Trump claims pro-Israel lobbying groups no longer hold sway in Capitol Hill as they did some 20 years ago.
United States President Donald Trump took a jab at the dwindling power of pro-Israel lobbying groups in Congress and across Washington’s political spectrum in a pre-taped exclusive recording with the hyper-partisan show America Speaks on the MAGA-friendly network “Real America’s Voice” (RAV).
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When asked by host Wayne Allyn Root in the interview that aired on Tuesday about the “problem,” of the “communist colour revolution”, taking over “the biggest cities in America”, Trump replied that the biggest change he had observed over the last decade is “what’s happened to Israel and Jewish people”, adding that if, “you go back 20, 25 years ago, they had the most powerful lobby in Washington. Now, everyone is … if you look at the House … you look at the Democrats in the House … it’s pretty amazing actually. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
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The comments come after a recent survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs revealed a dramatic erosion of support for the US ally, with burgeoning opposition from Democrats and signs of polarisation among the Republican base.
This was not the first time the president had conceded Israel’s declining support in US politics. In September 2025, an interview with White House correspondent Reagan Reese of the Daily Caller, a right-wing website founded by former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson, saw Trump acknowledging that he was aware of slumping support for Israel among young Republicans, later explaining to the Caller that Israel’s ironclad endorsement in Congress is now a thing of the past.
In the 42-minute audio clip with RAV, Trump went on to slight Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish official in US history and a reliably pro-Israel voice, “Look at Schumer. He’s become virtually a Palestinian,” he told the Caller.
Trump made similar comments in 2025, as well. During a March 2025 Oval Office meeting, Trump told reporters that “Schumer is a Palestinian, as far as I’m concerned,” and reiterated the comment at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in July. He berated the Democrat whom he claims was once “one hundred percent for Israel”.
At the time, Trump’s derogatory proclamations met with widespread disapproval and drew condemnation from Jewish and Muslim groups over what many saw as a xenophobic slur, regarding the president’s attempts to frame “Palestinian” as a political insult directed at Schumer.
In March 2024, the Senate minority leader had called for a leadership shake-up in Israel, after describing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza”.
That was the Jewish-American Democrat’s most vociferous critique of Israel since its genocidal war in Gaza first began in October 2023, having also expressed support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The veteran senator is usually a staunch defender of Israel.
More recently, Schumer reprimanded the president over his handling of the US-Israel war on Iran, noting that his “rinse and repeat approach … isn’t a strategy”, but a “recipe for utter disaster”, adding, “we keep moving backward … it’s incredible what a fiasco this war is.” %!s()
Advertisers are now spending at a rate of $10 billion a year on Meta’s Partnership Ads, double what they spent a year ago. New research from Agentio explains why: Creators delivering the message outperform the brand on its own.
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Meta advertising is evolving fast. Partnership Ads, which pair brands with creators, now run at a $10 billion annual rate.
Getty Images
Agentio, an AI-native ad platform, analyzed $130 million in spend across 65,000 Meta Partnership Ads from 137 brands. The study compared two versions of the same creator video. One ran from both the creator's and the brand's accounts. The other ran from the brand's account alone.
Ads carrying the creator’s handle earned 19 % more clicks, converted 10% better, and cost 5% less per customer than traditional licensed UGC run from the brand's account.
Agentio’s analysis of Meta Partnership Ads shows how many new creator ads brands need to test each month to hold their winning ads in market. At a 20.4% hit rate, a brand spending $1M or more monthly runs 20 concurrent winners and tests 81 new ads to sustain them.
Courtesy of Agentio
The effect gets stronger the closer a customer comes to buying. In Meta search placements, Partnership Ads delivered 143% higher conversion rates and 63% lower cost per acquisition than licensed UGC run from the brand’s own account.
Meta Partnership Ads: Two Handles, Two Audiences, Better Results
Arthur Leopold, Agentio's CEO and co-founder, says the advantage comes from something a brand cannot manufacture.
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"It’s about the transfer of trust, the brand being able to leverage the creator who's built their audience, who's built trust and credibility with that audience for sometimes years, sometimes a decade-plus," Leopold says.
