President Trump’s newly launched paid service for early access to his Truth Social posts is being challenged in court.
The lawsuit, brought Wednesday by The Intercept and The Freedom of the Press Foundation, said Trump Media & Technology Group’s monetization of the president’s social media posts is unconstitutional.
The complaint said the paid-for service violates the First Amendment rights of journalists and other members of the public to equal access to official information and violates the Fifth Amendment by undermining the right to equal protection under the law.
“Trump is trying to enrich himself by privatizing government information that he has no right to sell,” Ben Muessig, editor-in-chief of The Intercept, said. “We won’t let it stand.”
Truth Social’s parent company, of which Mr. Trump is the largest shareholder, is providing exclusive access to the “highest-ranking” users, including the president, for up to $100,000 per month.
Called “Truth API,” the service began granting access to Truth Social’s application programming interface on Aug. 1 to track “market-moving” posts from the public official.
Trump Media CEO Kevin McGurn described Truth API as delivering “a direct, licensed, real-time feed of the platform’s most market-moving Truths,” intended to become “a meaningful, ongoing source of revenue for the company, creating lasting value for shareholders.”
Early access to the Truth Social posts, which often move the markets, would benefit Wall Street traders.
The paywalled feed provides faster access to posts of the 10 most popular accounts on Truth Social, including Vice President J.D. Vance, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, FBI Director Kash Patel, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
In addition to the president, defendants named in the lawsuit include Mr. Scavino, Mr. Trump’s executive assistant, Natalie Harp, and the Executive Office of the President.
Trump Media’s strategy is an “out-and-out plan of extortion” that charges “unreasonable sums,” and Mr. Trump “stands to gain financially,” according to the complaint.
The Washington Times has reached out to the White House for comment.
Mr. Trump’s shares in Trump Media are worth just over $1 billion, representing an approximately 41.4% ownership stake — the largest — in the company.
He owns roughly 41% of Trump Media, the company’s largest single stake at about 114.75 million shares, according to his 2025 financial disclosure. That stake was worth about $4 billion when the trust holding it was established in January of last year, at which point it represented 52.1% of the company.
The value has since fallen to around $1 billion as Trump Media’s stock price has dropped, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of New York.
The Intercept is a nonprofit left-leaning investigative reporting outlet. The Freedom of the Press Foundation is a nonprofit group with a mission of protecting, defending and empowering public-interest journalism.
They are represented by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Yale Law School’s Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic, The Public Integrity Project and the law firm Altshuler Berzon LLP.
Truth API has been scrutinized since its launch.
Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Adam Schiff of California urged the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether Trump Media is violating the law.
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