U.S. President Donald Trump’s market-moving social media commentary has kept traders, investors, and even journalists on their toes since being elected. CNBC’s analysis of his Truth Social data shows that Trump has posted across every hour of the day since being elected on November 4. The 3 a.m. hour, in Washington D.C., appears to be the only time “the president that never sleeps” appears to slow down. Yet, even in the dead of the night 10 posts have been published — the lowest of any other hour during the day — since November 4. Unfortunately for investors, many who will be unsurprised to find policy announcements over social media — a pattern seen during his first presidency, data shows that Trump’s single most active hour is between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m., when trading on U.S. stock markets are in full swing, with a total of 323 posts shared at that time since the elections. A second major peak occurs in the 3 p.m. hour with 310 posts. His social media activity then stays elevated until the end of the 6 p.m. hour. The president appears to be only slowing down after the 1 a.m. hour, only to pick up again 6 a.m. onwards, with each of those hours recording about 100 posts since his election. Data also shows that Trump has only managed to stay away from posting on Truth Social for just one day — 6 November 2024 — since the elections. CNBC’s analysis also reveals that the social media president has posted 15.7 posts on average per day since being elected. On March 10, the president made the most posts on social media with 139 posts, largely reposting and sharing content produced by others. Trump posted on a wide range of topics on the day, from immigration, to tax cuts, tariffs and other topics. CNBC’s analysis does not account for the differing time zones the president may be operating in, especially when traveling overseas. Why does it matter? Trump’s policy announcements on social media have a history of rippling into markets. For instance, on April 9, after much speculation that had put investors on high alert, the president posted on social media at 1.18 p.m. ET that the U.S. would ‘pause’ tariffs, a policy introduced only a week ago. The update appeared to spur trading, pushing stocks higher. Microsoft , for example, rose more than 4% after the announcement. However, the volume of content shared by the social-media-savvy president has thrown off investors. On the same day in April, when Trump alerted investors that it was a ” GREAT TIME TO BUY ” and ” BE COOL! Everything is going to work out well “, traders brushed the post off as noise.
