Trump Sued Over $100,000 Plan to Sell Advance Access to Truth Social Posts

President Donald Trump was sued on August 12, 2026, by a media organization and a non-profit group seeking to block a controversial new service that sells advance notifications of his posts on Truth Social, according to court documents filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan and reported by CNBC.

The lawsuit argues that the Truth API service breaches the U.S. Constitution’s First and Fifth Amendments by charging exorbitant fees to give subscribers preferential access to the leader’s public statements. The complaint was filed jointly by The Intercept Media and the Freedom of the Press Association. According to the text of the lawsuit cited by CNBC, 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.

Details of the Truth API Monetization Scheme

Trump Media, the parent company of Truth Social, announced in July 2026 that it would offer early access to market-moving posts from top accounts on the platform for fees ranging from $60,000 to $100,000 per month, according to disclosures made during a quarterly earnings conference call and cited by CNBC. Donald Trump serves as the largest shareholder in Trump Media through the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust.

During the quarterly earnings call on August 10, 2026, Trump Media CEO Kevin McGurn stated that the API provides machine-readable feeds of publicly available Truth posts from top accounts in milliseconds. Our customers will get published and publicly available posts fractionally faster, McGurn said, as reported by CNBC. McGurn added that the company had already signed more than 10 customer agreements for Truth API and was actively discussing the service with hyperscalers, large news organizations, and developers of large language models.

Court documents indicate that the API currently provides expedited access to content from the ten most followed profiles on Truth Social. Along with the commander-in-chief’s profile, those data streams comprise profiles for the White House, Vice President JD Vance, FBI Director Kash Patel, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy.

Legal Arguments and Constitutional Claims

The lawsuit argues that the monetization scheme is unconstitutional because it allows a sitting president to profit from official government announcements. According to the complaint, This scheme is extraordinary, corrupt, and unconstitutional, and Plaintiffs bring this case to stop it. The filing notes that since resuming office in January 2025, Trump has published between 9,000 and 11,000 posts on Truth Social, often without any immediate corresponding announcement from the White House, making his social media account the primary source for official government news.

Ben Muessig, editor-in-chief of The Intercept, stated in reporting published by the outlet that Trump is trying to enrich himself by privatizing government information that he has no right to sell. Nikhel Sus, chief counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which provided legal support for the lawsuit, added that Every American is entitled to equal access to the president’s public statements. Individuals who pay $100,000 to the president’s personal company do not have any greater entitlement to those public statements.

Defendants Named in the Federal Complaint

In addition to President Trump, the lawsuit names several administration officials and executive entities as defendants. These include Natalie Harp, the president’s executive assistant; Daniel Scavino, White House Deputy Chief of Staff; the Executive Office of the President; and the White House Office. Representatives for the defendants and Trump Media did not immediately respond to requests for comment following the filing, according to The Intercept.