A lawsuit was filed against former President Donald Trump on Wednesday over the controversial sale of early access to his posts on the social network Truth Social. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, alleges that Trump’s posts on his own platform often influence financial markets.
The civil lawsuit states that “Donald Trump charges $100,000 per month for early access to his official statements on Truth Social, a social network he owns.” The plaintiffs, including the news organization The Intercept Media and the nonprofit group Freedom of the Press Association, claim they filed the lawsuit to stop an “extraordinary, corrupt, and unconstitutional scheme.”
Plaintiffs allege constitutional violations
The complaint alleges that the new service, known as Truth API, violates the First and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution by providing subscribers with privileged access to Trump’s public statements for an “unjustified fee.” The parent company of Truth Social, Trump Media, announced in July that it would offer subscribers who pay up to $100,000 per month early access to “market-moving posts” from Trump and other users of the platform.
“This scheme is deeply corrupt,” the lawsuit states. “The president is financially benefiting by providing government market-moving information to those who wish to pay his personal company and have the ability to do so.”
During a conference call on Monday regarding quarterly financial results, Trump Media CEO Kevin McGurn said that Truth API “provides machine-readable feeds of public posts from the platform’s leading accounts with millisecond latency.” He added that “our clients will receive published and public posts fractions of a second faster.”
McGurn also reported that Trump Media has currently signed over 10 deals with clients for Truth API, “typically in the range of $60,000–$100,000 per month.” The company is in active negotiations with hyperscalers, some major news organizations, and developers of large language models regarding this service. “In the future, we expect the next phase of the API to involve broader distribution through third parties, such as news channels, financial data terminals, and specialized publications, which we believe will increase the visibility of this business over time,” he noted.
In addition to Donald Trump, the defendants named in the lawsuit include his executive assistant Natalie Harp, who is known to post on Truth Social on Trump’s behalf; Deputy Chief of Staff of the White House Dan Scavino; the Executive Office of the President, and the White House Office.
Source: CNBC
