Trump sued over "brazen" scheme to sell Truth Social API access for $100K a month
“Trump is trying to enrich himself by privatizing government information that he has no right to sell,” said Ben Muessig, The Intercept’s editor-in-chief. “We won’t let it stand.”
Trump frequently posts official government announcements exclusively on Truth Social, including military attacks and ceasefires, the hiring and firing of agency heads, and major domestic policies, the lawsuit said.
“Trump’s crooked scheme is particularly outrageous because, as documented by our Trump Anti-Press Social Media Tracker, he frequently uses his Truth Social account to berate journalists and even to announce his plans to sue them and criminally investigate them,” Stern said. “Then, he makes them wait in line behind paying customers to find out about it unless they’re willing to subsidize the platform he uses to attack them. This brazen grift targets not only the markets but the First Amendment.”
Truth Social seeks more customers
Besides Trump, defendants include Executive Assistant to the President Natalie Harp and Deputy Chief of Staff Daniel Scavino. Both Harp and Scavino have access to Trump’s Truth Social account and publish posts on his behalf, the lawsuit said. The other named defendants are the Executive Office of the President and the White House Office.
Trump Media & Technology Group, the owner of Truth Social, reported $1.7 million in revenue and a net loss of $238.1 million in the second quarter. The net loss included $190.4 million in “non-cash losses including unrealized losses on digital assets, digital assets pledged, and equity securities,” the company said.
Trump Media expects that Truth API will help generate more cash. Interim CEO Kevin McGurn said in an earnings call that the firm signed up over 10 customers, mostly high-frequency trading firms that are paying $60,000 to $100,000 a month.
McGurn said Truth Social is in conversations to sign up cloud computing companies, large news organizations, and developers of large language models. The company plans to eventually offer the Truth API to retail investors, he said.
Reporting from Ars Technica contributed to this story.
