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President Donald Trump is facing a new federal lawsuit over a premium Truth Social service that can deliver his posts to paying subscribers fractions of a second before they reach the broader public, with two media organizations arguing that the arrangement unlawfully gives wealthy customers preferential access to potentially market-moving presidential announcements.

The Intercept Media and the nonprofit Freedom of the Press Foundation filed the lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, challenging the Truth API service on First and Fifth Amendment grounds, according to 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,” the lawsuit states.

The plaintiffs contend that allowing subscribers to obtain Trump’s statements more quickly is particularly problematic because the president frequently uses Truth Social to announce policies and other government actions that can immediately affect financial markets.

“This scheme is extraordinary, corrupt, and unconstitutional, and Plaintiffs bring this case to stop it,” the suit continues. “There is no legitimate interest, let alone a significant one, in permitting President Trump to profit from selling government information.”

Trump Media, the parent company of Truth Social, introduced Truth API in July. The service offers subscribers machine-readable feeds of posts from Trump and other prominent accounts on the platform, with subscriptions reportedly reaching $100,000 per month.

Trump remains Trump Media’s largest shareholder through the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust.

At the center of the lawsuit is Trump’s extensive use of Truth Social as a vehicle for communicating presidential decisions and administration developments. The plaintiffs argue that because some of those announcements can influence financial markets, even a tiny advantage in receiving them could potentially have significant value to trading firms and other sophisticated subscribers.

According to the complaint, Trump has published between 9,000 and 11,000 Truth Social posts since returning to the White House in January 2025.

“Often his posts have no immediate corresponding announcement from the White House,” the suit states. “In other words, President Trump’s posts are the only way to get official government news.”

The lawsuit says Truth API currently provides accelerated access to posts from 10 of Truth Social’s most prominent accounts. In addition to Trump, those accounts reportedly include 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 F. Kennedy Jr.

Trump Media, however, maintains that the service does not provide customers with private or unreleased information. Instead, the company says subscribers are receiving posts that have already been publicly published, with the API allowing computers to obtain and process them more quickly.

Trump Media CEO Kevin McGurn stressed that distinction during an earnings call Monday.

Truth API “provides machine-readable feeds of publicly available Truth posts from the platform’s top accounts in milliseconds,” McGurn said, according to CNBC.

“Our customers will get published and publicly available posts fractionally faster,” he said.

McGurn also disclosed that more than 10 customers have already signed up for the service, paying substantial monthly fees.

The customers are paying “generally in the range of $60,000-$100,000 a month,” McGurn said.

He added that Trump Media is also holding discussions with hyperscalers, major news organizations and developers of large-language models about potential use of the service.

The lawsuit names several additional defendants beyond Trump. They include his executive assistant Natalie Harp and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, both of whom have posted to Trump’s Truth Social account on his behalf.

The Executive Office of the President and the White House Office are also named as defendants as the plaintiffs seek to block what they contend is an unconstitutional system of preferential access to presidential communications.

{Matzav.com}

The Trump administration is preparing to spend at least $900 million on a sweeping series of construction, renovation and security projects throughout the White House complex, with officials arguing that much of the work is essential to modernize and protect the executive mansion.

According to The Washington Post, which reviewed contracting and planning documents, the combined price tag for the projects could reach at least $927 million, substantially more than had previously been publicly disclosed.

Among the projects are President Donald Trump’s planned ballroom at the site of the East Wing, improvements to Lafayette Square, a new helipad, and construction of a visitor screening facility.

Rather than requesting a single congressional appropriation covering the entire modernization program, the administration has drawn funding from a combination of private contributions and transfers from other federal government accounts.

Publicly available budget documents indicate that $875 million has been directed to the White House Repair and Restoration account since Trump returned to office.

Of that amount, $500 million was transferred from the Secret Service and White House Military Office, according to the Post, while another $305 million came from private donors. Records reviewed by the newspaper indicated that an additional $70 million was transferred into the account from a source that was not identified.

White House spokesman Davis Ingle defended the extensive work, describing the projects as long-needed improvements to the executive mansion and its surrounding grounds.

“President Trump continues to implement long-overdue and necessary renovations to beautify the People’s House as we celebrate our great Nation’s 250th anniversary of independence,” Ingle said in a statement to the Post.

“Thanks to the Builder-in-Chief, the White House will be properly glorified and remain in excellent condition for generations to come.”

The newly disclosed spending comes as the administration remains locked in a court fight over Trump’s proposed 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom, one of the most prominent elements of the broader construction effort.

A divided federal appeals court ruled Friday that construction of the above-ground portions of the ballroom cannot move forward without authorization from Congress. The 2-1 decision, however, permits certain underground security-related construction to continue.

Trump has said he will take the dispute to the Supreme Court, arguing that the appeals court ruling could jeopardize national security.

The president has stressed that the project encompasses considerably more than the ballroom itself, saying the work includes bomb shelters, medical facilities, missile-resistant construction, defenses against drones and other security improvements designed to protect the White House complex.

Trump has also repeatedly maintained that taxpayers will not bear the cost of constructing the ballroom itself, saying that portion of the project is being financed through private contributions.

According to the White House, $400 million in private donations will finance the ballroom, while federal funds are being directed toward the security infrastructure connected with the larger construction and modernization effort.

The appeals court delayed implementation of its ruling for two weeks, providing the Trump administration with an opportunity to ask the Supreme Court to intervene and allow the project to proceed.

{Matzav.com}