By Manya Saini, Tatiana Bautzer and Pete Schroeder
July 21 (Reuters) – A top Democratic U.S. senator on Tuesday urged banks and trading firms to shun a new product offering early access to posts on President Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform, warning it creates a “very troubling form of information asymmetry” for government policies, while Wall Street banks showed little interest in the product.
Earlier this month, TMTG unveiled a paid, licensed data feed that will give banks and trading firms “the fastest” access to posts from influential Truth Social accounts, including Trump’s, whose posts often move global markets.
One source at a large bank said the institution was not considering acquiring the API, and if it did, a review of political risk would be needed. The person, asking for anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue, said access to the president’s Truth Social posts would create a different risk than buying faster access to market or trading data, because it would mean paying for access to a government official discussing policy.
A second source familiar with the matter at another major bank said the bank was not currently considering subscribing.
Senator Mark Warner, senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, urged the heads of the nation’s top financial industry trade groups to publicly disavow the arrangement, arguing it would allow Trump to personally profit from government policy announcements.
“I urge you to make clear that the financial services industry will not legitimize an arrangement that sells privileged access to market-moving presidential communications, especially for the president’s personal financial benefit,” he wrote in a letter sent to the heads of six major financial trade groups. Warner is also a member of the Senate Banking Committee.
Spokespeople for the Bank Policy Institute, Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, Managed Funds Association, Financial Services Forum, Principal Traders Group, and American Bankers Association did not respond to requests for comment. The White House referred a request for comment to the Trump Media & Technology Group, which did not respond to a request for comment.
The product, called “Truth API,” will deliver posts from the 10 most influential accounts to customers at a significantly faster pace than a regular push notification on the Truth Social platform. Tech platforms are generally allowed to offer clients early access to data, even if it disadvantages some market participants, according to lawyers, although other ethics experts have said the situation is unusual because Trump’s posts are government information.
Reuters has reported, citing sources, that the social media company has discussed charging Wall Street traders and investment firms as much as $100,000 a month for faster access. TMTG has also recently pitched a discounted rate of $60,000 a month for firms that sign up for three years, the sources said.
The Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust holds roughly 114.75 million shares, representing about 41% of all outstanding stock in Truth Social’s parent company TMTG, according to regulatory filings. That trust administers Trump’s investments and is overseen by his children.
(Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru, Tatiana Bautzer, Saeed Azhar in New York and Pete Schroeder in WashingtonEditing by Megan Davies, Nick Zieminski and David Gregorio)
Comments