Trump Monetizes Access to Official Statements via Truth API

Last Saturday, August 1, TMTG — a company in which US President Donald Trump holds 41% of the shares — launched a service called Truth API. It provides a fast data feed for posts from influential accounts on Truth Social, a platform also owned by Trump. The reported price is up to $100,000 per month, or $60,000 per month with a three-year commitment.

1. To understand the scale: as of 2023, entry into the top 1% of earners requires an income of about $680,000 per year. The service is clearly intended for multi-millionaires. However, there is a catch: Trump is not selling secret information, but rather "milliseconds" that are worth a lot of money. For example, on April 9, 2025, Wall Street indices turned sharply upward after Trump posted about a 90-day tariff freeze. As the company's interim CEO Kevin McGurn stated, markets are already moving in response to posts on Truth Social.

2. This move has stirred the US political system, with critics labeling it as "corruption." Yet, this is a misreading. A sophisticated legal framework has been constructed, making prosecution nearly impossible. US securities laws are built around a breach of trust toward the source of information, but here the source is Trump himself, and one cannot steal information from oneself. Federal conflict-of-interest laws do not apply to the President and Vice President. This is a business model built within the boundaries of existing law.

3. The debate has shifted into the ethical realm, where ethics are now defined by party affiliation: pro-Trump or anti-Trump. Notably, many members of Congress trade financial assets, often outperforming the S&P 500. A recent law prohibiting members of Congress from purchasing new stocks does not apply to the President. The difference is that members of Congress trade on information they receive, while Trump sells access to information he produces.

4. The real deal is happening one level higher. Trump routes official policy messages — regarding tariffs, military actions, or the Federal Reserve — through a private asset managed by his son. The White House press office copies the President's posts when responding to journalists, effectively making the state a secondary distributor of a private platform.

5. Taking over state mechanisms is not a Trump invention; similar processes have been seen in Hungary, Turkey, and Israel. The novelty here is the direct monetization of presidential authority. Trump Media reported revenues of $3.7 million against losses of hundreds of millions, with shares falling since Trump returned to the White House. The President is effectively bailing out controlling shareholder Trump, using state mechanisms to improve his company's bottom line.

6. The deep damage is not in the $100,000 fee. For decades, the US built an architecture of simultaneous publication to ensure equal access to public information. Now, Trump has taken the central channel of American policy outside this architecture. The danger is that the President of the United States is turning access to public policy into a private product. This sets a dangerous precedent: public information belongs to the public, not to the king.