Trump sued over paid early access to Truth Social posts
What's the story
President Donald Trump has been sued over the controversial sale of early access to his posts on Truth Social. The lawsuit was filed by The Intercept Media and the Freedom of the Press Foundation in a federal court in New York. It claims that Trump's scheme is "extraordinary, corrupt, and unconstitutional," and seeks to put an end to it.
Service details
Lawsuit centers around new service Truth API
The lawsuit centers around a new service called Truth API, launched by Trump's media company, Trump Media.
The service gives subscribers early access to "market-moving" posts from Trump and other users on the platform.
The company announced in July that subscribers willing to pay up to $100,000 per month would get this early access.
Legal claims
Allegations of unconstitutionality in lawsuit
The lawsuit alleges that Truth API violates the First and Fifth Amendments of the US Constitution by giving subscribers preferential access to Trump's public announcements for "unreasonable sums."
It also argues that there is no legitimate interest in allowing Trump to profit from selling government information.
The complaint highlights how Trump's posts on Truth Social often influence financial markets with announcements about government policy, military actions, and other decisions.
Service functionality
Trump financially benefitting from government information, claims lawsuit
According to the lawsuit, Truth API currently offers subscribers faster access to posts from the 10 most popular accounts on Truth Social.
These include not just Trump but also the White House itself, Vice President JD Vance, FBI Director Kash Patel, and others.
The complaint argues that this scheme is "profoundly corrupt" as it allows Trump to financially benefit by giving 'market-moving' government information to those willing and able to pay his personal company.
Information source
Posts only way to get official government news
The lawsuit also points out that since resuming office in January 2025, Trump has published between 9,000 and 11,000 posts on Truth Social.
It says these posts often don't have an immediate corresponding announcement from the White House.
This makes President Trump's posts the only way to get official government news, according to the suit.
Defense statement
What is Truth API?
During a quarterly earnings conference call on Monday, Trump Media CEO Kevin McGurn had said that Truth API "provides machine-readable feeds of publicly available Truth posts from the platform's top accounts in milliseconds."
He clarified that their customers would get published and publicly available posts slightly faster through this service.