U.S. news outlet The Intercept and non-profit Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) alleged that the paid Truth Social service violates two parts of the Constitution: the First Amendment right to access a president’s comments on equal terms with other members of the press and public, and the Fifth Amendment prohibitions on charging unreasonable conditions for government benefits.
The plaintiffs said delayed access to the president’s statements would harm their ability to produce or support journalism, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
“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,” said Seth Stern, chief of advocacy at the FPF.
As general counsel to The Intercept, David Bralow said: “Nothing could be more antithetical to the free, independent press than the president charging for early access to his public announcements.”
The paid Truth Social service, named Truth API, allows subscribers to receive Trump’s posts seconds before they appear for the general public. Seeking to block the plan, the two groups said those moments matter because Trump’s posts often move stocks, oil and other financial markets with announcements about government policy, military actions and other decisions, as seen during the Middle East conflicts and renewed U.S. tariff measures.
Many big investment firms have developed automated systems to monitor Truth Social, detect important keywords and take action, often within a fraction of a second, such as initiating or canceling positions, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing traders.
A Wall Street Journal review of trading data showed how quickly some traders have pounced on the president’s online comments. In the minute following two of Trump’s posts about Iran in June, investors traded more than 2 million shares, according to data from DTN, a global data and technology company. These trades caused swings of more than 2 percent in almost two dozen energy and industrial stocks.
The plaintiffs argued that the setup gave an unfair advantage to those who can afford it, creating a system where market-sensitive information reaches paying clients first, according to the BBC.
Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), Truth Social’s parent company, announced that Truth API charges up to 100,000 U.S. dollars a month for early access to 10 high-profile Truth Social accounts, including Trump’s own, or 60,000 dollars per month if users commit to three years.
Trump has the largest following on the platform, with about 13 million followers, followed by his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., with around 7.5 million.
Other accounts offered through Truth API include those of Vice President JD Vance, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., FBI Director Kash Patel and the White House itself, the complaint said.
The service came as the publicly traded TMTG lost hundreds of millions of dollars each quarter and its stock has dropped below 10 dollars from 62 dollars shortly after going public two years ago.
Trump is the largest shareholder of TMTG, with a 41.3 percent stake worth approximately 950 million dollars, held through his Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust. His eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., serves as a director of TMTG and oversees the trust, while the president is the trust’s sole beneficiary, the BBC reported.
Even before the new API service was launched, ethics watchdogs criticized Trump’s posting on Truth Social as a brash attempt to profit off the presidency, linking it to other money-making ventures, including those related to cryptocurrencies.
Earlier this year, the president filed a required annual financial disclosure report showing that he had taken in more than 1 billion dollars in 2025 from new crypto businesses subject to regulation by his administration, according to AP.
The Wall Street Journal reported that trading firms were among the first subscribers to the service, with more than 10 customers having signed up. In this business, getting to data nanoseconds faster than competitors can amount to a sizable advantage.
“This scheme is profoundly corrupt,” the two organizations said in their complaint. “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 plan also drew backlash from Democratic lawmakers, who called for a probe into the service by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
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