Trump’s Biggest Self-Dealing Scheme Yet
Friends,
Starting August 1, Trump Media and Technology Group will launch a new data feed aimed at high-frequency trading firms whose profits are made by making trades a fraction of a second faster than everyone else.
It will provide βlicensed, real-time access to posts from the highest-ranking Truth Social accounts.β In other words, the feed will let you know what Trump has said before anyone else knows, meaning itβs well worth the tab that Truth Social will charge to see Trumpβs posts before the rest of the public sees them β up to $100,000 per month.
Thatβs a pittance relative to what could be made, because Trumpβs words on Truth Social β about his war in Iran, about his latest tariffs, about the Fed β have caused the stock market to soar or drop. So, if youβre a trader on Wall Street, youβll make millions if you know what heβs posting a fraction of a second before everyone else knows. Perhaps more to the point, if youβre behind on that news, βyouβll get crushed,β as one hedge-fund executive told the Financial Times.
No wonder Trump Mediaβs interim CEO Kevin McGurn is gloating that the feed will βbecome a meaningful, ongoing source of revenue for the company, creating lasting value for shareholders.β Trump Media has been unprofitable until now.
Trump, of course, is the companyβs largest shareholder.
The scheme is Trumpβs most brazen way to illegally profit off his presidency and enrich his Wall Street insider friends.
I say illegally because the Constitution lists βbriberyβ as a reason to remove a president from office, and the federal ban on bribing public officials also expressly applies to a president. (Whether these provisions can be enforced against a president whoβs been given blanket immunity from βofficial actsβ by the Supreme Court is another matter.)
The good news, though, is Americans are catching on to insider trading, and they hate it β so much so that House Republican leaders are now teeing up a vote this week on a bill that would create new guardrails for lawmakers trading stocks.
The βStop Insider Trading Actβ would bar members of Congress and their families from purchasing new shares of stock and require them to file a notice of their plans to sell shares at least seven days ahead of time.
Most Democrats say the measure doesnβt go far enough because it allows members to keep shares of stock they already own, in contrast with a competing bipartisan proposal that bars members from trading individual shares of stock altogether. And one provision Republicans have snuck into the measure βand that must be removed if they want any Democratic votes β deters mail-in voting.
The point is that at the same time Trump is rolling out a new tool to give traders more immediate access to his market-moving posts on Truth Social β if theyβll pay him up to $100,000 a month for it β Congress is limiting how members can profit from inside information they obtain through elected office.
The American public is so disgusted by corruption in Washington that even Republican lawmakers want something to show theyβre not in the swamp.
Trump doesnβt give a damn about the publicβs mounting revulsion at corruption. Heβs not up for reelection. He doesnβt care that his polls are in the cellar. All he wants to do is make even more money, exert more power, and get even with people who have gotten in his way.
But the public wants his swamp drained.
Democrats, take note. Three months from now, ask Americans two related questions: Do they think theyβre better off than they were before Trump became president again? Do they approve of the most corrupt White House in American history?
The answer to both will be a resounding no. And the best way for Americans to act on their disgust will be to kick the Republican bums out.
