Truth API brings Trump Media its first million: the price of early access to Trump's posts
Donald Trump's media holding has struck an unexpectedly lucrative vein: its paid early-access service for Truth Social posts has already generated over $1 million in revenue. The company confirmed this in its latest investor report.
The product in question is Truth API, launched in early August. The concept is simple: subscribers get accelerated access to posts from the platform's most influential accounts, including the U.S. president himself. For this advantage, more than ten companies operating in the high-frequency trading sector pay between $60,000 and $100,000 monthly.
Mechanics and Scale
It's easy to calculate: at the minimum threshold of $60,000 from each of the ten clients, monthly revenue exceeds $1 million. Acting CEO Kevin McGern, commenting on the quarter's results, emphasized that the project is only in its "early stages." Moreover, the company is already in talks with AI developers, and a separate pricing plan is being prepared for retail traders.
Regulatory Pressure
Such monetization has not gone unnoticed on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers, including Congressman Jamie Raskin, have demanded that McGern disclose the full list of subscribers. Democrats are pushing for an official investigation by the SEC, seeing in the sale of access to presidential statements a potential conflict of interest and a risk of market manipulation.
Financial Background
Notably, even with this new revenue stream, Trump Media's core business remains deeply unprofitable. The net loss for the second quarter was $238 million—more than ten times higher than the previous year's figure. Revenue grew 89% year-over-year but reached only a modest $1.7 million. The main hole in the balance sheet was punched by the revaluation of bitcoin reserves and its own shares.
Against this backdrop, analyst Markus Thielen from 10x Research gave a harsh assessment: the company functions more like a crypto fund than a media structure. The situation is compounded by the decision to abandon the joint launch of a prediction platform with Crypto.com—a step that fits the broader trend of winding down crypto initiatives under McGern. Meanwhile, the merger with energy company TAE Technologies is still in effect, although the deal is dragging on.
The company's shares have lost 9% over the past five days, and investors are now closely watching whether Truth API will become a stable source of revenue, as management promises.
My take: The very idea of selling a time advantage is a classic monetization of information asymmetry. But for the market, this is a troubling signal: if even a few seconds' delay is worth six-figure sums, then Trump's posts are already being perceived as a market trigger. The only question is how long regulators will turn a blind eye to this.