(Corrects Sherman quote in paragraph 16 to say "wildly," not "widely")

By Anirban Sen, Jaspreet Singh and Courtney Rozen

NEW YORK, July 17 (Reuters) - Donald Trump's social media company has discussed charging Wall Street traders and investment firms as much as $100,000 a month for faster access to the U.S. president's posts on his Truth Social platform, according to people familiar with the matter.

Trump Media & Technology Group, which owns Truth Social, has in recent weeks also pitched a discounted plan of $60,000 per month if the firms sign up for a three-year plan, the sources said, requesting anonymity as the discussions are confidential.

TMTG on Thursday unveiled a paid-for, licensed data feed called "Truth API" to provide banks and trading firms the fastest access to posts from the 10 most influential Truth Social accounts, but did not give any pricing details.

The move would be the company's first step into data licensing, opening up a new revenue stream, although it drew immediate criticism from Democrats.

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said it would financially benefit the Trump family and "make Wall Street traders rich." 

The White House referred questions on Wyden's remarks to TMTG, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump's social media posts often move markets, and the profits of many top trading firms, hedge funds and financial services firms depend heavily on the speed at which they can execute trades.

On April 9, 2025, for example, Wall Street's main indexes turned sharply higher after Trump said in a Truth Social post that he would pause many of his new tariffs for 90 days.

Access to the Truth API would be essential for high-frequency trading firms as a speed advantage of just a few milliseconds can result in hundreds of thousands of dollars of gains on big trades, the sources said.

The Financial Times reported the discussions on the $100,000 subscription fee earlier on Thursday. 

PROFIT FROM POLICY ANNOUNCEMENTS 

TMTG has faced challenges in ramping up its media business amid intense competition from larger social media firms. The new product will provide round-the-clock coverage of influential posts and include an archive of posts dating back to 2022. The company said it has already signed up customers ahead of the August 1 launch, but did not say who they are.

Some of the most-followed accounts on Truth Social belong to Trump himself and those closely aligned with him, including his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, as well as prominent supporters such as Dan Bongino and Sean Hannity.

The Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust holds roughly 114.75 million shares, representing about 41% of all outstanding stock in TMTG, according to regulatory filings. The trust, which his children oversee, administers Trump's investments.

Critics have raised questions around whether Trump and his family have sought to boost their fortunes by profiting off policies announced by his administration. In his most recent financial disclosures, Trump reported more than $1.4 billion in income from his family's crypto ventures last year, after his income from digital assets benefited from policies he had announced.

The Truth API arrangement would be "wildly unethical," said Donald Sherman, president of the nonpartisan watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, because the president stands to benefit from payments for faster access to his posts. However, it is difficult to determine from publicly available information whether it is illegal, he said.

Sherman and other experts note that the Constitution's emoluments clauses, designed to thwart corruption, would not apply in this case. They bar federal officials from accepting gifts from foreign governments without congressional approval, and the president from receiving gifts from states.

And while federal regulations broadly prohibit the buying or selling of a security based on material, non-public information, that restriction would not apply if potentially hundreds or thousands of people receive earlier access to his posts, Sherman said.

"I don't think Congress or any regulatory body ever contemplated that a president or a market-mover would engage in this kind of paying-for-access type arrangement," he said.

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, said it was "an egregious scheme to profit off the presidency and enrich Wall Street while doing nothing to help Americans."

While the White House has said Trump's business empire is overseen by his children, the president is the beneficiary of the income that flows into his trust.

Shares of TMTG, which have shed roughly 27% of their value this year, closed roughly flat at $9.66 on Friday, giving the company a market value of about $2.7 billion.