That credibility comes with a creative advantage. Creators know their audience better than anyone. "Creators are the CMOs to their audience," Leopold says. "They understand how to speak to their audience in a way no AI prompt would ever be able to understand."
Agentio And Meta Partnership Ads: Reaching New Audiences Requires A Different Approach
Reaching new audiences can be a difficult and expensive growth strategy. Partnership Ads are built for it. But most media teams still judge them the way they judge a traditional campaign, checking results fast and cutting what doesn’t convert in the first few days. According to Agentio’s research, Partnership Ads often convert slowly at first, and cutting them too early eliminates potential winners.
"It's going to take some time to find the audiences where the content's really resonating," Leopold says.
Meta Partnership Ads winners fatigue after 36 days of active spend on average, according to Agentio’s analysis of $130M across 65,000 ads. Brands that keep running them past that point see cost per acquisition rise 1.8x on average and 1.4x at the median.
Courtesy of Agentio
Agentio found that only about 1 in 5 tested ads becomes a winner. Assessed before reaching $100 in spend, 45% of eventual winners still look like failures. At $1,000, that falls to 26%, which is why Agentio recommends spending at least $1,000 per ad before killing a test.
Linnea Schuessler, senior creative strategist at the olive oil company Graza, has run this playbook. She built the brand’s creator pipeline herself, sourcing creators, briefing them and reviewing content. It worked, but it was time-consuming. Finding a creator and getting content live took about a month.
Through Agentio it now takes two days, which means more tests in market and more chances to find a winner.
Graza’s first Partnership Ads test ran around the New Year, built on gift giving and resolutions. The ads delivered 8% higher click-through than the brand's own creative, with conversion metrics on benchmark.
Then the team tested a new creator vertical: van life, people living in vans with kitchens who travel the United States. "They took some time on Meta to scale up, but then once it finds that audience, you see great success with it," Schuessler says.
Getting there meant holding the test past the point most teams would cut. Schuessler describes the instinct she works against.
"It has $10 in spend, hasn't converted yet, turn it off," she says. "Having a bit of a higher threshold is definitely the right mindset."
Edelman’s Trust Barometer: Why The Brand Travels Better In Second Position
Trust is Leopold's explanation. Edelman's research explains why.
Edelman, the global communications firm, published its latest Trust Barometer, showing a steep decline in institutional trust. Roughly 7 in 10 people globally believe government officials, business leaders and journalists are deliberately misleading them. Trust in neighbors, family and friends climbed 11 points in the past year.
Belief is moving toward the people closest to us.
"Creators inherently drive trust more than a brand ever could," says Kenny Gold, who became Edelman's first Global Chief Creator Officer in June, leading a creator practice that already numbered roughly 200 specialists.
Edelman’s research measures the effect. Among people who already trust a creator, 62% say they would trust or reconsider a brand they had written off, simply because that creator vouched for it.
Content creators drive consumer action and brand trust, with 37% of followers trying a brand or product for the first time because of creators they follow, according to the 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer.
Courtesy of Edelman Trust Barometer
Gold is blunt with executives who still think the company should speak first. "If you are a CEO who still believes that just because you are the brand, you should be the first one to talk about the brand, you are missing the plot of how the modern consumer ingests and consumes content," he says. "And how they make decisions."
Accountability is what separates them.
"If a razor brand comes out and says we have five-blade razors, and it’s the closest shave, and it doesn’t live up to that, they’ll just go buy a different razor brand," Gold says. "But when a creator says, I use this blade, and I have the closest shave, if that’s wrong, consumers will ask, were you full of BS?"
Gold calls this the court of creator opinion. And it's a lesson business leaders need to learn. Creators talk about brands whether the brand participates or not. A creator opens the door. The quality of the brand determines whether anyone comes back.
Creators + Trust Move To The Performance Budget
Most brands fund creator work through organic or sponsorship budgets, justify the spend with vanity metrics and cut when discretionary spend comes under pressure. The business impact was difficult to measure.
That changed when creator ads started running through Meta’s and Google’s ad systems, the same systems that measure every other dollar a brand spends.
