Trump Media posts $238 million loss, pivots back to Truth Social

Newyork,UPDATED: Aug 11, 2026 04:26 IST

Trump Media and Technology Group, the company behind the Truth Social platform, posted a USD238 million loss in the second quarter and said it would pull back from several newer business lines to focus again on social media. The loss for the three months through June was more than 10 times the level a year earlier, while the per share loss widened to 86 cents from 8 cents.

After the earnings release on Monday, new chief executive Kevin McGurn said the company would largely abandon a year-long push into businesses outside media, including online betting and crypto. Its stock slipped slightly in after-hours trading after falling 8 per cent in regular trade.

McGurn said the company was changing course to put more of its effort into its core platform. “We made the disciplined choice to pivot in order to invest more time and resources in our most important initiatives,” he said. “We will say no to things or change course as warranted.”

A key part of that plan is Truth API, a service that gives Wall Street trading firms early access to posts from top Truth Social users. That includes US President Donald Trump, the platform’s most-followed user, whose posts can move markets when he announces major US policy shifts on the site.

The service has drawn criticism from good-government watchdogs, who have argued since the start of Trump’s second term that Trump Media could be used for him to profit from the presidency. Democrats have said they will investigate the paid service if they win control of Congress in the midterm elections. McGurn rejected those concerns, saying other companies also sell fast access to traders. “Providing licensed real-time public data through commercial APIs is a well-established business practice across the technology, financial information and media industries,” he said. “This is no different.”

McGurn said Truth API is priced between USD60,000 and USD100,000 a month and that Trump Media has already signed up 10 customers, mostly high-frequency trading firms that buy and sell in milliseconds. “We’re in the early innings,” he said, adding that the potential market could also include data centre companies, news organisations and developers of large language models. Ten customers could generate roughly USD7 million to USD12 million a year, or about two to three times the company’s entire revenue last year.

One previously announced venture, nuclear fusion, will continue. McGurn said Trump Media expects to complete its previously announced merger with energy company TAE Technologies by the end of the year. “We continue to believe it’s the single most important driver of long-term value for this company,” he said of the fusion business.

The company said much of the second-quarter hit came from unrealised paper losses linked to declines in the value of its bitcoin holdings and a crypto token called Cronos. Excluding those paper losses, along with taxes, interest and other items, operating losses still rose to USD164 million from USD44 million a year earlier. In the second quarter, Trump Media reported USD1.7 billion in revenue, more than double from a year earlier.

Trump Media also has USD1 billion in debt from special convertible notes due in 2028, though lenders can choose to seek cash repayment in November. At the end of the quarter, the company had more than USD400 million in cash and short-term investments, along with USD1.2 billion in bitcoin and bitcoin-related assets.

Overall, the quarter showed a sharp rise in losses as Trump Media’s expansion beyond media added pressure to its finances, prompting a retreat to its core social media business. Even as it bets on Truth API and keeps its nuclear fusion plans, the company is navigating political scrutiny, debt obligations and volatile crypto-linked holdings.

With PTI Inputs

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