Insider trading made legal? Trump's media company to sell early access to Truth Social posts via 'Truth PSI'
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Insider trading made legal? Trump's media company to sell early access to Truth Social posts via 'Truth PSI'")
Trump's new Truth Social plan could let Wall Street profit from his posts before everyone else Photograph: (AFP)
Donald Trump's media company is preparing to launch Truth PSI, a premium service offering paying subscribers millisecond-early access to selected Truth Social posts, prompting ethics experts to question whether the president could financially benefit from market-moving announcements.
Donald Trump's media company is preparing to launch a premium service that would give paying customers faster access to posts on Truth Social. This new premium service could let Wall Street traders see market-moving posts milliseconds before everyone else. However, critics are now questioning whether the president stands to profit from his own announcements. Here's all you need to know about it.
Trump's Truth PSI
The feature, called Truth PSI, is designed for Wall Street firms, institutional investors and other professional traders who rely on breaking news to make split-second investment decisions. According to the company, subscribers will be able to view posts from the platform's "highest-ranking" accounts milliseconds before they become available to the general public.
That list is likely to include Trump, who has nearly 13 million followers and routinely uses Truth Social to announce policy decisions, comment on global conflicts and signal changes in trade and immigration policy.
The company has not said whether the president's posts will be included in the paid service or how much it plans to charge.
Why Trump's posts matter to markets
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Trump's Truth Social account has increasingly become the first place where major White House announcements appear.
In recent months, he has posted about tariffs, the conflict involving Iran and immigration enforcement operations before or alongside official government statements.
Those posts can move financial markets within seconds. Developments in the Middle East, for example, can influence oil prices, while tariff announcements often affect stock markets and bond yields. Investors closely monitor such updates because they can alter expectations about inflation, interest rates and economic growth.
By offering faster access to these posts, Truth Media is effectively creating a product aimed at traders seeking an advantage over competitors.
Critics see a conflict of interest
Ethics experts say the proposal raises questions that go well beyond a typical subscription service.
Kathleen Clark, a government ethics expert at Washington University School of Law, told The Guardian that the arrangement amounts to selling privileged access to presidential communications.
"He's selling expedited, privileged access to information about what he is doing as president," Clark said, calling it "yet more brazen corruption" and an improper use of public office for personal financial gain.
A president exempt from federal conflict rules?
Federal conflict-of-interest laws generally prohibit government officials from participating in matters that could financially benefit businesses they own.
The president and vice president, however, are exempt from those provisions.
Even so, previous presidents have typically sold individual business interests, divested assets or placed investments into blind trusts to avoid even the appearance of benefiting financially from decisions made while in office.
Trump has chosen not to do so and has instead retained significant financial interests in businesses operated by his family.
