# The $100,000-a-month market for Trump’s posts

An episode of [7am](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1461999702), 23 Aug 2026, 16 min.

Audio: https://p.podderapp.com/2544644999/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/2fb3740d-3436-44af-8cc0-a91900716aa5/62723a1f-3e96-4fc4-882c-b25e0181da4d/d09b7417-f284-4ebc-a650-b4ad0058cc45/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=70f29d90-2a63-48aa-bf8f-b25e0181da70

Donald Trump has found a new way to make money. Trump Media and Technology Group is monetising the president’s social media posts, selling Wall Street firms early access to them for as much as $100,000 a month. And in the world of traders, a few milliseconds can mean millions of dollars. Now, Trump is being sued over the arrangement, amid claims it gives paying customers preferential access to official presidential communications. At the same time, Trump Media is also moving into prediction markets – a fast-growing corner of finance that can turn political events into betting opportunities. Today, Reuters journalist Anirban Sen, on the extraordinary collision of presidential power, private profit and a booming industry where almost anything can become a wager. If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support. Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Reuters journalist, Anirban Sen Photo: AP Photo/Evan Vucci See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: I'm Daniel James, and you're listening to seven am. Donald
[0:09] Speaker 1: Trump has found a new way to make money. Trump
[0:12] Speaker 1: Media and Technology Group is monetizing the president's social media
[0:16] Speaker 1: posts something Wall Street firms early access to them for
[0:19] Speaker 1: as much as one hundred thousand dollars a month, and
[0:22] Speaker 1: in the world of traders, a few milliseconds can mean
[0:25] Speaker 1: millions of dollars. Now, Trump is being sued over the arrangement,
[0:29] Speaker 1: and he claims it gives paying customers preferential access to
[0:32] Speaker 1: official presidential communications. At the same time, Trump Media is
[0:38] Speaker 1: also moving into prediction markets, a fast growing corner of
[0:41] Speaker 1: finance that can turn political events into betting opportunities. Today,
[0:47] Speaker 1: journalists for Reuter's Anabarn said on the extraordinary collision of
[0:51] Speaker 1: presidential power, private profit, and a booming industry where almost
[0:56] Speaker 1: anything can become a wager. It's Monday, August twenty four
[1:07] Speaker 1: a theban Trump Media, which is a company Trump owns,
[1:10] Speaker 1: is now charging training firms up to one hundred thousand
[1:13] Speaker 1: dollars a month for fast access to posts from Trump
[1:17] Speaker 1: and other senior officials. What exactly is being bought and
[1:20] Speaker 1: sold here?
[1:21] Speaker 2: So basically truth socialists planning to sell investors and traders
[1:26] Speaker 2: who deal with stocks, bonds, currencies, derivatives, and other types
[1:30] Speaker 2: of assets super fast access to posts from Trump himself
[1:35] Speaker 2: as well as other high profile accounts on the platform.
[1:38] Speaker 2: So basically, if you're like a high frequency treaty firm
[1:42] Speaker 2: or a hedge funt who wants to pay for these
[1:45] Speaker 2: types of posts, you will basically get faster access to
[1:48] Speaker 2: these posts and from Trump himself and from other high
[1:52] Speaker 2: profile accounts on the platform, like other government officials and lawmakers.
[1:57] Speaker 2: As you know, there are some of the most floaded
[2:00] Speaker 2: accounts on truth Social belong to Trump himself and others
[2:04] Speaker 2: around in his orbit, including his sons Donald Trump Junior
[2:07] Speaker 2: and Eric Trump, as well as some of his other
[2:10] Speaker 2: prominent supporters like d Bontino and Sean Hannity.
[2:14] Speaker 1: While can getting a presidential announcement even million seconds early,
[2:18] Speaker 1: it'd be worth so much money.
