RESOLVING THE LEDGER
This is one outlet's own report from The Independent — the article as it was filed. Other outlets are covering the same event; open the full story to compare every source side by side.
See the full story · 11 sourcesThe lawsuit contends that Trump’s agreement to publish updates concerning tariffs, war and government actions first on his platform violates the Constitution
Bookmark Bookmark popover Removed from bookmarks
Donald Trump is being sued over a new plan to charge as much as $100,000 for early access to his social posts.
The lawsuit is an attempt to stop him profiting from a new service on his own Truth Social platform, which gives subscribers early, exclusive access to his posts about US policy.
It contends that Trump’s agreement to publish updates concerning tariffs, war and government actions first on his platform violates the Constitution, asserting that public announcements should be distributed to everyone concurrently.
This action follows a subscription product launched earlier this month by Trump Media & Technology, charging Wall Street firms as much as $100,000 a month for faster access to trade on the information.
"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 Freedom of the Press Foundation, a plaintiff in the case along with news outlet The Intercept.
Trump Media said selling fast access to traders is common in its industry, and that the plaintiffs are just trying to silence the president.
“Information from President Trump is disseminated by countless platforms and news outlets, many of which offer subscription APIs," it said in a statement, using the acronym for the fast access service. "Now, left wing activists are trying to wrongfully weaponize the courts to censor him again and harm our shareholders.”
The early access service comes as the publicly traded Trump Media loses hundreds of millions of dollars each quarter and its stock has dropped below $10 from $62 shortly after going public two years ago.
The plaintiffs argue that Trump's deal giving exclusive Truth Social access to his posts for six hours before being distributed elsewhere 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 suit asks that Trump Media be forced to end both the new paid service, called Truth API, and its exclusive access deal with his company in general.
Even before the new API service was started earlier this month, ethics watchdogs criticized Trump's posting on Truth Social as a brash attempt to profit off the presidency in keeping with other money making ventures tarnishing the office, especially ones related to cryptocurrencies. Earlier this year, the president filed a required annual financial disclosure report that showed he took in more than a $1 billion last year from new crypto businesses that his administration regulates.
Among other moves since he was reelected, Trump's digital finance company, World Liberty Financial, got a $500 million investment from a company tied to the government of the United Arab Emirates and sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of special souvenir Trump meme coins to his fans and possible federal favor seekers, included a billionaire fighting a federal law suit that was later paused, then settled.
In addition to the president, the lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York names his deputy chief of staff Daniel Scavino and his executive assistant Natalie J. Harp as defendants.
AIPROPX is an independent multi-source news index — we track, compare, and connect coverage from across the web into one place you won't find anywhere else.