Warren, Schiff urge SEC to probe Trump Media's paid service giving faster access to Trump's posts

Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether Trump Media & Technology Group is violating the law by selling faster access to President Donald Trump's Truth Social posts.

"This appears to be an outrageous abuse of the President's office for his personal benefit that undermines everyday investors and the integrity of our markets, while enriching Wall Street and other wealthy insiders," the Democratic senators wrote in a letter to SEC chair Paul Atkins dated Tuesday.

They asked Atkins to complete a legal analysis of Trump Media's new service, including laws that "prohibit insider trading and market manipulation," before it begins on Aug. 1.

Trump Media did not immediately respond to CNBC's requests for comment on the letter from Warren, the Senate Banking Committee's ranking member from Massachusetts, and California's Schiff, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The SEC declined to comment.

Trump's family is the largest stakeholder in the publicly traded company, which goes by TMTG and trades on the Nasdaq as DJT, the president's initials. Its share price, once viewed as a barometer for Trump's political standing, has fallen about 80% since the company began trading in late March 2024.

TMTG operates Truth Social, the social media platform where Trump's account is the most followed by far, and the company has branched into numerous other sectors, including cryptocurrency and fusion power.

Trump frequently posts policy announcements and other newsworthy information, including about the Iran war, that sends global markets hurtling up or down. He has also repeatedly used his account to promote individual stocks.

On July 16, TMTG announced Truth API, a so-called licensed data service providing "real-time access to posts from the highest-ranking Truth Social accounts."

The service "delivers a direct, licensed, real-time feed of the platform's most market-moving Truths," TMTG's interim CEO Kevin McGurn said in that announcement.

TMTG has discussed charging up to $100,000 a month for the service, Reuters reported.

Prior to retaking the White House, Trump transferred more than 114 million TMTG shares to a revocable trust overseen by his family, but still owns the stake indirectly.

The new service "threatens to undermine the integrity of capital markets," Warren and Schiff wrote Atkins.

Trump "stands to profit from the launch of this service," as do the "firms and wealthy individuals that pay the subscription fee" to get his posts faster, the senators noted.

Truth API could provide particular advantage to high-frequency trading firms, they warned. "While financial firms and analysts have relied on manual monitoring of Truth Social, the API automatically feeds around-the-clock Truth Social posts directly to those who are simply willing to pay up front for milliseconds of additional notice."