President Donald Trump has a social-media site. He says market-moving things on that site, which is now selling early access to those things for $100,000 a month. It’s a blatant bit of self-dealing, requiring none of the complicated flow charts that accompany most reporting about all the other ways the Trump family has cashed in on the presidency.
But the investors I’ve talked to this week who are willing to admit they might sign up see a different kind of value. The real money to be made from the president’s online bleats isn’t in knowing what the US government is going to do. It’s knowing what the US government is going to pretend to do, then backtrack from doing. It’s a sneak peak at the TACO trade.
The firms willing to shell out $100,000 a month ($60,000 a month if you’re willing to sign a three-year deal, though if Trump’s posts still have market-moving value in August 2029, there will be other things to worry about) are by definition more sophisticated investors than the average. They’ll be less likely to overreact and better able to distinguish the TACO stands from messages with longer-lasting market effects.
It’s the oldest money-making trick on Wall Street, updated for a president whose mouth writes checks his policy apparatus can’t cash. Buy the rumor, sell the news.