The senators asked SEC Chair Paul Atkins to assess whether paid early access to Truth Social posts could violate laws against insider trading and market manipulation.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff asked the SEC (U.S. securities regulator) to investigate whether Trump Media & Technology Group’s plan to sell faster access to President Donald Trump’s Truth Social posts breaks securities laws. In a July 28 letter to SEC Chair Paul Atkins, the Democratic lawmakers requested a legal analysis of the Truth API service before its planned Aug. 1 start, specifically citing laws against insider trading and market manipulation rather than Regulation FD, which covers selective disclosure by issuers about their own companies. Trump Media has discussed charging between $60,000 and $100,000 a month for the feed, which routes posts from the 10 most influential Truth Social accounts to paying clients before the public. The senators argued the service could give high-frequency trading firms and other subscribers a speed advantage on market-moving statements by Trump, who they said profits from the arrangement through his roughly 41% stake in Trump Media held in a trust overseen by his children. They pointed to Trump’s history of mentioning tickers including Citigroup, Intel and Palantir, as well as a CNN review that found he had bought shares before praising 21 companies. Trump Media rejected the criticism, saying the theory rests on publicly available information. The SEC confirmed receipt and declined comment. The dispute echoes earlier cases in which Thomson Reuters and Business Wire withdrew products that gave select clients an early data feed after regulatory pressure, though neither involved a sitting president.