‘How Is This Not Insider Trading?’ Dana Bash Thrown for a Loop By Trump Selling Wall Street ‘Quicker Access’ to Social Posts
CNN’s Dana Bash was thrown for a loop by President Donald Trump’s media company selling “quicker access” to his Truth Social posts, and she flat-out asked, “How is this not insider trading?”
Bash spoke with CNN senior reporter Dave Goldman on Friday’s Inside Politics for a report on the latest move by Trump’s media company.
“President Trump’s media company is going to start selling Wall Street firms faster access to Truth Social posts, including the president and his son’s [posts]. It appears to be yet another example of the Trump family profiting off of his presidency,” Bash said before bringing Goldman on.
Goldman explained that Truth Social is selling access to a service known as its API which provides “instant access to high-speed trading machines.” Companies can essentially pay for faster access to posts on Truth Social, including from the president who often makes policy announcements there.
Goldman reported:
Those are the kind of machines that really make money on Wall Street. And we’re talking about when we’re talking about high speed, we’re talking about milliseconds, right? And those milliseconds can make millions of dollars for Wall Street firms and really put retail investors like you and me at a disadvantage. Now we know that President Trump makes news and really announces policies, often before his own administration knows that it’s coming, on Truth Social. And so by selling instant access to that, Wall Street can make more money by buying or selling, depending on what President Trump is saying. Now, the company has a statement about this. It says that until now, “no official integrated api has existed and firms that prioritize tracking influential Truth posts have relied on manual monitoring.” That’s crucial. “Truth API closes the gap for organizations that place a premium on immediate, verified access to information.” So basically, this is the company saying, yes, we acknowledge that people are buying and selling stocks based on what the president says on Truth Social. And now we’re going to sell even faster access to it so that the company can make money.
“I think this is one of those moments where I have to ask you the bottom line question that probably everybody watching is asking, how is this not insider trading?” Bash asked, throwing her hands in the air.
Goldman noted that other social media platforms provide similar services and Trump’s media company is looking for a way to bring in cash.
He said:
Yeah, it’s legal. And this isn’t the only company that’s doing this. X, owned by Elon Musk, and Meta, others either offer for free or sell high speed access to the data that’s available on their platforms. But here’s the key. President Trump owns the platform that he’s making news on. And so by selling access to it, he is thereby making money. Remember, he owns 41% of the parent company, Trump Media, which owns Truth Social. And the company could use some money, Dana, because it only made $3 million in ad revenue last year. It lost, get this, $711 million in operating losses. This is not a profitable company, and they’re looking for ways to make some money.
Watch above via CNN.
The post ‘How Is This Not Insider Trading?’ Dana Bash Thrown for a Loop By Trump Selling Wall Street ‘Quicker Access’ to Social Posts first appeared on Mediaite.
from Mediaite https://ift.tt/sxIMRYr

0 comments