Gains in crypto and equity holdings drove Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), the parent company of President Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform, to achieve quarterly net profit for the first time in the third quarter, while its Truth API data-licensing business enabled its revenue to more than triple from a year earlier.
Launched on Aug. 1, Truth API is a feed offered by TMTG, which charges up to $100,000 a month for early access to 10 high-profile Truth Social accounts, including Trump’s. Trump often uses his Truth Social account to post news.
Revenue grew 205 percent to $3 million in the quarter ended Sept. 30, according to the company’s quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission released on Nov. 9. However, the company posted a $12.3 million adjusted EBITDA loss, according to its earnings release.
“We’ve remained committed to capitalizing on our business fundamentals, and that focus is paying off,” Kevin McGurn, interim CEO of TMTG, said in a statement in the SEC filing. “Revenue grew 205% year-over-year on recurring subscription revenue, our cost structure is inherently leaner, and our balance sheet gives us real flexibility.”
Its Truth API and the Truth+ streaming platform contributed $1.3 million in additional subscription revenue, while advertising on Truth Social increased by $523,000.
“Our balance sheet didn’t change from Tuesday to Wednesday. Our product traction didn’t reverse.”
The company recorded $409.7 million in net income, driven largely by gains on its cryptocurrency holdings and related securities. This compared to a net loss of $54.8 million a year earlier.
In August, McGurn said the company had signed 10 customer agreements for Truth API, primarily with “high-frequency trading firms,” at “rates generally in the range of 60,000–100,000 [dollars] a month.”
The president is Trump Media’s largest shareholder. His eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., is a Trump Media director and oversees the trust that holds the president’s shares.
Trump Media acknowledged in its latest quarterly filing that an Aug. 12 lawsuit that may affect the business, filed by the two news organizations The Intercept and the Freedom of the Press Foundation against Trump and others, is ongoing.
Trump Media is not a defendant, but filed an amicus curiae brief supporting the defendants.
In the complaint, the plaintiffs called the Truth API service an “astounding scheme” because the president stands to gain financially when subscribers sign up.
“This scheme is extraordinary, corrupt, and unconstitutional, and Plaintiffs bring this case to stop it,” the plaintiffs said.
The lawsuit argued that granting preferential access to Trump’s public statements to paid subscribers violates the First Amendment, which it says guarantees Americans equal access to the president’s public announcements, as well as the Fifth Amendment, which it says prohibits the government from imposing extortionate or unreasonable conditions on the availability of government benefits.
A Trump Media & Technology Group spokesman told The Epoch Times by email at the time that information from Trump is “disseminated by countless platforms and news outlets, many of which offer subscription APIs.”
He said that one of those channels is Truth Social, “which was founded as an uncancellable haven for free speech after the President was unjustly deplatformed.”
“Now, left-wing activists are trying to wrongfully weaponize the courts to censor him again and harm our shareholders,” the spokesman said.
Trump’s personal finances recently came under scrutiny.
In an interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes” that aired on Nov. 8, interviewer Ross Douthat, citing a Forbes story, asked Trump if and how his worth had increased by $3 billion since he returned to the White House.
“Well, let me explain. I devote almost no time to my net worth. I don’t care. … I have a lotta money, and far more than I ever thought I’d have. And I guess it’s gone up. I don’t even know,” the president said.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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