President Donald Trump speaks during an event at the General Motors Proving Ground on Monday, July 27, 2026, in Milford, Michigan. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya).
A media organization and a press freedom group are suing President Donald Trump, alleging that his plan to charge $100,000 a month for premium access to Truth Social posts runs afoul of the U.S. Constitution.
The Intercept and the Freedom of the Press Foundation made the allegations in a 30-page complaint filed Wednesday, naming Trump, the White House and several senior aides as defendants in what they describe as a First Amendment violation.
At the center of the lawsuit is the claim that the paid-access arrangement involves official government information and therefore cannot legally proceed as a private business offering.
“President Donald Trump is charging $100,000 per month for advance access to his official government announcements on Truth Social, the social media platform he owns,” the complaint states at the outset. “This scheme is extraordinary, corrupt, and unconstitutional, and Plaintiffs bring this case to stop it.”
The filing also traces the origins of Truth Social, Trump’s social media platform launched in 2021 after he was barred from Twitter — a ban that has since been lifted after the platform became X. The complaint notes that Trump remains the largest shareholder in Truth Social’s parent company.
According to the lawsuit, Trump and the other defendants have used Truth Social as a primary channel for official presidential communications, including posts announcing military strikes and ceasefires, personnel decisions involving agency leaders, and significant domestic policy moves.
In July, Trump Media & Technology Group, Truth Social’s parent company, unveiled what the lawsuit characterizes as “an astounding scheme.”
The CEO of Trump Media announced that starting Aug. 1, Truth Social would roll out Truth API, allowing well-heeled users to get early access to “market-moving” messages from the president and other officials on the platform. At the same time, the CEO announced the company would try to stop users from “systematically gathering” or “scraping” posts from the platform, according to the lawsuit.
“The scheme is now live, and paying customers are already gaining advance access to official government announcements,” the lawsuit notes.
To hear the plaintiffs tell it, Truth API cannot be allowed to go on.
“This scheme is profoundly corrupt,” the lawsuit continues. “The President stands to gain financially by giving ‘market-moving’ government information to those who are willing and able to pay his personal company.”
Allegations of corruption, however, at least in such vague terms, are not necessarily actionable. The causes of action in the lawsuit, therefore, hinge on alleged constitutional violations.
“This scheme is also unconstitutional,” the complaint goes on. “The First Amendment guarantees equal access to the President’s public announcements…There is no legitimate interest, let alone a significant one, in permitting President Trump to profit from selling government information.”
The First Amendment argument dovetails with another argument in the complaint — sourced from an obscure 1888 Supreme Court case.
“The Constitution guarantees that public officials ‘can themselves have no pecuniary interest or proprietorship, as against the public at large, in the fruits of their [official] labors,” the lawsuit continues. “The President is profiting by selling government information. That is illegal.”
“There is no legitimate, let alone significant, governmental interest in giving preferential access to government information to those who pay the President’s private company. This is particularly true because President Trump retains a direct financial interest in Truth Social,” the complaint continues.
A separate First Amendment argument advanced by the plaintiffs relies on Trump’s comments as president remaining objects of public interest that must be preserved and made accessible.
“A public official’s social media posts—which users can like, share, reply to, and comment on—constitute designated public fora where there is state action, and the official has made their posts generally available,” the lawsuit continues.
The plaintiffs then expand this argument by putting forward a series of what might be called negative rights — or rights not to engage. This is effectively, an iteration of the compelled speech doctrine.
Generally, under First Amendment jurisprudence, the government cannot force a person to speak or engage in a certain kind of expression.
From the lawsuit:
The First Amendment protects Americans’ rights not to subsidize Truth Social’s message and to choose not to associate with Truth Social by making an account. As the Supreme Court has explained, “[The state] violates . . . free speech rights” when it compels individuals to “subsidize private speech on matters of substantial public concern.”
Plaintiffs have First Amendment rights not to associate with Truth Social or subsidize its expressive activity.
The lawsuit also alleges a violation of the Fifth Amendment, arguing that Trump’s plan creates tiers of access to government information based on the amount of money one is willing or able to spend.
“Because Defendants’ actions subject Plaintiffs to differential treatment from others similarly situated without a rational connection to any legitimate government interest, they violate the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment,” the lawsuit continues.
The plaintiffs, who are represented by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), are asking a court to issue an injunction to put a stop to Truth API.
The post ‘That is illegal’: Trump selling early access to ‘market-moving’ Truth Social posts is unconstitutional and ‘profoundly corrupt,’ lawsuit says first appeared on Law & Crime.