[2:19] Speaker 2: Yes, So this is the sort of access that is
[2:22] Speaker 2: immensely valuable to like large one street trading firms and
[2:27] Speaker 2: hedge funds who typically generate profits that can be worth
[2:31] Speaker 2: hundreds of thousands of dollars or even more like sometimes
[2:34] Speaker 2: millions on any given trade. Because faster access to this
[2:39] Speaker 2: kind of market. Moving information provides like a huge speed
[2:43] Speaker 2: advantage to trading firms that use sophisticated algorithms and automated
[2:49] Speaker 2: systems to place or cancel trades. You're often looking to
[2:53] Speaker 2: profit from feeding differences in the prices of assets. You know,
[2:57] Speaker 2: that's the orbit rudge that you're looking to profit, which
[3:00] Speaker 2: means that how fast you respond and were talking about
[3:04] Speaker 2: milliseconds and nanoseconds over here, you know, and that can
[3:08] Speaker 2: mean the difference between let's say a million dollar loss
[3:11] Speaker 2: or a million dollars of profit. So that's the kind
[3:14] Speaker 2: of difference you know, a millisecond can make in this
[3:17] Speaker 2: world of high frequency trading.
[3:19] Speaker 1: So the s calls limit in terms of how much
[3:21] Speaker 1: money could potentially be made. Here, US News outlet's de
[3:24] Speaker 1: decept and the Freedom of the Press Foundation suing Trump
[3:28] Speaker 1: over this scheme. Can you tell me about the case?
[3:31] Speaker 2: Yes, So what happened was, like the intercept and the
[3:35] Speaker 2: Freedom of the Press Foundation, they basically made the argument
[3:38] Speaker 2: that this service violates the United States Constitution, the First
[3:42] Speaker 2: Amendment rights. What the First Amendment dictates is that everyone
[3:47] Speaker 2: gets equal access to information that is out there in
[3:50] Speaker 2: the market. It's like, you know, whether you are like
[3:52] Speaker 2: a big Want Street trading firm, or if you're like
[3:56] Speaker 2: a moment pop retail investor, you deserve equal access to information.
[4:01] Speaker 2: So the argument that the Intercept and the Freedom of
[4:04] Speaker 2: the Press Foundation is making is that there's no legitimate
[4:07] Speaker 2: government interest in selling Trump's post to private subscribers and
[4:11] Speaker 2: letting him profit.
[4:12] Speaker 1: Trump Maybea's defense is essentially that these posts of public
[4:16] Speaker 1: information anyway. So how has that defense been received by
[4:20] Speaker 1: its critics?
[4:21] Speaker 2: So it depends on midside of the political isle. You
[4:24] Speaker 2: are taddia like You've had Senator Mark Warner of Virginia
[4:29] Speaker 2: and a couple of other senators like Elizabeth Warren and
[4:31] Speaker 2: a few others who've said that this new service is
[4:34] Speaker 2: sort of amounts to a self dealing by the president
[4:37] Speaker 2: and it creates like a two tierth system for access
[4:40] Speaker 2: to government information.
[4:42] Speaker 3: Raise your hand if you believe that President Trump's selling
[4:45] Speaker 3: information about our economy and foreign policy to Wall Street
[4:51] Speaker 3: before everyone else gets access to that information is good
[4:54] Speaker 3: for the integrity of our capital markets. Well, there we go.
[4:59] Speaker 3: I see no hand. So maybe if the Republicans on
[5:02] Speaker 3: this committee want to strengthen the capital markets, we can
[5:05] Speaker 3: start by outlawing what President Trump is doing and it.
[5:09] Speaker 2: Sort of threatens the credibility of US capital markets. I
[5:13] Speaker 2: mean that's the argument that some of his critics have
[5:15] Speaker 2: sort of made about this service, and some legal experts
[5:18] Speaker 2: have also argued that this is kind of like a
[5:20] Speaker 2: form of insider treading, where like a handful of companies
[5:24] Speaker 2: be for access, you know, to privileged material on public
[5:29] Speaker 2: information and read massive profits you know, and the expense
[5:33] Speaker 2: of everyday like retail investors. So all these critics and
[5:37] Speaker 2: some of these legal experts, they've raised the questions around
[5:39] Speaker 2: whether this is just another way for Trump and his
[5:42] Speaker 2: family to sort of boost their fortunes by profiting of
[5:46] Speaker 2: policies announced by his administration.