“Partnership Ads are built on measurement rails where there’s been tens of billions of dollars invested,” Leopold says. “It absolutely is measurable.”
Measurement changes which budget the work belongs in and how much of it there is. Brand budgets are finite and vulnerable. Performance budgets are where the money goes when the return is provable.
At Graza, the move already happened. Partnership Ads sit with performance marketing, and Schuessler owns the budget, the briefing, and the creative strategy. "We don’t really bring in our influencer team at all," she says. “We really view it as a performance channel.”
Some companies have gone further. Leopold says the strongest challenger brands now run 20 to 40 percent of their spend through creators.
"Strip away convention and ask where attention and trust actually live today," he says. "There's no honest answer that lands on brands spending two or three percent of their budget running through creators. That's not a rounding error. That's a system built for a media landscape that doesn't exist anymore."
Meta’s $10 billion run rate is the early read on what comes next. The companies still funding work from sponsorship budgets are bidding against people who know what creator media is worth. %!s()
The game is also getting a new story expansion and roguelike mode
Image: Sucker Punch Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment
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Sucker Punch Productions is gearing up to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Ghost of Yotei in a big way. The 2025 action-adventure game will receive a snazzy Complete Edition on Oct. 1, and it's packing a whole lot of goodies, including a new expansion.
The Complete Edition was announced today on the official PlayStation blog. The biggest addition is Echoes of Sekigahara, a new narrative split between the game's present day and flashbacks to protagonist Atsu's time on the mainland. The story will take Atsu and the new character Nagato to a previously unexplored valley that served as a base for The Snake and his followers. In the flashback segments, players will experience Atsu's time in the Battle of Sekigahara, a key moment in her life before she began her quest for vengeance in the base game. The expansion will add new enemies, heavy weapons, armor sets, dyes, and more.
A roguelike mode called Most Wanted is also being introduced. In it, players will accept bounties to begin runs. Taking down enemies will unlock perks and additional playable characters. Each character seems to focus on a single weapon type, with Atsu wielding the dual katana, Oyuki the kusarigama, and Nagato the yari.
Ghost of YoteiComplete Edition will cost $69.99. In addition to the new expansion and Most Wanted mode, the game contains all the content previously available in the Digital Deluxe Edition as well as the Charm of Hokkyokusei. If you purchase the Complete Edition by Sept. 30, you'll also unlock the Sakai Armor, inspired by Jin's armor in Ghost of Tsushima. Players who purchase the Complete Edition before Oct. 1 will immediately gain access to the base game and the co-op Legends, with Most Wanted and the story expansion unlocking on release day. A $14.99 Complete Edition Upgrade will also be available so owners of the base game can gain access to Echoes of Sekigahara and Most Wanted.
Even Ghost of Yotei players who don't purchase the Complete Edition will have something to look forward to on Oct. 1. Sucker Punch will be releasing a patch for the base game that adds a new Beauty of Yotei mode that will cycle through shots of the game's environment. You'll also be able to keep an armor set's appearance while using a different set's stats. Finally, a high contrast accessibility option has been added to the game. Sucker Punch will share even more about the new story expansion and roguelike mode in the lead up to the Complete Edition's launch. %!s()
I compared my breakfast experiences at Cracker Barrel and IHOP to see which offered the better value.
Savannah Born
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For years, I've watched breakfast-serving giants IHOP and Cracker Barrel make moves that have grabbed headlines, including the latest this week.
Cracker Barrel welcomed a new CEO, David Deno, and I'm curious what he has in store for the chain.
He's taking the reins after a turbulent time for the brand. Back in August 2025, as part of a broader turnaround plan, the chain modernized its logo by removing its signature "old timer" character, Uncle Hershel, and rustic barrel.
After about a week of intense customer backlash, the chain reverted to the original logo and suspended its further modernization plans, saying in a statement at the time that Hershel was "not going anywhere — he's family."
The fallout dampened Cracker Barrel's final quarter of the year and, since the rebrand attempt, the chain's quarterly sales have continued to decline.
