Trump Posts Image on Truth Social as Media Firm Pushes Paid Post Access

Trump shares an image-only post on Truth Social as his media company markets a paid, high-speed feed of top posts to Wall Street traders.

First Published: July 26, 2026, 12:56 PM ET

WASHINGTON D.C. — Donald J. Trump published an image-only post on Truth Social, the platform owned by his media company, as that firm markets a paid service selling traders faster access to the site’s most influential accounts.

The post carried no text, only a single photograph, and arrived while Trump Media & Technology Group, the publicly traded parent of truthsocial, pitches a data feed built around the president’s own market-moving output. Trump owns about 53% of the company through a trust, giving him a paper stake tied directly to its performance, according to theguardian.com.

“Markets already move on truthsocial posts,” Kevin McGurn, Trump Media’s interim chief executive, said in a statement. “As adoption grows, we expect Truth API to become a meaningful, ongoing source of revenue for the company, creating lasting value for shareholders,” he said, according to time.com.

An image post from the platform’s most-followed user matters because the same account regularly moves stocks, bonds and oil. That combination sits at the center of a new commercial plan and a widening ethics fight over whether the presidency now doubles as a revenue stream.

Here is the full post on truthsocial: “truthsocial post containing one image.” on July 26, 2026 at 4:41 PM ET.

This is one of many messages released by Trump today. In the last 30 days, 37 of 430 Trump posts were on topic “Image Only Posts”.

The move fits a broader pattern in Trump’s recent messaging, with image-only posts forming a steady share of his output on the platform he helped launch.

Trump Media announced the paid feed, branded Truth API and also described as Truth PSI, on Thursday, offering Wall Street trading firms and other institutions posts from the platform’s 10 highest-ranking accounts before other users receive them, according to theguardian.com. The president has 12.9 million followers, the most on the site, followed by his sons Donald Jr. and Eric, according to time.com. The company has not disclosed the price or the exact speed advantage.

Winners and losers divide sharply. Trading firms able to read a presidential post milliseconds early could profit on moves in stocks, bonds and interest rates, while ordinary followers relying on standard push notifications would trail behind. “He’s selling expedited, privileged access to information about what he is doing as president,” said Kathleen Clark, a Washington University School of Law professor and expert on government conflict-of-interest rules, according to theguardian.com.

The financial backdrop is severe. Stock in Trump Media has fallen more than 70% since Trump took office, erasing about $6 billion in shareholder wealth, according to theguardian.com. The stock debuted on the Nasdaq in March 2024 at $57.99 and has since dropped into single digits, closing at $9.63 on the day of the announcement, according to time.com. The company has lost more than $1 billion over the past two years and now leans on ventures in cryptocurrency, financial services and nuclear fusion.

For the average US reader, the plan raises the prospect that professional traders could act on a presidential statement about tariffs or war before households, retirees or small investors see it. Trump posted a message reading “GREAT TIME TO BUY” hours before pausing most tariffs last year, and his posts on the U.S.-Iran conflict swung oil prices, according to time.com.

This has happened on rival platforms before. Paid, high-speed data feeds are common across social networks and government agencies, and the Treasury and Labor departments distribute economic data through application programming interfaces, according to time.com. The difference here is that the platform’s most valuable poster is also the sitting president and the firm’s largest shareholder.

The next decision rests with regulators, lawmakers and potentially the courts, though no agency has announced a review with a set date. Trump Media said the service would launch next month and that some customers had already signed up, according to theguardian.com.

Selling early sight of a leader’s words is not the first time information speed has carried a price. In the 19th century, Paul Julius Reuter used carrier pigeons in the 1850s to ferry stock prices between Aachen and Brussels ahead of the telegraph gap, beating rivals to market news, according to britannica.com. His agency grew into a global wire that reshaped how traders and governments received information, cementing the fortune of the man who first monetized being first.