Trump Faces Fresh Conflict of Interest Controversy Over Paid 'Fast Post' Access for High-Frequency Trading Firms

Truth Social, the social media platform founded by U.S. President Donald Trump, has been found to be providing a paid service that grants high-frequency trading firms faster access to posts.

President Trump has frequently made statements on Truth Social regarding policies that immediately and significantly impact the market.

Critics point out that by commercializing the value of such information, the platform is effectively granting special privileges to specific entities.

Reuters reported on the 28th (local time) that Truth Social recently signed paid service contracts with two Wall Street high-frequency trading firms.

Previously, Truth Social launched a subscription service charging up to 100,000 dollars per month—approximately 140 million won—to provide users with Truth Social posts 0.05 seconds faster. Reuters noted that this is the first time the actual clients of this service have been identified.

The firms are Susquehanna International Group and Jump Trading.

Both companies are high-frequency trading firms that execute asset transactions through algorithms and automated strategies.

Reuters pointed out that this could provide Wall Street investors with privileges that ordinary investors cannot access.

Because a U.S. president's social media posts have a critical impact on global asset price fluctuations, companies that identify these potential shifts in advance can execute trades even slightly ahead of others.

In fact, Wall Street high-frequency traders are known to utilize software capable of reading information and executing trades within a fraction of a millisecond.

This means that a time advantage of just 0.05 seconds is more than enough to gain an unfair preemptive trading advantage over others.

President Trump has previously poured out major policy decisions through Truth Social rather than official White House channels.

Announcements regarding the U.S. war with Iran, which had a severe impact on global asset markets, were also first revealed on Truth Social.

Furthermore, President Trump is the largest shareholder of Trump Media & Technology Group, holding a 41% stake in the company operating Truth Social.

A U.S. president using his influence to sell information via social media and generate profit is a move likely to spark conflict of interest controversies.

News data provider Bloomberg is also known to have signed a paid service contract with Truth Social.

Bloomberg, Susquehanna, and Jump Trading declined to comment on Reuters' inquiries.

Trump Media Group stated in a release, "Truth Social offers industry-standard API products (paid services) that are in significant demand across various industries, and we take the confidentiality of customer information very seriously."

In addition, a number of other companies are known to have subscribed to Truth Social's paid service, though their specific names have not been confirmed.

Previously, Trump Media told investors in August that it had "signed over 10 (paid service) contracts."

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.