NEW YORK (AP) — America’s first billionaire president may soon be profiting from a new line of business tied to his office: charging access for a first peek at certain posts on his Truth Social platform.
Donald Trump's struggling media company plans to sell Wall Street traders the chance to see posts from “highest-ranking” accounts — including possibly his own — milliseconds before others.
That could mean big money for them, and Trump.
Trump's posts are often important enough to rattle financial markets, sending prices soaring and plunging within seconds. Until this moment, presidential policy announcements were considered sort of public property that should be free and available to all at the same time.
The president has the most followers on Truth Social — 12.9 million — so presumably will be included in the mix of high-ranking accounts.
Truth Social’s public parent, Trump Media & Technology, did not respond to emailed questions, including whether Trump’s posts will be excluded from the offering, but the planned service is attracting plenty of attention — and not just from traders.
“It’s odious, selling access to highest bidders on Wall Street," said Dylan Hedler-Gaudette, an expert on federal ethic rules at watchdog Project on Government Oversight. “Everything he says has market implications."
Called Truth PSI, the service announced in a short press release Thursday would allow Wall Street trading firms and institutions to see certain posts earlier than other users so they could profit off subsequent moves in stocks, bonds and interest rates.
The Trump Media release did not give any sense of the size of the new business but quotes CEO Kevin McGurn as saying he expects it to become a “meaningful" source of revenue as part of a strategy to "monetize proprietary assets.” The company added that it expects to launch the service next month.
The customers that Truth Social is targeting are high frequency traders who jump ahead of others in reacting to news to buy and sell bonds and other financial instruments. And a few thousands of a second often spells the difference between profits and losses.
When Trump announced his sweeping tariffs on April 2 last year, it was major political and financial news —- and many found out first on Truth Social.
“It's Liberation Day in America," Trump posted hours before a formal Rose Garden announcement, sending stocks plunging nearly 5% over the next few hours. Safe haven investments like gold and Treasury bonds soared.
A few days later, Trump reversed course by suspending the tariffs for 90 days with an announcement again on Truth Social, writing, "THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!”
Stocks soared 9.5% that day, adding $4 trillion to investor wealth as measured by the S&P 500 index.
“It’s yet more brazen corruption,” said Kathleen Clark of Washington University School of Law and an expert in government ethics rules. “Trump can line his pockets by selling access.”
Trump has announced major decisions and musings about other topics, including staff changes, immigration crackdowns, and matters of war and peace in Ukraine and Iran.
“THE CEASEFIRE IS NOW IN EFFECT. PLEASE DO NOT VIOLATE IT!,” he posted on June 24 last year about a short-lived Iran deal, sending oil prices plunging instantly.
No other social media platform has such access to the president, and presumably banks and traders will have to pay up for it.
Trump Media did not state in its release how much it plans to charge but said it has already signed up customers.
The service is similar to others at rival social media firms but with a key difference: It’s the president posting. But there appears to be nothing to stop Trump from doing this, at least legally.
Conflict of interest laws would bar U.S. government officials from owning a company that profits off their office by selling access to their decisions through public posts, says Washington University’s Clark. But the president and vice president, she notes, are excluded from the provision.
Despite that, all presidents since the law was passed decades ago have acted as if it applied — selling individual stocks, dumping business holdings or putting their financial assets in a blind trust so they wouldn’t know what was being bought and sold on their behalf while they wielded power — but Trump has refused.
The White House referred questions, including those about the president profiting off its office, to the company that owns Truth Social. Several messages sent to that company, Trump Media & Technology, have not been returned. And Trump’s own family company, the Trump Organization, declined to comment.
Trump himself has repeatedly denied that there any conflicts between his obligation to act in the public interest and the opportunity to make money off the presidency.
The White House has previously said Trump only does what is good for the country and is not involved in his family business.
The new service is the latest in a series of moves to try to revive the fortunes of Trump Media whose stock has plunged more than 70% since the president took office last year
The company has been diversifying into various businesses — crypto, financial services and nuclear fusion — but all to no avail.
It recently replaced its longtime CEO, former Congressman Devin Nunes, with McGurn — but the stock kept sinking anyway.
The stock rose 0.6% on the news Thursday, and up by half that amount the next day at $9.66. Before Trump took office last year, it closed at $40.
FILE - The download screen for the Truth Social app is displayed on a laptop computer, March 20, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
UVALDE, Texas (AP) — First responders in storm-battered Texas again rushed to save people trapped in high waters Friday, as more heavy rain widened the danger from floods that have killed at least two people and left hundreds more in need of rescue.
A week of punishing downpours dumped more than 2 feet (60 centimeters) in some areas. The rain was expected to taper off, but another round of showers worsened already swollen rivers and flooded rural communities near the border with Mexico that had largely been spared major damage.
Near Ozona, a small town about 200 miles (322 kilometers) west of San Antonio, floodwaters spilled over Interstate 10. More than 50 people were rescued by boat from flooded apartments and a water-logged RV park.
A section of a bridge also collapsed over the Nueces River in Uvalde County, where months worth of rain has fallen in a span of days. In Uvalde, about 80 miles (129 kilometers) southwest of San Antonio, floodwaters rushed through Miguel Vasquez’s home twice this week, leaving a layer of mud and knocking over his refrigerator and other items.
