Trump Is Selling Wall Street a Head Start on His Own Posts — and He Keeps Half the Check
“He cannot sell that information and receive a profit for tipping off other people who will trade on that information before it becomes publicly available and is absorbed into the market prices.” —Richard Painter, former chief White House ethics lawyer under Republican George W. Bush
Trump Media just flipped the switch on something called Truth API. It’s a paid feed that sells Wall Street trading firms faster, machine-readable access to posts from the ten most-followed accounts on Truth Social, including posts by Donald Trump. The Financial Times and CNBC put the price as high as $100,000 a month, or $60,000 a month if you lock in a three-year deal. The interim CEO of Trump Media, Kevin McGurn, called it a licensed, real-time feed of the platform’s “most market-moving Truths.” His words, not mine.
Trump owns roughly 41 percent of the company. Not in a blind trust, but in a revocable trust, with his son Donald Trump Jr. as trustee, which means he can know exactly what he holds. Congressman Jamie Raskin did the arithmetic on paper: nearly half of every single subscription fee lands directly in the president’s pocket.
Read that again. A firm pays six figures a month to hear the president’s market-moving words a beat before you do, and the president keeps half the check.
On July 28, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff wrote the SEC that the service “appears to be an outrageous abuse of the President’s office.” Republican Bill Cassidy told The Hill it’s flat wrong — “a form of buying access.” Susan Collins questioned the whole rationale. Thom Tillis said the appearances trouble him before you even reach the ethics. Lisa Murkowski said pushing market-moving information around raises conflict-of-interest questions. Mark Warner wrote to six industry groups and told their members to just refuse the thing. On July 31, Raskin opened a Judiciary investigation, though as ranking member he holds no subpoena power, so his letter can only persuade, not compel.
The lawyers are talking too. I’ll start- this is another improper, unethical and probably illegal grift by Trump. Renée Jones, a Boston College professor who used to run a division at the SEC, says the offering appears to run afoul of insider trading rules. Richard Painter, the former chief White House ethics lawyer under Republican President George W. Bush, puts it all into proper perspective, “He cannot sell that information and receive a profit for tipping off other people who will trade on that information before it becomes publicly available and is absorbed into the market prices”
Trump Media waves all of it away (of course they do). They call the API just the fastest way to ingest publicly available data. But I there’s more you need to know.
One major news outlet took a database of the president’s Truth Social posts and laid it against the trades listed in his own financial disclosure. They found at least 44 stock purchases across 21 companies in the week before he posted something favorable about those firms, their executives, or their products. The White House says his money sits in fully discretionary accounts run by independent third parties. But in truth what this refers to is the revocable trust I mentioned above. It’s run by Trump’s son as the sole trustee. It’s not a blind trust. Trump can tell his son what to do, can share information with his son, and he can know his holdings.
And here’s an interesting final take away.
One Wall Street executive told NPR that in any other administration this would be considered criminal. Twelve other major finance executives wouldn’t say a word on the record at all.
Mitch Jackson, Esq.
You just read my update. Were you aware this was happening?
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EMOLUMENTS CLAUSE OF THE US CONSTITUTION. It’s in there. Using his position to make and keep money for himself while in office is specifically called out as 100% ILLEGAL.
The Art of the Steal!!!