Democratic Lawmaker Asks SEC to Investigate Trump Media’s ‘Truth API’

Rep. Ritchie Torres, a New York Democrat, has formally asked the US Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether Trump Media & Technology Group’s new Truth API service could violate federal securities laws.

Axios reported July 22 that Torres recently sent a letter to SEC Chair Paul Atkins arguing that the service could raise concerns about market manipulation, investor protection and conflicts of interest. He wrote that regulators should review the product before it is launched.

Truth API is a new service Trump Media, the operator of Truth Social, plans to launch on Aug. 1. Its core feature would give paying users access to posts from the 10 most popular Truth Social accounts several milliseconds before other users.

Reuters previously reported that Trump Media recently quoted prospective clients prices of as much as $100,000 a month for access to the Truth Social API. The company has also said clients paying higher fees could gain access to a broader range of accounts.

In the letter, Torres wrote that selling ordinary social media data is fundamentally different from a company in which a sitting US president holds about a 41% stake giving professional investors faster access to the president’s market-moving policy remarks.

Torres said the SEC should work with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and other agencies to jointly review potential conflicts of interest tied to the service. He also asked the SEC to disclose whether it has opened an investigation into Truth API.

Axios said Torres’s letter was one of a series of concerns raised by both Democrats and Republicans over Truth API. The outlet said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer recently called Truth API “a textbook case of insider trading.”

Sen. John Thune, a Republican, said the service appeared to require regulatory review, including a legal review.