Federal lawsuit challenges Trump Media's paid early-access service for presidential posts
A lawsuit filed in New York seeks to halt Trump Media's subscription service that gives paying customers faster access to President Trump's policy statements, alleging constitutional violations.
President Donald Trump faces a federal lawsuit in the Southern District of New York over a new subscription offering by his Truth Social platform that provides paying subscribers, including Wall Street firms, with millisecond-early access to his posts on U.S. policy. The plaintiffs, the Freedom of the Press Foundation and The Intercept, argue that the service breaches the First Amendment by creating unequal access to presidential communications and the Fifth Amendment by imposing unreasonable conditions on government information.
The service, marketed as the "Truth API," charges up to $100,000 a month for early access, which the plaintiffs say gives traders an unfair market advantage. They also seek to stop a separate arrangement that gives Trump Media six-hour exclusive rights to the president's posts before they appear elsewhere.
"A president selling priority access to news he himself generates for the benefit of a private company he controls is so blatantly corrupt and unconstitutional," said Seth Stern, chief of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation.
Trump Media & Technology, the publicly traded parent of Truth Social, responded that fast-access services are common in the industry and characterized the lawsuit as an attempt by "left wing activists" to censor the president and harm shareholders.
The company, in which Trump holds more than 40% of the shares, has seen its stock fall sharply since its IPO. Critics have previously highlighted concerns about the president profiting from his office through digital ventures, including cryptocurrency projects regulated by his administration.