The Intercept and Freedom of the Press Foundation sue Trump over Truth Social's paid early access to his posts, citing First and Fifth Amendment violations

The Intercept and the Freedom of the Press Foundation have filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump over his Truth Social platform's monetization scheme, which charges up to $100,000 per month for early access to his posts. The plaintiffs argue this violates their First and Fifth Amendment rights by restricting equal access to public information.¹²³⁴

The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York, claims that Trump's actions represent an 'outright plan of extortion' and that the president is attempting to profit from government information he has no right to sell. “The president’s official statements are not the private data of a company but are owned by the United States under the Presidential Records Act,” said Nikhel Sus, Chief Counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Trump Media, which owns Truth Social, began selling access to its application programming interface (API) last quarter, promising subscribers real-time access to Trump’s posts. Critics, including Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff, have condemned the plan as a “shocking abuse of the office of the President” and called for an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.⁵⁶

The lawsuit also highlights that the monetization scheme could undermine the integrity of the markets by granting preferential access to wealthy insiders and high-frequency traders. “Early access to President Trump’s social media posts for Wall Street firms... will erode investor confidence in basic fairness of the markets,” Warren and Schiff wrote in a letter to SEC Chair Paul Atkins.

The suit names Trump, his executive assistant Natalie Harp, and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino as defendants, emphasizing that the president's actions blur the lines between his private business interests and public duties.