Trump is being sued over his Truth Social paywall
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan, alleges the paid early-access service violates the First and Fifth Amendments
MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump and Natalie Harp getting sued together in a major federal lawsuit..
The complaint names Trump in his official capacity, along with White House Executive Assistant Natalie Harp, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Daniel Scavino, the Executive Office of the President, and the White House Office as defendants. The plaintiffs argue that the arrangement — in which paying subscribers receive the president's official announcements before the general public — violates the First Amendment's guarantee of equal access to a president's public statements and the Fifth Amendment's prohibition on unreasonable conditions for government benefits.
"This scheme is profoundly corrupt," the complaint says. "The President stands to gain financially by giving 'market-moving' government information to those who are willing and able to pay his personal company."
Intercept sues Trump over Truth Social API paywall
The service at issue, called Truth API, was announced by Trump Media on July 16 and launched August 1. It delivers posts from Truth Social's ten most-followed accounts — including Trump's @realDonaldTrump, the @WhiteHouse account, Vice President JD Vance, FBI Director Kash Patel, and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt — to subscribers within milliseconds. Trump Media interim CEO Kevin McGurn said in a statement at launch that "markets already move on Truth Social posts" and described Truth API as a "high-margin, recurring revenue stream."
During an earnings call on Monday, McGurn said Trump Media had signed more than 10 customer agreements for Truth API, generally priced between $60,000 and $100,000 per month, according to CNBC. McGurn also noted that Trump Media was engaged in talks with major news outlets and large language model developers, and that the company intended to move against the third-party scraping tools that presently pull Truth Social posts at no cost.
Trump's ownership stake in Trump Media — approximately 41.4% of the company — is held via the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, with Trump as its sole beneficiary. According to the complaint, Trump has put out between 9,000 and 11,000 Truth Social posts since taking office again in January 2025, and because those posts frequently carry no accompanying announcement from the White House, they amount to the sole channel through which official government news reaches the public.
The lawsuit follows earlier scrutiny of Truth API on Capitol Hill. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff wrote to Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins last month asking the agency to examine whether the service violated federal securities law barring insider trading and market manipulation, pointing to multiple instances in which Trump's Truth Social posts moved individual stocks.
In a statement reported by Bloomberg, Trump Media pushed back by noting that presidential communications flow through "countless platforms and news outlets, many of which offer subscription APIs," and described Truth Social as "an uncancellable haven for free speech." The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The plaintiffs 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 Altshuler Berzon LLP.