President Donald Trump was sued Wednesday by media and nonprofit groups seeking to block a controversial new service that sells advanced notifications of his posts on Truth Social.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, notes that Trump’s own posts on social media sites often move financial markets with announcements about government policy, military actions and other decisions.
“President Donald Trump is charging $100,000 a month for advance access to official government announcements on his social media platform, Truth Social,” the civil lawsuit says.
“This plan is abnormal, corrupt, and unconstitutional, and Plaintiffs brought this action to stop it,” the lawsuit states. “President Trump has no legitimate interest, much less a material interest, in profiting from the sale of government information.”
The lawsuit was brought by the news organization Intercept Media and the nonprofit Free Press Association.
The complaint alleges that the new service, known as Truth API, violates the First and Fifth Amendments by giving subscribers preferential access to President Trump’s publications for an “unreasonable amount of money.”
Truth Social’s parent company; trump mediaannounced in July that it would give subscribers who pay up to $100,000 a month early access to “market-moving” posts by Trump and others who use the platform. Mr. Trump is Trump Media’s largest shareholder through the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust.
According to the complaint, the Truth API now provides subscribers faster access to posts from the 10 most popular accounts on Truth Social. Since President Trump, these accounts have included the White House itself, Vice President J.D. Vance, FBI Director Kash Patel, Presidential Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy.
“This scheme is deeply corrupt,” the complaint states. “The president seeks to benefit financially by providing ‘market-moving’ government information to those willing and able to pay for his company.
Since returning to office in January 2025, Trump has posted between 9,000 and 11,000 posts on Truth Social, according to the complaint.
“His posts often lack immediate response announcements from the White House,” the complaint states. “In other words, President Trump’s posts are the only way to get official government news.”
Trump Media CEO Kevin McGahn said during Monday’s quarterly earnings call that the Truth API “provides a machine-readable feed of public Truth posts from the top accounts on our platform in milliseconds.”
“Our customers will be able to get their posts published and published just a little earlier,” McGahn said.
McGahn also said on the call that Trump Media has signed more than 10 customer deals for Truth API, which are “typically in the range of $60,000 to $100,000 per month.”
McGahn said the company is in active discussions about the service with hyperscalers, some major news organizations, and developers of large language models.
“Looking to the future, we expect the next phase of the API to include broader third-party distribution, such as news feeds, financial data terminals, and specialized publications. We believe this will further increase the visibility of this business over time,” he said.
In addition to Trump, the suit also names as defendants the president’s chief of staff Natalie Harp and White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, each of whom are known to post on Truth Social on behalf of the president. the Executive Office of the President; and the White House Office.
This is breaking news. Please refresh to check for updates.
