The Intercept and Freedom of the Press Foundation have filed a federal lawsuit against President Donald Trump over Truth Social's API service, which reportedly charges trading firms up to $100,000 monthly for faster access to posts that may move U.S. financial markets. According to an Associated Press report, the complaint was filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, naming Trump, Trump Media & Technology Group, and White House aides Daniel Scavino and Natalie Harp as defendants. The plaintiffs are seeking declaratory and injunctive relief to stop the administration from giving paying Truth API customers preferential access to presidential posts containing official U.S. policy announcements. "The President stands to gain financially by giving 'market-moving' government information to those who are willing and able to pay his personal company," the court papers filed in Manhattan district court stated. The lawsuit describes the service as "profoundly corrupt" and unconstitutional, with Seth Stern, chief of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, noting that "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 that it would have been hard to even fathom just a few years ago."
Trump Media introduced Truth API earlier this month and opened it to institutional customers on August 1, targeting algorithmic trading firms, financial data providers, and media companies. As reported by crypto.news, interim CEO Kevin McGurn stated that monthly contracts range from about $60,000 to $100,000. According to Trump Media's latest earnings materials, the company has signed more than 10 customer agreements and is already earning revenue from the product, though it has not identified the subscribers. Most customers are high-frequency trading firms that use automated systems capable of reading information and placing trades faster than ordinary investors. In its first-ever earnings call with analysts Monday evening, Trump Media confirmed that subscribers would get real-time access to Trump's social media posts and see posts milliseconds after they're posted. TMTG has stated that Truth API will provide customers with Trump's posts "milliseconds" before the same posts become available to the public.
Under its First Amendment claim, the lawsuit argues that the president cannot give paying customers an advantage in accessing official announcements while journalists and members of the public receive the same information later. The Fifth Amendment claim rests on the argument that the government cannot place an unreasonable financial condition on access to a public benefit. According to the complaint, statements covering tariffs, appointments, foreign policy, and other federal decisions can affect stocks, currencies, commodities, and digital assets, making even a short delivery advantage valuable to automated trading firms. The lawsuit asks the Manhattan federal court to declare the preferential arrangement unlawful and prevent Trump and White House staff from supplying paid customers with faster access to official announcements. As reported by CNN, Nikhel Sus, chief counsel for Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington, argued that "even if, hypothetically, the delay was milliseconds, it would be a First Amendment violation," noting there's no de minimis exception for restrictions on fundamental First Amendment rights.
Trump's financial interest in Trump Media forms another part of the plaintiffs' case, as reported by Associated Press. Company disclosures show that the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust holds about 41% of Trump Media's shares, while Trump serves as the trust's settlor and sole beneficiary, with Donald Trump Jr. as the trust's sole trustee. The holding has recently been valued at more than $1 billion, although its value changes with the price of Trump Media shares. Revenue from Truth API goes to the Nasdaq-listed company rather than directly to Trump, but the complaint argues that a successful paid feed could benefit a business in which his trust owns a large stake. The lawsuit also presents concerns about Truth API potentially restricting the Freedom of the Press Foundation's ability to scrape all the president's posts and determine which are anti-media arguments, a core product that the group offers.
Last month, Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff urged federal regulators to investigate whether Truth API is legal, describing the plan as a "shocking abuse of the office of the President" and calling for the Securities and Exchange Commission to determine if the arrangement violates federal securities law. "Early access to President Trump's social media posts for Wall Street firms, wealthy insiders and high-frequency traders will erode investor confidence in the basic fairness of the markets," Warren and Schiff wrote in a letter to SEC Chair Paul Atkins. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit. Legal experts note that selling special access to the president's announcements on a platform he owns raises novel legal issues, with law professor RonNell Andersen Jones arguing that the courts will have to determine whether subscribers' timing advantage is so brief that access for everyone else is functionally identical.
