Journalists Have Filed A Lawsuit Against Trump Over His Posts
- 13.08.2026, 14:13
The U.S. president has been accused of discriminating against citizens.
Two American media organizations—The Intercept and the Freedom of the Press Foundation—have filed a lawsuit against U.S. President Donald Trump over the social media platform Truth Social’s decision to sell access to his posts before they are published, according to nv.ua.
The plaintiffs argue that this violates the public’s and journalists’ right to equal access to official information and allows Trump to personally profit from presidential communications.
On August 1, 2026, Trump’s company launched the paid Truth API; access costs $100,000 per month or $60,000 with a three-year subscription. This channel provides subscribers with access to messages from the president and other high-ranking U.S. administration officials before they become available to the general public.
In effect, Trump is attempting to monetize access to his statements through a company he owns.
The U.S. president’s account, @realDonaldTrump, has about 12.9 million followers, making it the largest on the platform. Trump uses it to announce official government decisions regarding military operations, appointments and dismissals of agency heads, the imposition of tariffs, and other domestic and foreign policy measures.
For this reason, the plaintiffs consider this scheme to be corrupt and unconstitutional.
The lawsuit contains four main allegations:
- Government officials may not derive financial benefit from the performance of their official duties;
- selling access to a public page violates the principle of equality;
- obtaining publicly significant government information is effectively contingent on funding the president’s private business;
- the scheme discriminates against journalists and citizens based on their ability to pay.
The plaintiffs are asking the court to declare this practice unlawful and to prohibit Trump and his administration from publishing official government information exclusively on Truth Social as long as the platform’s paid priority access system remains in effect.
According to the contract with the company, Trump is required to post his content on Truth Social first and not repost it on other platforms for at least six hours, the lawsuit states.