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What is Truth API? Trump media’s controversial $100,000-a-month tool giving Wall Street fast access to Trump’s posts
Truth API gives Wall Street firms faster access to Truth Social posts, raising questions over trading advantages, Trump’s stake, ethics and SEC scrutiny.
Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), the company behind Truth Social, has launched a new paid service called Truth API. The service went live on Saturday, August 1, and is aimed mainly at Wall Street firms, institutional investors and high-speed trading companies.
Truth API provides a machine-readable feed of posts from what TMTG calls the “highest-ranking” accounts on Truth Social. TMTG says the posts can reach customers in milliseconds, allowing computer systems to process the information almost instantly.
The company has not directly said that President Donald Trump's account is included. However, Trump has the biggest following on Truth Social, with around 13 million followers, making his account one of the most important sources of information on the platform. Trump regularly posts about tariffs, trade, foreign policy, military conflicts and other issues that can affect financial markets. That is why the launch is attracting attention from both Wall Street and Washington.
How does Truth API actually work?
API stands for Application Programming Interface. In simple terms, an API allows one computer system to communicate directly with another. Instead of a trader constantly checking Truth Social, refreshing the website or waiting for a phone notification, Truth API sends the relevant posts directly into a customer's computer system.
The information is also delivered in a format that machines can immediately understand. This means trading software does not have to open a webpage, read the page and figure out whether a new post has appeared. Customers can therefore receive eligible posts a fraction of a second faster than people relying on normal notifications or third-party alert systems.
Why could a few milliseconds matter to traders?
Trump's posts have previously moved financial markets because he sometimes announces major policy decisions or comments on international conflicts through Truth Social. Traders closely watch his posts for information about tariffs, trade policy, wars and other government decisions.
TMTG interim CEO Kevin McGurn said in a July launch announcement that markets already move on Truth Social posts. According to the BBC, financial firms use teams of traders and automated computer systems to monitor Trump's statements because markets can react within seconds. High-frequency trading firms use algorithms that can automatically buy or sell assets without a human making each decision.
Also read: Trump Media launches Truth API to give banks faster access to Truth Social posts
Trump's Truth Social posts have already moved markets
Trump has frequently used Truth Social to make statements about trade, tariffs and foreign policy. Some of his posts have previously been followed by sharp movements in financial markets. There was another example shortly after Truth API went live.
On Saturday, Trump posted that he was again close to reaching a deal to end the war with Iran. Crude oil prices then fell sharply on Monday. TMTG did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment on the matter.
Whose posts will customers actually receive?
Truth API is not officially described as a Trump-only service. TMTG says the feed covers posts from the platform's “highest-ranking Truth Social accounts.” The company has not publicly released the complete list of accounts included in the service. It has also not explained exactly how it decides which accounts are considered “highest-ranking.”
Trump's account is the biggest on the platform, with about 13 million followers. The White House and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. each have around 3.9 million followers. FBI Director Kash Patel has around 1.9 million followers, as noted by Business Insider. But not every post from these accounts is necessarily useful to traders.
Who is Truth API really designed for?
TMTG says the service is mainly designed for organizations that are highly affected by delays in receiving information. It specifically mentions high-frequency trading and algorithmic trading firms. Potential customers could include hedge funds, proprietary trading firms and banks with automated trading systems. TMTG said customers had already signed up before the launch and that it was continuing to onboard more.
Joe Saluzzi, co-founder of Themis Trading, told the BBC that his firm did not see much value in the service because it did not have the extremely fast systems needed to trade at the required speed. He also suggested firms could sign up simply because they do not want competitors to gain a speed advantage by signing up first.
How much does Truth API cost?
TMTG has not officially published a price for Truth API. Reuters, citing unnamed sources, reported that TMTG had discussed charging as much as $100,000 per month. A discounted price of around $60,000 per month was reportedly discussed for companies willing to sign a three-year commitment.
The high potential cost shows that the service is aimed at large financial institutions rather than ordinary investors. TMTG expects Truth API to become a new recurring source of revenue for the company. McGurn said the company expects the service to become a “meaningful, ongoing source of revenue” as adoption grows, according to Business Insider.
Trump could personally benefit from the new business
One of the biggest controversies surrounding Truth API is the financial connection between Trump and TMTG. Trump owns about 41% of Trump Media through a revocable trust, according to a 2025 filing. His children oversee the trust. This means Trump stands to benefit financially if Truth API becomes a successful and profitable business.
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The issue is especially sensitive because those statements can concern official government matters, including trade policy, tariffs and international conflicts. Critics argue that this creates a potential conflict between Trump's role as president and his financial interests in the company behind Truth Social, according to Business Insider.
Democrats have asked the SEC to look into the service
Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff have raised concerns about Truth API. They wrote to the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) asking whether the service should be investigated.
The SEC confirmed that it received the senators' letter. However, the regulator has not said whether it will investigate Truth API. The central legal question is whether the information sold through Truth API is genuinely public information or whether customers could receive certain government-related information before it becomes publicly available.
The insider-trading question is at the centre of the controversy
Insider trading is illegal when people trade securities using important information that is not available to the general public. Critics are questioning whether selling faster access to Trump's posts could create a similar problem if those posts contain important government information before the public knows about it.
TMTG rejects that argument. The company said Democrats were misunderstanding the difference between public and non-public information, according to BBC. TMTG also argued that it would be a new and unusual interpretation of insider trading to treat publicly available information as insider information. The legal issue could become more complicated if a post contains important official government information that has not yet been made public through other channels.
Former White House lawyer raises ethics concerns
Richard Painter, who previously served as an ethics lawyer to President George W. Bush, raised concerns about the service in comments to the BBC. Painter said he believes selling important official US government information before it is publicly known could potentially raise insider-trading concerns.
Painter argued that government-related posts should potentially be excluded from the service. He said that, if he were an SEC commissioner, he would push for either stopping the plan or ensuring that posts concerning US government business were not included, via BBC.
But similar fast-data services already exist
There is also an argument that Truth API is not completely unique. Joe Saluzzi of Themis Trading pointed out to the BBC that other data providers, news organizations and stock exchanges already sell fast access to information. However, Saluzzi said the bigger issue with Truth API is ethics, because of the president's connection to the company selling access to the information.
The controversy is therefore not only about how fast the data travels. It is also about who is making money from the information and whether the president's public role is being used to generate private revenue. Some traders also question whether Trump's posts are actually useful trading signals
Another criticism is that Trump's posts may not always provide reliable information for making profitable trades. Vuk Vuković, a founding partner at hedge fund Oraclum Capital, said his team compared Trump's posts with market movements, according to Business Insider.
Vuković said the analysis did not find a reliable trading signal. He argued that traders could be paying for information that sounds important but does not consistently help them predict market movements. The value of Truth API depends on whether firms can turn that speed advantage into profitable trades.
Vuković said the analysis did not find a reliable trading signal. He argued that traders could be paying for information that sounds important but does not consistently help them predict market movements.