IHOP, meanwhile, has had some steadier footing. Still, it hasn't been without controversy.
Back in June 2018, the International House of Pancakes was in the hot seat for its divisive "IHOb" campaign, where it temporarily rebranded to focus on burgers. An IHOP spokesperson called the campaign "fun."
It led to mixed reactions on social media, but did appear to boost burger sales. The chain even reported a sales boost at the end of Q2 2026, which may be attributed to some of IHOP's recent viral wins, from trendy Dubai-chocolate pancakes to value-focused menu offerings.
However, sales aren't always an indicator of quality or value. And with all the chatter about these legacy chains, I started to wonder which was truly worth a visit as a customer these days — if either.
To find out, I had Saturday brunch at each, ordering plain black coffee and comparable breakfast samplers.
Here's how the chains stacked up.
I started at Cracker Barrel, which had a classic down-home vibe.
Cracker Barrel was crowded when I visited.
Savannah Born
Cracker Barrel is a Tennessee-based chain operating almost 660 locations across 44 states.
Around since 1969, it's known for Southern comfort food, an all-day breakfast menu, and country stores attached to its restaurants.
The location I visited clearly seemed to embrace its roots, featuring outdoor rocking chairs, farmhouse-style windows and furniture, patriotic bunting, and vintage-style decor.
Nearly every table was occupied.
IHOP was my second stop, and it didn't feel quite as cozy.
Some IHOP locations are open 24 hours.
Savannah Born
Only half a mile away stood IHOP, a significantly larger chain with over 1,800 restaurants worldwide.
Established in California in 1958, IHOP is recognized for its fluffy buttermilk pancakes and expansive breakfast menu, as well as select 24-hour locations.
At around 70% full, this restaurant didn't match the bustle of Cracker Barrel and, by comparison, I felt it lacked character with its minimal design. The leathery booths looked basic but sleek, and the walls were mostly decorated with what appeared to be promotional photos of menu items.
To be fair, IHOP's theme is more "pancakes," not Southern comfort.
Both samplers were similar in price.
At Cracker Barrel (left) and IHOP (right), my pancakes came on the side of my main sampler.
Savannah Born
At Cracker Barrel, I ordered grandma's sampler with two buttermilk pancakes, two scrambled eggs, and a sampling of bacon, sausage, and ham. My meal also came with one side, so I picked hash-brown casserole.
It cost $13.49.
My IHOP breakfast sampler included two buttermilk pancakes, two eggs (again, I chose scrambled), two strips of bacon, two sausage links, two slices of ham, and hash browns.
It came to $14.79.
I started each meal with a coffee, and Cracker Barrel's brew didn't wow me.
Cracker Barrel's coffee wasn't as strong as I prefer.
Savannah Born
As a Starbucks Pike Place girl, I felt Cracker Barrel's brew tasted weak and watered down. It reminded me of instant coffee and wasn't as strong as I usually like.
On the bright side, it wasn't bitter or acidic, and it came out piping hot. My cup cost $3.39, which seemed steep until I learned about the bottomless refills.
IHOP's coffee didn't wow me either, but I liked having my refills right on the table.
I loved having my own pot of coffee at IHOP.
Savannah Born
When my server brought out a personal pot and a darling mug, the coffee experience felt instantly special. A signature IHOP move, yes, but it got me.
The coffee tasted stronger than Cracker Barrel's, though not by much. The pot and mug were highlights, not the coffee itself.
My coffee (also with unlimited refills) cost $3.69.
Cracker Barrel's enormous pancakes took up an entire plate.
The pancakes I got at Cracker Barrel looked huge.
Savannah Born
I was impressed by the sheer size of Cracker Barrel's pancakes, the hefty serving of butter, and the individual syrup bottles.
The pancakes had a classic buttermilk flavor and a sweet, nostalgic taste, even without syrup. More spongy than soft, they had a chewy bite — not fluffy," per se, but still enjoyable.
IHOP's pancakes were smaller and fluffier.
IHOP's pancakes had a pleasant buttery flavor.
Savannah Born
I had high expectations for IHOP's pancakes, and they delivered.
