The Intercept Sues President Trump for Selling Premium Access to Truth Social Announcements

The Intercept and the Freedom of the Press Foundation sued President Donald Trump and his staff, challenging a Trump-owned media company’s plan to monetize the president’s social media posts. The lawsuit is in response to a scheme announced in July by the parent company of Trump’s Truth Social platform to charge as much as $100,000 per month for early access to the president’s posts. By offering preferred access to presidential missives, the monetization plan, dubbed “Truth API,” would violate the First Amendment rights of journalists and other members of the public to equal access to official information, the lawsuit argues, while allowing President Trump to trade his public statements for cold hard cash. The complaint filed in the Southern District of New York also asserts that the monetization scheme, which it described as an “out-and-out plan of extortion,” would violate the Fifth Amendment by charging “unreasonable sums” for equal access to government information and by undermining the right to equal protection under the law.