How much more blatant could Donald Trump’s abuse of office for self-interest be?
Trump Media & Technology Group, parent company of the microblogging platform, announced this week it will sell a data feed to Wall Street companies who want just milliseconds of notice on Trump’s Truth Social posts that may affect the economy. For a fee, Trump Media will offer the “fastest” access to posts “from the highest-ranking Truth Social accounts.”
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Corporate traders should recognize this as sanitized “insider trading,” whatever euphemism is used. Voters should recognize this as an abuse of the Oval Office, a violation of the Constitution’s “emoluments” clause, and, more broadly, part of the Trump self-enrichment use of the White House.
Trump Media may be a private enterprise, but Trump is a public employee, subject to ethics rules even if not specifically barred by law from this action. It is Trump who chooses to make policy announcements for the government on his personally owned online chat service. Trump owns 41% of Trump Media through his revocable trust, so he would benefit personally.
It is Trump grift. Period.
Posts from Truth Social’s 10 most influential accounts would reach customers paying the extra bill — reportedly up to $100,000 a month — significantly faster than the usual push notification. Trump’s posts to 12.9 million followers already frequently touch off market reactions, and Trump or his family already have been found to make market investments just before policy announcements. Federal filings show hundreds of investments by Trump a day before tariffs were made public, for example, or before defense contracts or for semiconductors.
Companies and organizations generally offer application programming interfaces (APIs) for swift information transfer. Federal agencies, including Treasury and Labor large financial and economic data through APIs. But with this arrangement, Wall Street traders would have time to complete computerized trades before you or I could do so. That’s the heart of insider trading.
Moving Markets
Many presidential posts have upended markets. Last year, hours before Trump announced that he would pause most tariffs he imposed for 90 days, Trump posted that it was a “great time to buy.” Every announcement about Iran and the Strait of Hormuz moves oil markets.
Naturally, the “transparent” White House has had no explanation about ethics.
By contrast, Democratic critics have erupted, suggesting that it could be illegal. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-CA, said, “Hard to keep pace with the President’s corrupt profiteering off the presidency, but here’s yet another scheme, this time to save his failing social media business.” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., called it “another example of flagrant corruption, trading access to the White House for Trump’s self-enrichment.” California Gov. Gavin Newsom added, “Where is the investigation? And how are spineless Republicans okay with this? Disgusting.”
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Recent White House filings show that Trump made more than $1.4 billion in 2025 from, cryptocurrency businesses alone, and they raised questions about other profiteering from his own policies. Federal law prohibits executive branch employees from participating “personally and substantially” in government matters that will directly or predictably affect personal or family financial interests, though Presidents and Vice Presidents are exempted.
“He’s selling expedited, privileged access to information about what he is doing as president,” Kathleen Clark of Washington University School of Law and an expert in government conflicts of interest rules told Fortune. “It’s yet more brazen corruption, an improper exploitation of government power to enrich himself.”
Trump Media has had financial troubles. Stock in Trump Media & Technology has plunged more than 70% since the president took office last year, erasing $6 billion in shareholder wealth. The Truth API is expected to become a meaningful recurring revenue source as the company expands beyond social media into cryptocurrency, streaming and a proposed nuclear fusion merger.
Mark it as another move that helps Trump and billionaire traders but does nothing for you and me.
Terry H. Schwadron retired as a senior editor at The New York Times, Deputy Managing Editor at The Los Angeles Times and leadership jobs at The Providence (RI) Journal-Bulletin. He was part of a Pulitzer Gold Medal team in Los Angeles, and his team part of several Pulitzers in New York.
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