Light and pillowy with a cake-like softness, these went above and beyond in the texture department.
Taste-wise, they were rich, slightly tangy, and more buttery than sweet, so the syrup brought the perfect balance. I opted for old-fashioned syrup, just one of the four options sitting on the table.
The butter wasn't as generous as Cracker Barrel's, nor was the size, but these pancakes made up for it in thickness.
I wouldn't order Cracker Barrel's scrambled eggs again.
The scrambled eggs I had weren't my favorite.
Savannah Born
I prefer my scrambled eggs airy and moist, not dense and dry.
Unfortunately, the eggs I got at Cracker Barrel this time seemed overcooked, and the flavor didn't redeem them. In fact, they didn't taste like much of anything to me, even after I added salt.
Next time, I might try ordering my eggs cooked differently here.
IHOP's scrambled eggs had a unique flavor.
The scrambled eggs at IHOP tasted cheesy.
Savannah Born
Soft, bodied, and well-salted, IHOP's scrambled eggs felt like the opposite of Cracker Barrel's.
They tasted buttery and a hint cheesy — delicious yet surprising, since, as far as I can tell, the scramble did not include either ingredient.
Cracker Barrel's bacon was OK.
Cracker Barrel's bacon had a salty, smoky taste.
Savannah Born
If bacon is crisp and tender, salty and smoky, it's bound to be a win for me.
Cracker Barrel's bacon hit most of the above, but it missed on crispiness. I wished the strips had more crunch and less fat.
IHOP's bacon was a bit too greasy for me.
I found IHOP's bacon to be too greasy — and not in a good way.
Savannah Born
I thought Cracker Barrel's bacon was fatty, but IHOP's made it seem less so. On these strips, I couldn't dodge the rubbery parts.
To its credit, the bacon had a solid flavor. However, the squishy texture and excess grease made it a hard pass for me.
Cracker Barrel's sausage came as a patty.
The sausage was tasty but small.
Savannah Born
Small but mighty, the sausage patty had a surprisingly bold, smoky flavor. It tasted cured — almost like ham.
The patty was smaller than the palm of my hand, and I wish the portion size had been a bit bigger.
IHOP's sausage links felt classic.
I enjoy a classic breakfast sausage.
Savannah Born
Distinct from Cracker Barrel's single patty, IHOP's sampler came with two links.
They were the definition of breakfast sausage links: salted, spiced, and juicy on the inside. I enjoyed them dipped in syrup.
Cracker Barrel's hash-brown casserole was the highlight of the meal.
Cracker Barrel's hash-brown casserole is baked.
Savannah Born
I took a break from breakfast meats to try hash-brown casserole. It features shredded potatoes, Colby cheese, onions, and the chain's signature seasoning blend, all baked together.
I'd go back to the restaurant for this side alone.
These spuds had a robust flavor. The onion and spices popped, as did the cheese. It evoked a cozy, comforting loaded potato, seasoned to perfection.
I enjoyed the oven-browned top and the soft, not-soggy middle. My only critique: The top could have been crispier. However, I chalked it up to the dish being baked rather than fried.
IHOP's hash browns were crispy, but they couldn't compete with Cracker Barrel's.
IHOP's hash browns were solid, but they didn't impress me a ton.
Savannah Born
With golden edges and caramelized bits, all shimmering with oil, I knew IHOP's hash browns would be crispy.
Unfortunately, the taste wasn't as exciting. These hash browns reminded me of bland tots, and they left me dreaming of Cracker Barrel's casserole version.
I didn't find Cracker Barrel's ham to be particularly appetizing.
The ham at Cracker Barrel wasn't my favorite.
Savannah Born
When I saw a multicolored and segmented slice of ham on my plate, I was skeptical. Although the portion size seemed decent, it didn't look super appetizing to me.
Cracker Barrel's ham had a bacon-like flavor and a tough, chewy texture. I could forgive the flavor, but the firmness made it difficult to eat. I wouldn't get this again.
I much preferred IHOP's ham.
The ham at IHOP had tasty glazed edges.
Savannah Born
After Cracker Barrel, I hoped for a regular slice of ham at IHOP. I got two.
