already has customers lined up, Trump Media said in a press release that did not identify those buyers by name.
The main attraction would be Mr. Trump’s posts, which remain the primary draw for Truth Social, a platform that has otherwise struggled to gain traction. The president is the largest shareholder in the platform’s unprofitable parent company, Trump Media, with a stake held in a trust managed by his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. That stake was worth more than $1 billion at Thursday’s market close.
Kevin McGurn, Trump Media’s interim CEO, said in a statement that he expected the product to “become a meaningful, ongoing source of revenue for the company, creating lasting value for shareholders.” Other companies offer similar services, including social media platform X.
A spokeswoman for Trump Media did not respond to questions, including how much the Truth API would cost.
There is little doubt that there will be an appetite for faster access to Mr. Trump’s positions, said Tyler Gellasch, a former Securities and Exchange Commission attorney who runs the Healthy Markets Association, a financial sector nonprofit. What is less clear are the rules surrounding charging for faster access to statements from an official, in this case the president.
“The question really becomes, when it’s an official of any type, can they themselves monetize that value?” Mr. Gellasch said.
Truth Media has recently taken steps to diversify into a number of new businesses, including streaming and cryptocurrency. The company also agreed last year to merge with a nuclear fusion company, a deal that would put the president’s company in competition with other developers in an energy sector that his administration both supports and regulates.
Matthew Goldstein contributed with reporting.
