‘Brazen corruption’: critics denounce Trump Media plan to sell priority access to Truth Social posts

Donald Trump’s media company is planning to charge for special high-speed access to Truth Social posts, including possibly his own, affecting national security and financial markets.The move announced Thursday would allow Wall Street trading firms and other institutions to get news from top Truth Social contributors in milliseconds so they could profit off subsequent moves in stocks, bonds and interest rates.Called Truth PSI, the new service comes amid a flurry of other deals by Trump and his family company that critics say are exploiting the presidency for profit. It follows similar offers of paid access on rival platforms, though with one key difference: the most popular Truth Social poster is the president himself, and, as the biggest shareholder of the publicly traded parent company, he would directly benefit.“He’s selling expedited, privileged access to information about what he is doing as president,” said Kathleen Clark of Washington University School of Law and an expert in government conflict-of-interest rules. “It’s yet more brazen corruption, an improper exploitation of government power to enrich himself.”The Trump family company declined to comment about whether the new feature was profiting off the presidency. Truth Social’s public parent, Trump Media + Technology, did not respond to emailed questions, including whether the president’s posts will be excluded from the offering.A press release states the new service would allow traders to see “the highest-ranking Truth Social accounts” before other people. The president has the most followers – 12.9 millions – followed by his oldest son, Donald Jr, and, close behind, his son Eric.The release did not say how much customers would be charged.In the past few months, Trump has announced major decisions and musings on his platform including posts about the Iran war, tariffs and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdown in US cities. The Iran posts in particular are impactful because investors are worried that higher oil prices will continue to stoke inflation and possibly force the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates.Stock in Trump Media + Technology has plunged more than 70% since the president took office last year, erasing $6bn in shareholder wealth. Those losses, along with billions more of investor losses tied to new Trump family crypto businesses, have drawn scrutiny after Trump’s annual disclosure of his financial holdings shows he took in more than $1bn in revenue last year in the same companies and offerings.Conflict-of-interest laws would bar US government officials from owning a company that profited off their office by selling access to their decisions through public posts, says Clark. But the president and vice-president, she notes, are excluded from the provision.Despite that, all presidents since the law was passed decades ago have acted as if it applied – selling individual stocks, dumping business holdings or putting their financial assets in a blind trust so they wouldn’t know what was being bought and sold on their behalf while they wielded power – but Trump has refused.Trump Media has been trying to lift its stock price recently by branching into various businesses, including cryptocurrency, financial services and even nuclear fusion. It recently replaced its longtime CEO, Devin Nunes, a former congressman, with a seasoned media executive, Kevin McGurn.In the release, McGurn described the Truth PSI move as part of a “strategy to monetize proprietary assets”. He added that he expected it to become a “meaningful, ongoing source of revenue”.Trump Media said that it plans to start the service next month and that it had already signed up customers.The company’s stock rose 0.6% to $9.63 on Thursday. Before Trump took office last year, it closed at $40.