Senators Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff have asked the US Securities and Exchange Commission to open an investigation into Truth API, the Trump Media & Technology Group feed that sells Wall Street firms early access to President Donald Trump's Truth Social posts. The service goes live on August 1, giving the SEC just three days to act from the date of the senators' letter, sent July 28.
The latency argument
Warren and Schiff aren't arguing about what Trump says. They're arguing about when. Truth API routes posts from the 10 most influential Truth Social accounts to paying clients first — before the general public sees them. Trump Media has discussed charging between $60,000 and $100,000 a month for the feed. Trump himself owns roughly 41% of Trump Media through a trust overseen by his children, so he profits from every subscription sold.
The senators point to Trump's record of naming specific companies in his posts — Citigroup, Intel, Palantir among them. A CNN review found he had bought shares before praising 21 companies. Researchers have separately flagged trading patterns that spike just before Trump's announcements hit the public feed.
Precedents from Wall Street data feeds
This isn't the first time regulators have taken issue with selling early access to market-moving information. In July 2013, Thomson Reuters suspended a deal that gave select clients University of Michigan consumer sentiment data two seconds early. Subscribers paid up to $6,025 a month. In February 2014, Berkshire Hathaway's Business Wire terminated direct feeds to high-frequency traders. Both cases followed pressure from then New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
But there are key differences. Truth API's ceiling price of $100,000 is roughly 16 times the Michigan premium. And neither the Thomson Reuters nor Business Wire precedent involved a sitting president.
Legal hurdles and political pressure
Regulation FD — the SEC's fair disclosure rule — likely doesn't cover Truth API because it sells policy signals, not company information. Instead, the senators cited insider trading and market manipulation statutes. A Trump Media spokesperson rejected the framing, stating the senators 'must have invented a new theory of insider trading based on publicly available information.'
SEC Chair Paul Atkins, sworn in April 2025, has favored lighter enforcement. Trump Media itself is under financial strain — it posted a $406 million quarterly loss in the first quarter of 2026, and DJT stock trades near $9.85, about 80% below its March 2024 debut.
What happens next
A formal enforcement action within three days is unlikely. SEC investigations open quietly, and the agency almost never confirms them. In the 2013 and 2014 cases, the vendor withdrew the product voluntarily once buyers grew uncomfortable being named — making the subscriber list the real pressure point. Industry sources see rising legal and political risk for any firm that signs up for Truth API.
Two key signals to watch: whether SEC Chair Atkins opens a file at all, and whether a single bank admits to buying the feed.
