Truth Social owner Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), one of the many businesses funneling cash towards President Donald Trump while he sits in office, posted a $410 million quarterly profit based almost entirely on crypto gains while continuing to bleed money on its core business. A huge chunk of its revenue now comes from selling advance access to posts from a handful of Truth Social’s most popular accounts, including Trump’s.
That’s according to TMTG’s Q3 2026 SEC filings. In TMTG’s Form 8-K, the firm attributed revenue growth primarily to “$1.8 million of subscription growth” from Truth API, the service in question, and the Truth+ streaming service. Its more detailed Form 10-Q broke that $1.8 million in growth down further: about $1.3 million came from subscriptions and $0.5 million came from advertising. All told, TMTG pulled in $3 million in revenue throughout the quarter, of which $1.4 million came from subscriptions to the two services.
In August 2026, per the Wall Street Journal, TMTG announced that it had reached more than 10 customers, each of whom was paying $60,000 to $100,000 monthly for “fractionally faster” access (a few milliseconds) to public content on Truth Social, Trump’s primary posting outlet.
Some crucial context: TMTG’s Form 10-Q from Q2 acknowledged the company was making a pitiful $180,000-$190,000 or so a quarter from subscriptions, so Truth API is presumably out-earning Truth+’s entire subscription base by as much as 6x. All of these numbers pale in comparison to the money TMTG made just from rising crypto prices, although those are gains on paper. The company lost over half a billion dollars on crypto in the first half of the year, and prices could easily flip back.
There’s a plain and obvious reason that someone might think it’s a good idea to pay up to six figures to read Trump posts a few milliseconds sooner: He’s the president, and his posts move markets. That’s just a fact. Those milliseconds might allow investors employing elaborate algorithms to make trades to do so incrementally faster, dodging sudden downturns and cashing in on sudden hype. The reported customers include financial data provider Bloomberg and two high-frequency trading firms with algorithmic strategies, Susquehanna International Group and Jump Trading.
There are few other plausible reasons why any company or individual would pay for this (other than perhaps re-selling the access to other investors or signaling loyalty). Truth Social has continually hemorrhaged cash and users. Trump is perhaps the sole account on Truth Social that posts anything newsworthy.
“If a firm can incorporate that information into its trading system milliseconds before other firms, those small differences in timing can add up when the information is used repeatedly and with large sums of money involved,” Alexander Briggs, the chief trading strategist at analytics firm Supertrader, told Business Insider. “The question then becomes whether receiving Trump’s posts a fraction of a second sooner can generate enough additional profit to justify that cost.”
That the number of customers remains small could be for any number of reasons, including the ridiculous asking price, the potentially terrible PR, and Trump’s long history of delivering awful branded products. High-profile investors said the price just isn’t worth it, Business Insider reported, and that Truth API’s expedited data is only valuable to certain types of traders. But another obvious explanation could be that the whole arrangement reeks of pay-to-play insider trading.
TMTG’s Form 8-K asserts its legal trouble is simmering down after a settlement earlier this year: “With legacy legal matters now resolved, legal fees declined to $2.4 million in the third quarter of 2026 from $20.3 million in the third quarter of 2025.” Savvy investors may note that $2.4 million in legal fees is 80% of its Q3 revenue already and that more costly legal issues could spring up. TMTG’s Form 10-Q acknowledges the San Francisco City Attorney’s office is now suing TMTG over claims that Truth API violates California’s Unfair Competition Law. It also mentions a brewing dispute with early investor Michael Melkersen.
Two other lawsuits target Trump over Truth API, The New Republic noted: one from The Intercept and the Freedom of the Press Foundation, alleging it violates the First and Fifth Amendments, and another from the groups American Oversight and Campaign for Accountability on similar grounds.
Trump may still be in office and able to exert influence over agencies like the Securities & Exchange Commission, but the incoming class of Democrats that just took Congress is salivating at the opportunity to launch investigations into a president who regularly brags about enriching himself via his office. Trump also won’t be in power forever, even if he can cover his tracks with pardons.
While TMTG customers may be looking for an edge, its investors remain deeply in the red. Reuters recently reported that TMTG investors have lost over $2.2 billion, but Trump invested virtually none of his own money and retains a stake worth $460 million. A bump in TMTG stock price following the earnings report is nowhere close to recovering losses for investors, but Trump’s stake rose $30 million in value, according to Forbes.
TMTG didn’t respond to a request for comment from Gizmodo, but we’ll update this post if we hear back.