[5:49] Speaker 1: Perish the thought. And on top of this, Seneban Trump
[5:52] Speaker 1: Media is also developing something called truth predict which would
[5:56] Speaker 1: move the company into prediction markets. So what's the year
[6:00] Speaker 1: behind truth predicting? How would it work?
[6:02] Speaker 2: I think that's service if I'm not mistaken, it's been
[6:05] Speaker 2: scaled back, so it would have been pretty similar to
[6:08] Speaker 2: the way like some of these leading prediction markets platforms
[6:12] Speaker 2: like you know, Polymarket and Calci, these new age sort
[6:16] Speaker 2: of exchanges where people can bet on real world events,
[6:21] Speaker 2: which could be like either a sporting event or a
[6:24] Speaker 2: political event, or the weather. So you can create like
[6:28] Speaker 2: a yes or no contract based on what event you're
[6:31] Speaker 2: betting on. And they've really come up over the past
[6:35] Speaker 2: couple of years, especially dating back to the twenty twenty
[6:39] Speaker 2: four presidential election, which truly was like a turning point
[6:43] Speaker 2: for the industry.
[6:44] Speaker 1: So if you bet on anything, including the weather, you
[6:47] Speaker 1: know obviously also bet on government actions as well.
[6:49] Speaker 2: Yes, you have seen a number of examples of a
[6:53] Speaker 2: series of well time pets ahead of important policy announcements,
[6:57] Speaker 2: especially over the past twelve months.
[7:01] Speaker 1: Coming up the suspiciously well timed bets of what the
[7:05] Speaker 1: president will do next. Aban tell me more about these
[7:17] Speaker 1: markets being bet on wars, political decisions and what the
[7:20] Speaker 1: president is going to do next, which would have been
[7:22] Speaker 1: unthinkable a couple of years ago. Tell me more about
[7:25] Speaker 1: how we've arrived at this situation.
[7:27] Speaker 2: Yeah, so you need to Daniel wind the clocks back
[7:31] Speaker 2: a little bit and go back to twenty twenty four,
[7:34] Speaker 2: especially during the presidential election. It sort of filmed the
[7:38] Speaker 2: whole industry into like a mainstream phenomenon. Like previously, this
[7:42] Speaker 2: industry was at the fringes pretty much like it was
[7:46] Speaker 2: never anywhere close to the mainstream, and there were world
[7:49] Speaker 2: like regulations that had been sort of developed to sort
[7:52] Speaker 2: of govern prediction markets. But the presidential election really sort
[7:57] Speaker 2: of changed that because back then a lot of the
[8:00] Speaker 2: traditional sort of polling companies they sort of got a
[8:03] Speaker 2: lot of outcomes wrong, whereas if you were a user
[8:08] Speaker 2: on Calci or Body Market, like, the majority of the
[8:11] Speaker 2: polls actually managed to get it right. They all along
[8:14] Speaker 2: predicted that Donald Trump would win by a landslide, and
[8:18] Speaker 2: that's pretty much what happens. And then you know, once
[8:22] Speaker 2: the Trump administration came into power, the industry also benefited
[8:26] Speaker 2: from easier regulations, like a lighter touch regulatory environment, which
[8:31] Speaker 2: allowed these platforms to grow even further. Just to give
[8:34] Speaker 2: you an idea, like Body Market and Calci, I think
[8:37] Speaker 2: they were both valued at I think somewhere less than
[8:40] Speaker 2: two billion before twenty twenty five, and now Calci is
[8:45] Speaker 2: in talks to raise like a fresh round of funding
[8:47] Speaker 2: at forty billion, So wrap your head around that, like
[8:50] Speaker 2: from two billion to forty billion in like eighteen months.
[8:53] Speaker 2: And body Market similarly there I think it talks to
[8:58] Speaker 2: raise like fresh capital around twenty pillion. So this industry
[9:02] Speaker 2: has just benefited like immensely from that breakout moment in
[9:07] Speaker 2: twenty twenty four, and also like an easier regulatory environment,
[9:12] Speaker 2: which has been a big tail wind.
[9:14] Speaker 1: I mean, there's been a lot of reporting a rand
[9:16] Speaker 1: suspiciously well timed bets on US government actions. In particular,
[9:21] Speaker 1: what have you noticed about the timing of some of
[9:24] Speaker 1: these bets and some of these decisions.
[9:26] Speaker 2: Yeah, good question. More than one hundred and fifty wallets
[9:29] Speaker 2: on polymarket may have traded on inside US military information,
[9:35] Speaker 2: and it further sort of raises questions and concerns that
[9:38] Speaker 2: the market could basically broadcast signals which can be exploited
[9:42] Speaker 2: by foreigner adversaries. So that soldier who was charged back
[9:47] Speaker 2: in April for using classifying information to bet on the
[9:51] Speaker 2: removal of former ve President Nicholas Maduro, that.
[9:55] Speaker 4: A Special Forces soldier has been charged for making more
[9:58] Speaker 4: than four hundred THO dollars by betting on whether or
[10:02] Speaker 4: not Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro would be removed from office.
[10:07] Speaker 4: And here's the thing. According to the indictment, the officer
[10:10] Speaker 4: participated in the planning and execution of the operation.
[10:14] Speaker 2: And back in March, just before Trump announced the strikes
[10:19] Speaker 2: on Iran, like, there were a series of well tiked
[10:22] Speaker 2: bets that were placed on some of these big exchanges.
[10:25] Speaker 2: A number of punters have reportedly made about a million
[10:28] Speaker 2: US dollars by correctly predicting when the United States would
[10:31] Speaker 2: strike a run at the weekend. They were placed precisely
[10:35] Speaker 2: a few minutes before the policy announcement from Trump, which
[10:39] Speaker 2: means that obviously some insiders profited from early access to
[10:44] Speaker 2: information from Trump Center.
[10:46] Speaker 5: Circle six accounts in particular correctly predicted the timing of
[10:51] Speaker 5: the strikes and made about a million dollars from those bets. Now,
[10:56] Speaker 5: these were all accounts which were funded, generally speaking, the
[11:00] Speaker 5: twenty four hours leading.
[11:01] Speaker 2: Up to the strikes. And there's this former congressman called
[11:06] Speaker 2: George Santos, Like he had publicly posted about attending the
[11:10] Speaker 2: State of the Union address.
[11:11] Speaker 4: I'm going to be there for the State of the
[11:13] Speaker 4: Union in the gallery, guys.
[11:15] Speaker 1: Just chill.
[11:16] Speaker 2: Around the same time, Santos police bets against his own
[11:20] Speaker 2: appearance on calci and then Galciem eventually detected those traits
[11:25] Speaker 2: and flagged them as potentially suspicious and froze's account and
[11:29] Speaker 2: alerted the CFTC and the Dog Justice Department is reportedly
[11:33] Speaker 2: investigating George Santos, the former congressman, for insider trading.
[11:37] Speaker 6: Sources say the former Republican congressman placed bets on Calci
[11:41] Speaker 6: over whether he himself would be attending this year's State
[11:44] Speaker 6: of the Union.
[11:45] Speaker 2: So yes, Santos did bet on his own appearance at
[11:50] Speaker 2: the State of the Union address.
[11:51] Speaker 1: When it comes to when started trading. Even Donald Trump's
[11:54] Speaker 1: iron teleprompt operator has been under investigation over bets on
[11:58] Speaker 1: what Trump would say.
[12:00] Speaker 6: How teleprompter operator allegedly used inside information to make more
[12:04] Speaker 6: than one hundred thousand dollars betting on the president's speeches.
[12:08] Speaker 6: The White House saying he's now on administrative leave.
[12:11] Speaker 1: Isn't that indication of how easily these markets can be exploited.
[12:15] Speaker 2: Yeah, it goes to the point that we were just
[12:16] Speaker 2: discussing Daniel, like the guardrails that they put up, like Calci,
[12:20] Speaker 2: Bollymarket and others have put up. It's just started enough,
[12:24] Speaker 2: like things are still falling through the cracks. You know,
[12:26] Speaker 2: if you're a lawmaker, or if you're in any way
[12:29] Speaker 2: affiliated to any sort of agency in DC, or you're
[12:35] Speaker 2: connected to political circles in any way, or if you're
[12:39] Speaker 2: like an executive at a high ranking company, Like basically,
[12:42] Speaker 2: anyone who's in a position to gain access to privileged
[12:46] Speaker 2: information which is not yet public should be banned from
[12:50] Speaker 2: creating accounts on these platforms. I mean, that's what a
[12:53] Speaker 2: lot of critics have argued. But so far people are
[12:56] Speaker 2: still getting around the system.
[12:58] Speaker 1: So at a band, when you can leaveuly bet on anything,
[13:02] Speaker 1: where does this end? Because it's already pretty dystopian. Some
[13:04] Speaker 1: of the stuff you can bet on now is kind
[13:07] Speaker 1: of like beyond what we would have thought of, you know,
[13:09] Speaker 1: even sort of months ago. How much worse can it get?
[13:13] Speaker 2: Yeah, I think only time will tell. Daniel Calgy and
[13:16] Speaker 2: Body Market recently updated their rules to prevent users from
[13:20] Speaker 2: creating certain types of contracts like for example, both platforms
[13:24] Speaker 2: I think they band specific categories of bets which were
[13:27] Speaker 2: sort of regarded as too violent or harmful or which
[13:32] Speaker 2: could potentially involve insider manipulation, including like contracts on wars
[13:38] Speaker 2: death things like political assassinations, nuclear conflicts, kidnapping, and missile strikes.
[13:44] Speaker 2: So both platforms I think currently they prohibit individuals from
[13:49] Speaker 2: betting on events that they can also directly influence. But
[13:52] Speaker 2: there is this fight that is already brewing between like
[13:58] Speaker 2: these new prediction markets platforms and traditional derivatives exchanges like
[14:03] Speaker 2: the CME and others. So like, I suspect that at
[14:07] Speaker 2: some point the outcome of this debate will be sort
[14:10] Speaker 2: of decided by the higher codes, like by the Supreme
[14:12] Speaker 2: Court potentially, and then you're probably going to see more
[14:15] Speaker 2: concrete rules around the industry, and regulators are also trying
[14:20] Speaker 2: to sort of understand like how you can classify like
[14:24] Speaker 2: a typical events contract, whether that constitutes gambling, and whether
[14:29] Speaker 2: that needs to be regulated by state gambling regulators instead
[14:33] Speaker 2: of the CFTC over here, which currently regulates platforms like
[14:37] Speaker 2: CALCRE and polymarket. But as of now, it's still evolving.
[14:42] Speaker 2: Let's see where things shake out in a couple of years.
[14:45] Speaker 1: And in the meantime, people could betting on this podcast
[14:47] Speaker 1: right now, couldn't they? In the band pretty much and
[14:50] Speaker 1: a band, Thank you so much for your time.
[14:52] Speaker 2: Thanks so much for having me, Daniel pleasure talking to you.
[15:08] Speaker 1: Also in the news along those first seal has become
[15:11] Speaker 1: the first mammal to die of H five bird flu
[15:13] Speaker 1: on the Australian mainland. The seal was found at Beechport
[15:16] Speaker 1: in South Australia. It comes amid an escalation in the outbreak,
[15:20] Speaker 1: which has seen three mass mortality events involving more than
[15:23] Speaker 1: one thousand greater crested turns, and it's believed an eighteen
[15:28] Speaker 1: year old solo hiker found dead last week at Natai
[15:31] Speaker 1: National Park in New South Wales may have fallen after
[15:34] Speaker 1: detouring off the main track. The family of Lily Hooper
[15:37] Speaker 1: have paid tribute to the teenager as an inspiration, saying
[15:40] Speaker 1: they hope people will be more cautious hiking after her death.
[15:43] Speaker 1: Police last week were forced to apologize after mistakenly telling
[15:46] Speaker 1: the family she'd been found alive. I'm Daniel James. Thanks
[15:50] Speaker 1: again for listening to seven AM. We'll be back tomorrow.
[16:00] Speaker 6: All on one

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