Debris was strewn around his neighborhood and a neighbor’s shed teetered over a washed-away section of the property. He said Friday that he'd been caught in the waters' current and nearly been swept away and drowned in trying to get to his house Wednesday.
“I had to grab on with my hands and my feet. You couldn’t swim," he said. "People think that when there’s a flood, you can swim. Swimming’s not going to help you. It’ll take you. The current’s too strong.”
Nearly 1 trillion gallons of water fell on the three hardest-hit counties over three days — enough to fill 1.5 million Olympic-sized swimming pools or supply 11 million homes for a year.
Uvalde County alone got more rain in that period than California has seen over the last month, according to Ryan Maue, former chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.
The Hill Country is especially prone to flash floods because the area’s signature limestone is covered by just a thin layer of soil. During heavy rains, water can quickly shoot downhill before filling the narrow river basins.
Emergency personnel across a wide swath of southern and central Texas have rescued more than 570 people, including stranded drivers and people trapped in homes, Gov. Greg Abbott said. Hill Country residents were beginning to clean up after floodwaters again barreled down the Guadalupe River and through communities still reeling from deadly floods a year ago.
Floodwaters on the Rio Grande temporarily closed the two international bridges on the border with Mexico at Eagle Pass, stranding a few people on the wrong side. About 600 huge buoys placed on the river to deter migrants from crossing into the U.S. illegally were set adrift by the rising waters, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar said.
Cuellar said about 480 of them were captured by noon Friday. Critics have worried about the damage the buoys might do if they became untethered and got caught along banks and against bridge piers. Each is about 15 feet (4.6 meters) long and weighs 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms).
In the Hill Country, Serena Reyna woke up Thursday morning to find her Kerrville boutique, Nu Accents, covered in debris after four feet of floodwater rushed into the store. She described the store as “a total loss.”
“The floors, I mean they’re soaked in mud and still you know an inch of water in some spots," she said.
The Texas Department of Transportation said high waters closed a 50-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 57 and that parts of the roadway were not expected to reopen until Monday.
In all, roughly 6 million residents across Texas were under a flood watch at various points this week.
Floodwaters had overrun Uvalde and cut off most outside routes, making it one of the hardest hit cities. The waters were receding Friday, and officials said a major highway, Route 90, had reopened.
One person died while driving on a flooded road, swept away near Uvalde, authorities said.
Another victim, 65-year-old John Mark Steward of Kerrville, died after his mobile home was swept into Goat Creek on the Guadalupe River, his wife said. The same river was wrecked by flash floods last year when two dozen children and counselors died at Camp Mystic. Authorities on Thursday said summer campers were safe.
In Ozona, the seat of Crockett County, authorities used seven rescue boat teams to get people out of the hardest-hit areas. They were taken to the local civic center for shelter.
Eddie Martin, the county's emergency management director, said the area received 6 inches of rain after midnight, on top of nearly 10 inches of rain before that.
“We have more and more accidents on the interstate,” he said. “We have more and more water pouring into the neighborhoods where we’ve been pulling people out of.”
Stengle reported from Dallas and Hanna, from Topeka, Kansas. Also contributing reporting were Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut; Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas; Michael Phillis in Washington, and Anna Wilder in Austin, Texas.
An aerial views shows flooding on Friday, July 17, 2026, in Ozona, Texas. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
An aerial views shows flooding on Friday, July 17, 2026, in Ozona, Texas. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A partially-collapsed bridge crossing Goat Creek is damaged following floods near the Guadalupe River on Friday, July 17, 2026, in Kerrville, Texas. (AP Photo/Joel Angel Juarez)
Bob Bettes assesses damage to his belongings after flooding reached the Buckhorn Lake Resort RV Park along West Goat Creek near the Guadalupe River on Friday, July 17, 2026, in Kerrville, Texas. (AP Photo/Joel Angel Juarez)
Ryder Wade is comforted by his mother Crystal Wade as they assess flood debris and damage scattered across the Buckhorn Lake Resort RV Park following floods along West Goat Creek near the Guadalupe River on Friday, July 17, 2026, in Kerrville, Texas. (AP Photo/Joel Angel Juarez)
A police officer walks along the Guadalupe River after a series of storms on Friday, July 17, 2026, in Kerrville, Texas. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Crews clean up flood debris along the Guadalupe River on Friday, July 17, 2026, in Comfort, Texas. (AP Photo/Joel Angel Juarez)
A police officer walks along the Guadalupe River after a series of storms on Friday, July 17, 2026, in Kerrville, Texas. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
The Guadalupe River floods a crossing after a series of storms on Friday, July 17, 2026, in Hunt, Texas. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A property's gate featuring cattle is partially submerged with flood waters along State Highway 27 in Comfort, Texas, Thursday, July 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Joel Angel Juarez)
A helicopter flies over the Guadalupe River as floods pass through the area on Thursday, July 16, 2026, in Kerrville, Texas. (AP Photo/Joel Angel Juarez)
Flooding blocks off G Street along the Guadalupe River on Thursday, July 16, 2026, in Kerrville, Texas. (AP Photo/Joel Angel Juarez)