IHOP's ham didn't feel like anything special, but I approved of the uniform color, tenderness, and nice glazed edges. Above all else, I was glad it tasted like ham and wasn't overly chewy.
Overall, both chains felt like a bargain.
My meals at Cracker Barrel (left) and IHOP (right) both felt like a solid deal.
Savannah Born
Before tax and tip, my sampler and coffee cost $16.88 at Cracker Barrel and $18.48 at IHOP.
Considering the amount of food I got, both chains seemed like a great value.
Neither restaurant checked every box, but IHOP checked more of them.
My IHOP breakfast (right) ended up beating my Cracker Barrel breakfast (left).
Savannah Born
Yes, my IHOP meal cost $1.60 more, but I felt it came with double the bacon, sausage, and ham. The breakfast meats weren't my favorite, but they still felt like a bigger bang for my buck.
I also liked that its breakfast menu had significantly more variety, with all the basics and then some. Above all else, of the seven items I tested, I preferred IHOP's version for five of them.
In the end, just one item at each chain truly blew me away. For me, the only things worth going back for were the hash-brown casserole at Cracker Barrel and the buttermilk pancakes at IHOP.
I'm especially tempted by the latter, especially with varieties like protein, tres leches, and cheesecake on the menu.
Business Insider reached out to IHOP and Cracker Barrel for comment.
Read next
Savannah Born is an experienced writer with bylines in Business Insider, Forbes, Us Weekly, and other publications. With interests spanning from lifestyle and wellness to personal finance and consumer culture, Born is always on the lookout for trends, fresh ideas and insights that make life better.
A trader watches the screen at his terminal on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York.
Lucas Jackson | Reuters
After years of standing in the sun, retail investors could have a dark cloud forming over their heads.
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Technological advancements helped level the playing field for Main Street and Wall Street investors over decades. Following the Covid trading boom and a banner performance in 2025, individual investors became a mainstay of today's markets and shook off their "dumb money" stigma.
But advocates for small investors now warn that efforts to change corporate earnings, Federal Reserve communication and social media access could undo a sizable chunk of that progress. These shifts would disadvantage retail investors at a time when they are a more powerful force than ever in financial markets.
"We are almost taking steps backwards," said Hardika Singh, economic strategist at asset manager Fundstrat. "It's almost making me wonder: Are we sort of entering this information blackout age for a very important subset of the stock market?"
There's three key storylines market participants are tracking that could hurt the retail crowd:
1. Corporate earnings changes
The Securities and Exchange Commission in May backed President Donald Trump's proposal for public companies to report earnings biannually instead of quarterly. SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said in a statement that the organization's "rigid" rules have stopped companies from finding a reporting cadence that "best serves their business needs."
Investors acknowledge that required quarterly reports can strain corporate resources and keep firms from going public. But having less of these audited releases could result in an information vacuum for retail investors, according to Siebert Financial's Mark Malek. More unofficial content or misinformation could arise as a result, he said.
Quarterly earnings reports are "the gold standard," said Malek, the firm's investing chief. "Taking that away is definitely disadvantaging the retail investor."
In a poll on retail investing platform Moomoo, U.S. CEO Neil McDonald found that most users disliked the prospect of switching to a twice-yearly reporting cycle. If retail investors have less-frequent insight into financial performance, McDonald said that they would likely become more hesitant to invest in small-cap, high-growth companies.
McDonald remembers working at Goldman Sachs in the 1980s when analysts would jet off to a company's headquarters to collect earnings reports. The analyst would dictate the results by phone, allowing the bank to quickly alert its institutional clients. A retail investor likely wouldn't know how the company performed until the newspaper arrived a day later, he said.
Wall Street has a history of using unconventional mechanisms when official information is difficult to find. Before the SEC mandated quarterly earnings in 1970, firms tracked data like weekly rail car loadings for clues on the direction of economic activity. When China was a black box for American investors, traders followed coal shipments to the country as a leading indicator for production.
Freight rail cars sit in a rail yard on November 22, 2022 in Wilmington, California.
