Truth Social's $100,000-a-Month Fast Lane Draws Federal Lawsuit
The service sells traders access to presidential policy posts milliseconds before the public. The company calls that an industry standard; plaintiffs call it unconstitutional.
NEW YORK—A federal lawsuit filed Wednesday is challenging Truth Social’s new premium service, which gives paying customers access to President Donald Trump’s policy-related posts milliseconds before the wider public sees the same information.
Truth API charges Wall Street firms between $60,000 and $100,000 a month for faster delivery of posts that can move markets, including presidential announcements involving tariffs, war and other matters of U.S. policy. Paying customers receive the same posts sooner. What they buy is the opportunity to react before the rest of the country.
The Intercept and the Freedom of the Press Foundation filed the case in the Southern District of New York. Their complaint alleges that selling priority access to official presidential communications violates First Amendment guarantees of equal access and Fifth Amendment limits on imposing unreasonable conditions for government benefits. The court has not ruled on those claims.
Trump Media & Technology Group said commercial platforms routinely license real-time public data through subscription APIs. It also said the plaintiffs were attempting to censor the president and harm company shareholders. In the company’s telling, the product is neither a private briefing room nor a government benefit. It is simply the familiar American practice of placing a velvet rope in front of something described as public.
The dispute arrives as Trump Media refocuses on its social-media business after reporting a $238 million second-quarter loss, much of it tied to unrealized declines in its cryptocurrency holdings. Company executives said Truth API had already signed ten customers, a group that could generate roughly $7 million to $12 million a year at current prices—roughly two to three times the company’s total revenue last year.
For now, the legal question is whether an official statement remains equally public when one group can purchase a head start. In the old model, presidential posts moved the market. Under the new model, the market gets a running start.
Sources: Associated Press: Lawsuit challenges paid early access to presidential postsAssociated Press: Trump Media reports quarterly loss and refocuses on Truth API
