U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) accused President Donald Trump of using his office for personal financial gain on Tuesday, August 4, 2026, writing on X that the president is “moving markets to enrich himself” and is now trying to “further profit off his corruption” by selling paid access to his own social media posts. The senator called the arrangement “naked corruption” that “must be shut down.”
Gillibrand’s post came four days after Trump’s media company, Trump Media & Technology Group, launched a new subscription product called Truth API, which sells Wall Street trading firms faster access to posts from Trump and other high-profile accounts on Truth Social for as much as $100,000 a month. The senator tied her criticism directly to the STOCK Act, the 2012 law she authored that bars members of Congress and the executive branch from trading on nonpublic information gained through their official positions.
What the New Trump Media Service Does
Truth API went live on Saturday, August 1, giving financial firms and other paying subscribers real-time alerts when Trump or other top Truth Social accounts post, ahead of when those posts reach the general public feed. Trump Media has marketed the product to high-frequency traders, hedge funds, and other major investment firms as a licensed data feed.
Trump’s posts have repeatedly moved markets during his second term, touching on tariffs, war policy, central bank leadership, and individual publicly traded companies. Because his statements can shift stock, bond, and currency prices within seconds, early access to them creates a direct trading advantage for whoever receives the alert first.
Wall Street Stands to Profit From Presidential Announcements
Financial industry figures interviewed by the Associated Press said the service gives paying subscribers a meaningful edge. Irene Aldridge, head of Able Alpha Trading, argued that if a corporate executive disclosed market-moving information this way, “this would be jail time.” Joe Saluzzi, co-founder of Themis Trading, estimated roughly 100 high-frequency trading firms could be interested in paying for the feed, calling it straightforward “market-moving information.”
The AP reported that this year alone, Trump has used Truth Social to threaten new tariffs on Canada, discuss ending a nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia, and address widening the conflict with Iran — each the kind of post capable of moving oil, currency, and defense-sector markets before the wider public sees it. The outlet also noted that Trump has posted favorably about individual companies, including Palantir Technologies and Intel, with their stock prices jumping shortly afterward.
Trump Media’s Defense
Trump’s press office declined to comment on the service when asked by the AP, directing questions to Trump Media & Technology Group, the publicly traded parent company. A company spokeswoman, Shannon Devine, has defended the product publicly, telling reporters that Truth API simply gives customers a faster way to receive information that is already public, and rejecting the characterization of the service as insider trading.
Trump Media has financial incentives of its own tied to the launch. The company’s stock has fallen roughly 75 percent since Trump returned to office, and it reported taking in just $3.7 million in revenue last year. Industry analysts have estimated that even a handful of major subscribers paying the top tier could roughly double the company’s annual revenue.
Gillibrand’s Long-Running Push Against Insider Trading in Government
Tuesday’s post was not Gillibrand’s first attempt to close gaps in federal insider-trading law. She authored the original STOCK Act, passed in 2012, which prohibits members of Congress and executive branch officials from trading on nonpublic information obtained through their positions. Despite that law, Congressional watchdogs have documented widespread stock trading by lawmakers in the years since, including thousands of trades flagged as potential conflicts of interest.
Earlier this year, Gillibrand partnered with Senator Ashley Moody (R-FL) to introduce the bipartisan Restore Trust in Congress Act, which would go further than the STOCK Act by banning members of Congress and their immediate families from owning or trading individual stocks entirely. Announcing the bill, the senators said the legislation was necessary because members of Congress should be “focused on our nation and its citizens’ well-being, not how they may financially profit from their positions.” A companion bill in the House had 126 cosponsors at the time, along with a discharge petition signed by 79 representatives from both parties seeking to force a floor vote.
Other Democrats Move to Investigate and Legislate
Gillibrand’s criticism adds to a wave of Democratic pushback against Truth API that began almost as soon as the service was announced. On July 31, Representative Jamie Raskin, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, opened an investigation into the arrangement, writing that a sitting president selling advance access to his own market-moving statements represents “the depraved essence of insider trading.” Raskin’s letter noted that Trump personally controls a trust holding more than 40 percent of Trump Media’s shares, meaning he stands to profit directly from every subscription sold.
Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) introduced separate legislation on August 3, called the NO PROFIT Act, which would bar social media companies from selling expedited access to posts from the president, vice president, members of Congress, or other federal officials, and would make trading on information obtained that way illegal. Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) announced he would introduce his own bill on Tuesday, August 4 — the same day as Gillibrand’s post — aimed at making it illegal for a sitting president to sell or license faster access to his own public statements, a practice that currently falls outside existing securities law.
Legal Experts Divided on Whether the Law Already Applies
Legal analysts have offered mixed assessments of whether Truth API violates existing insider-trading statutes. NPR reported that because Trump Media releases the posts to paying subscribers and the general public simultaneously — just seconds apart — the company may be able to argue the information is technically public rather than “nonpublic” in the legal sense the STOCK Act targets. Critics of that argument, including Themis Trading’s Saluzzi, counter that the timing gap itself is the entire value of the product, since whoever’s system processes the alert fastest captures the trading advantage.
What Comes Next
With Truth API now operating for four days and facing an open House investigation, two new Senate bills, and public criticism from lawmakers including Gillibrand, the service’s future is likely to be shaped by both Congress and financial regulators in the weeks ahead. Democratic lawmakers, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, have separately signaled plans to pursue oversight hearings if Democrats gain control of Congress, with Warren vowing to compel testimony from those responsible for the arrangement.
For now, Trump Media has shown no indication it plans to shut the service down, and some government-ethics observers expect the company to lean further into using Trump’s platform for major policy announcements given its ongoing financial losses. Gillibrand’s post signals that Democratic lawmakers intend to keep the issue in public view as the 2026 midterm campaign accelerates, framing the Truth API launch as a test case for how far a sitting president can go in monetizing the power of his own office.