Mario Tama | Getty Images
If there are fewer earnings reports, institutional investors will be able to lean on their teams of analysts, who often have direct access to a company's C-suite. Small-scale investors, on the other hand, typically only hear directly from these executives by listening into earnings calls or tracking their public appearances.
"The chief financial officer is not likely going to take a call from Joe Blow," said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research, whose firm advertises services for both big and small investors. "But they would take a call from a very high-profile institutional investor."
2. Less Fed communication
New Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh has cut down the central bank's policy meeting statement and removed forward guidance. Warsh, who has promised sweeping changes in how the Fed communicates, also floated the idea of having fewer of these gatherings.
Hearing less from the Fed can make it harder for retail to set expectations for the economy and monetary policy, which can be important factors when deciding overall portfolio allocation. Additionally, small investors have a penchant for technology stocks whose growth outlooks are dependent in part on borrowing costs determined by the Fed.
Kevin Warsh, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, during a news conference following a Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, July 29, 2026.
Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Markets have already had less clear of a consensus heading into the first two Fed meetings under Warsh when compared against recent history. With less policy hints from the Fed, investors anticipate more volatility after policy decisions are announced.
Wall Street firms have built out artificial intelligence-powered tools to keep a handle on the Fed in the lower-communication environment. Several of these institutions have economists — and, in many cases, Fed alumni — on staff to predict what the central bank's next move could mean for markets.
If the macroeconomic picture becomes harder to gauge, CFRA's Stovall said small investors may look to financial advisors for help.
3. The Truth API service
Truth Media & Technology Group's launch of Truth API — a paid data service providing faster access to Truth Social posts — heightened the concern of retail investors having the cards stacked against them.
Kevin McGurn, Trump Media's interim CEO, said in a statement around its release this month that the API provides "a direct, licensed, real-time feed of the platform's most market-moving Truths." Trump Media did not respond to CNBC's questions about the cost of the offering or how early of access it offers.
Multiple of the S&P 500's best and worst days during Trump's second term have been driven by posts he made on Truth Social, a Fundstrat data analysis found.
"He has the market in the palm of his hands," said Fundstrat's Singh. "Never before in history has a president exerted this level of control via social media."
Several investors told CNBC that Trump is incentivized to make more market-moving Truth Social posts to drum up interest in the API. Trump's family is the largest shareholder in Trump Media, which reported more than $230 million in net losses during the second quarter.
Siebert's Malek likened Truth API to the push among big trading firms in recent years to move their servers closer to those of exchanges. The idea was that the proximity would allow them to get information even a few milliseconds before competitors, resulting in earlier trades, he said.
Malek said Siebert isn't planning to pay for access to Truth API. However, he said the offering should provide an advantage for big investors looking to time the market.
Cheng Xin | Getty Images News | Getty Images
There's a silver lining for long term-focused retail investors who can handle increased volatility, according to Douglas Yones, CEO of exchange-traded fund manager Direxion. If Trump's future posts drive down the market, he said retail investors will have additional opportunities to buy pullbacks in equities.
"You don't need to subscribe to that API," said Yones, a former executive at the New York Stock Exchange. "What you need to do is be ready for the outsized movement."
A level playing field?
Even if big money ends up with the upper-hand, market participants said they should still be concerned if retail traders are cast out.
Retail investors have been credited with fearlessly loading up on stocks in recent years, providing a baseline of inflows that has helped the current bull market become one of the longest on record. Individual investors bought the dip during 2025's tariff-related market selloff while their institutional counterparts ran for the hills.
Singh said that having a higher number of retail investors in the market allows for better "price discovery," meaning that values attributed to a security are more fairly determined. If these changes take effect, the strategist said the broader market could feel negative ramifications as soon as this year.
But even with these potential speed bumps, Bret Kenwell, eToro's U.S. investment analyst, expects retail to continue taking up a bigger slice of the overall pie. The stage is set for this year: Citadel found that overall activity among individual traders hit a record in June.
"I don't think any of these developments would be enough to drive retail investors out of the market," Kenwell said. "It's a question of whether it remains a level playing field for them."
Image: Sucker Punch Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment