For years, Truth Social was President Trump's money-losing megaphone.

• Now his company is charging Wall Street clients up to $1.2 million a year for a license giving a split-second edge on posts that can — and frequently do — jolt global markets, Axios' Dan Primack and Zachary Basu write.

Why it matters: Trump has transformed his second term into the most lucrative venture of his entire career, raking in more than $2.2 billion in 2025 from his family crypto empire, legal settlements and various licensing deals.

• Truth API, as the data feed is branded, is the logical endpoint of that profiteering: the presidency's unrivaled power to move markets, packaged and sold as a subscription.

🔎 Zoom in: The product offered a live demonstration of its value almost immediately (charted above).

• Hours after Truth API launched, Trump announced he'd canceled massive planned strikes on Iran. Oil prices fell nearly 5% when markets reopened.
• A March 23 post postponing strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure sent Brent crude tumbling nearly 11%.
• Trump's March 2025 announcement of a U.S. crypto reserve drove XRP up 27% and added roughly $300 billion to the global crypto market.
• His threat last October to impose massive new tariffs on China sent the S&P 500 down 2.7%.

🔄 How it works: The real-time feed from Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) went live Saturday, delivering Truth Social posts directly to institutional clients in milliseconds.

• A source familiar with the matter tells Axios that access to the platform's 10 top-trending accounts costs $60,000 to $100,000 per month. Customers seeking a broader range of accounts could pay more.
• At least five high-frequency trading firms have signed up, according to The Wall Street Journal. Trump Media says customers also include financial news organizations.

💸 Follow the money: Trump Media is publicly traded, with Trump as its dominant shareholder. He is the sole beneficiary of a revocable trust that owns 41.5% of the company. Donald Trump Jr., the trust's sole trustee, controls the shares.

• Trump Media generated just $871,000 in revenue during the first quarter of 2026 and $3.68 million in all of 2025.
• Its shares have risen 7% since the eve of the API announcement, adding nearly $77 million to the paper value of Trump's stake.

Between the lines: Customers are buying a fractions-of-a-second advantage.

• Truth API gives trading algorithms a direct, machine-readable feed they can act on before most investors receive a push alert or refresh their screens.

🥊 Reality check: TMTG says the posts are already public when they reach the API. What the company sells is the latency gap — the brief interval between publication and widespread awareness.

• The company explicitly markets the service to firms for which "the cost of a delay in information" is highest.
• A TMTG spokesperson told Axios: "Senate and House Democrats continue to mischaracterize Truth API either out of ideological opposition to free markets or a failure to grasp the distinction between public and nonpublic information."

Share this story ... Sara Fischer contributed reporting.

Ohio, the red state that helped fuel President Trump's political comeback — and launched his presumed heir, JD Vance, onto the national stage — has become one of the GOP's biggest headaches for the midterms, Axios' Alex Isenstadt writes.

• Why it matters: Ohio's GOP is scrambling under the weight of domestic abuse allegations, sluggish campaigns and a working-class rebellion.

The races giving Republicans the most heartburn:

1. The Miller debacle. The most immediate concern is the race in northeastern Ohio's normally red 7th House District, where Rep. Max Miller faces allegations that he abused his ex-wife and daughter, which Miller has denied.

• The ex-wife he's accused of abusing is Emily Moreno, the daughter of Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio).

🚨 Trump, who previously called the allegations a family matter, phoned Miller yesterday and expressed worries about his candidacy, three sources briefed on the call told Axios.

• "It's not looking good for you," the president told Miller, the sources said. "I'm hearing from people you're not going to win." Miller told Trump he's staying in the race.
• Strategists from both parties agree the allegations have helped Democrat Brian Poindexter run neck-and-neck with Miller.

2. The Senate race. Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) looks to be in a dead heat with former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D). Polling averages and prediction markets give Brown an edge.

• Brown, a populist-minded Democrat who served three terms before losing his seat to Moreno in 2024, has outraised Husted by nearly 3 to 1.

3. The governor's race. Polls show former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy in a toss-up race against Democrat Amy Acton.

• Ramaswamy, an Ivy League-educated former biotech investor, has struggled to win over blue-collar voters.

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Three consecutive polls show Democrat James Talarico narrowly ahead of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in that state's crucial Senate race, Axios' Hans Nichols and Marc Caputo write.

• The latest, out this morning from Texas Southern University, has Talarico up 47%-45%.
• In the past week, a Fox News poll had Talarico up 51-48 and a Texas Public Opinion Research survey found Talarico up 45-40.

Why it matters: Talarico's lead is within the margin of error. But there are troubling signs for the GOP nominee — even if the Republican establishment isn't panicking yet.

• Nick Maddux, a Paxton adviser, told us: "Talarico's campaign will end up exactly where every Democrat before him has ended up in Texas — a pipe dream."

🔬 Zoom in: Demographically, Paxton appears to be taking a one-two punch, according to the Texas Southern survey.

• He's underperforming badly with white voters (60% of the modeled midterm electorate) and Latino voters (21% of the electorate).
• Paxton is winning white voters by just 14 points, the survey found, low for a Texas Republican. President Trump won them by 33 in Texas two years ago, according to exit polls.
• Trump carried Hispanic voters by 10 points. Talarico is winning them by 19, Texas Southern found.

Explore the TSU data ... Keep reading.

The share of business students regularly using AI — more than 10 times a week — has increased from 6.2% to 29% over the past three years, Axios' Megan Morrone writes from new research by American University's Kogod School of Business.

• Why it matters: Students increasingly see AI as a critical job skill but want more guidance on using it responsibly.

Keep reading.

By many measures, the labor market is showing signs of improvement. But American workers are less confident than ever in the companies that employ them, Axios' Courtenay Brown writes.

• About 43% of U.S. employees reported a positive six-month outlook for their employer's business in July, the lowest on record in data going back to 2016, according to Glassdoor's Employee Confidence Index.
• That's down sharply from the record 53% who said the same in 2022, when the labor market was the hottest in years.

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) halted approvals for new data centers yesterday until the state audits projects seeking to connect to its strained electric grid, writes Axios San Antonio's Megan Stringer.

• Why it matters: AI infrastructure faces a growing bipartisan backlash over its power, water and tax demands.

By the numbers: Data centers account for about 90% of new grid-connection requests, Abbott says. The state's grid operator is considering more than 474 gigawatts of requests — more than five times Texas' record peak electricity demand.

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U.S. families expect to spend over $900 on average on back-to-school shopping this year, Axios' Sami Sparber writes from a PwC survey.

• Total K-12 back-to-school spending could climb around 10% this year compared to last, hitting a record $43.3 billion, the National Retail Federation forecasts.

Northeast families plan to spend the most, $1,076 on average, well above the $922 national average. That figure covers clothes, tech, after-school gear, books, supplies and other one-time purchases.

• Explore the data ... Keep reading.

You've heard about Fat Bear Week, the online tournament that crowns the chunkiest bear at Alaska's Katmai National Park every September.

• Now, there's Fat Marmot Week.

Colorado's Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory is launching its own gloriously chunky version of the competition, Axios Denver's Alayna Alvarez writes.

• The inaugural competition, which starts Aug. 24, will follow yellow-bellied marmots as they race to pack on pounds for winter.
• The more rotund the rodent, the better its odds of surviving months of hibernation.

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