US senator urges Wall Street to reject 'troubling' paid early access to Trump posts

A top Democratic U.S. senator has called on major banks and trading firms to reject a new product offering early access to posts from Donald Trump's Truth Social platform. Senator Mark Warner, a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sent a letter to the heads of six major financial industry trade groups urging them to publicly disavow the arrangement.

Warner argued that the paid, licensed data feed, which provides the fastest access to posts from influential Truth Social accounts including Trump's, creates a "very troubling form of information asymmetry" for government policies. He warned that it would allow Trump to personally profit from government policy announcements, calling it a "troubling" product.

The product, called "Truth API," will deliver posts from the 10 most influential accounts at a significantly faster pace than regular push notifications. Reuters has reported that the social media company has discussed charging Wall Street traders and investment firms as much as $100,000 a month for this faster access, with a discounted rate of $60,000 a month for three-year sign-ups.

Spokespeople for the Bank Policy Institute, Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, Managed Funds Association, Financial Services Forum, Principal Traders Group, and American Bankers Association did not respond to requests for comment. The White House referred comment to the Trump Media & Technology Group, which also did not respond.

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I urge you to make clear that the financial services industry will not legitimize an arrangement that sells privileged access to market-moving presidential communications, especially for the president’s personal financial benefit.