Trump Sued Over $100,000-a-Month Early Access to Truth Social

President Trump has been sued over a subscription service that charges up to $100,000 a month for early access to his posts on Truth Social, an arrangement the plaintiffs call "extraordinary, corrupt and unconstitutional."

The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, was brought by the Intercept and the Freedom of the Press Foundation against Trump, two of his aides and the executive office of the president.

It targets "Truth API," a paid data feed launched on August 1 by the Trump Media & Technology Group, the company behind Truth Social. The service gives paying subscribers faster access than the general public to posts from 10 of the platform's highest-profile accounts, including Trump's own, as well as those of Vice President JD Vance, press secretary Karoline Leavitt and other senior officials. Subscribers pay $100,000 a month, or $60,000 a month with a three-year commitment.

The White House and Trump Media did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit.

Trump has repeatedly used Truth Social to disclose market-sensitive news, including posts on tariffs and the war on Iran that have moved stock and oil prices. Trump Media's interim chief executive, Kevin McGurn, has promoted the feed as a way for businesses to get fast access to the platform's "most market-moving" posts, describing it as a "high-margin" product intended to provide a "meaningful, ongoing source of revenue."

The launch followed criticism from Democratic Sens. Adam Schiff and Elizabeth Warren, who urged the Securities and Exchange Commission to examine whether the service amounts to market manipulation benefiting insiders at the expense of ordinary investors.

According to the complaint, Trump Media disclosed on August 10 that it already had more than 10 subscribers — reportedly including financial news outlets and high-frequency trading firms — and was exploring licensing the data to prediction markets while working to block third-party tools that scrape and archive Trump's posts.

The plaintiffs argue that the president, still Trump Media's largest shareholder with a stake worth roughly $1 billion, stands to profit personally from selling privileged access to information generated in his official capacity.

The suit also raises concerns about the historical record. Subscribers receive an archive of posts going back to 2022, including some later deleted or altered, and McGurn has said the company intends "to create a lot of friction for those folks that aren't coming to us directly."

The plaintiffs ask the court to declare the arrangement unlawful and to bar the administration from using Truth Social as the exclusive venue for official announcements while it sells preferential access to that information.