American Oversight and Campaign for Accountability Challenge “Truth API,” Which Lets Paying Subscribers See Official Government Announcements Before the Public

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 17, 2026

PRESS CONTACT:
press@americanoversight.org
mclauw@campaignforaccountability.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, American Oversight and Campaign for Accountability filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against President Donald Trump and several administration officials, over a scheme that gives paying subscribers early access to official government announcements posted on Truth Social — for a fee of up to $100,000 a month. In an arrangement that critics have called “textbook pay to play” corruption, payments go to Trump Media & Technology Group, the company that owns Truth Social and in which President Trump’s revocable trust is the largest shareholder. American Oversight is serving as co-counsel alongside attorneys from the Washington, DC-based law firm Gerstein Harrow LLP.

Read the Suit.

“The President is selling Wall Street faster access to official government announcements and lining his own pockets in the process,” said Chioma Chukwu, Executive Director of American Oversight. “Like so much of his agenda, this scheme is built to benefit the wealthy and well-connected while the rest of us are pushed to the back of the line. Firms willing to pay up to $100,000 a month can get a head start so they can take advantage of potentially market-moving statements, while watchdogs, journalists, and the public are denied the timely information they need to understand what the government is doing. Official government announcements should be released to everyone at the same time, not sold to those who can afford to buy an advantage.”

“If President Trump has one talent it is finding new and creative ways to monetize his presidency,” said Michelle Kuppersmith, Executive Director of Campaign for Accountability. “In another era, Congress would be outraged and take immediate action, but since that’s out of the question, a lawsuit offers the only possible remedy. We look forward to discovery so the American public can learn exactly which companies are willing to pay up.”

“President Trump and members of his administration are exploiting their offices to benefit a private company owned by the President, his family members, and allies.” said Samuel Davis, attorney at Gerstein Harrow, LLP. “This brazen scheme is illegal many times over and is an affront to the basic principle that the government exists to serve the people, not to enrich cronies and insiders.”

Since returning to office, President Trump and members of his administration, including officials from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Transportation (DOT), and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), have routinely used Truth Social to announce major government decisions — often exclusively, without disseminating the same information anywhere else.

On Jan. 3, 2026, President Trump announced via Truth Social post that the U.S. had carried out a strike in Venezuela and captured then-President Nicolás Maduro. When asked for comment, the White House directed reporters back to the post itself. When President Trump announced the U.S.’s opposition to a plan ceding control of Diego Garcia to Mauritius the same way in February, then-Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the Truth Social post “should be taken as the policy of the Trump administration,” because it came “straight from the horse’s mouth.” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., DOT Secretary Sean Duffy, and FBI Director Kash Patel have each used their own Truth Social accounts — all identified on their agencies’ official websites as government accounts — to announce policy changes, agency actions, and other official government information.

President Trump’s revocable trust — controlled by his son, Donald Trump Jr. — owns roughly 41 percent of Trump Media, a stake worth more than $1 billion. Other administration officials have their own financial ties to the company: Director Patel and Education Secretary Linda McMahon each received more than 25,000 Trump Media shares while their nominations were pending before the Senate, and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino collected millions of dollars in consulting fees and a $4 million promissory note from Trump Media before rejoining the administration.

Trump Media launched the Truth API on Aug. 1, 2026, selling real-time, priority access to posts from Truth Social’s ten most-followed accounts — including those of President Trump, Scavino, the White House Office, Secretary Kennedy, Secretary Duffy, and Director Patel — for $100,000 a month, or $60,000 a month for subscribers who sign three-year contracts. “Markets already move on Truth Social posts,” Trump Media’s interim CEO, Kevin McGurn, said in announcing the product, which he described as a licensed feed of “the platform’s most market-moving Truths” delivered to subscribers before the same posts are visible to the public.

According to the complaint, Trump Media’s CEO has also said the company intends to “create a lot of friction for those folks that aren’t coming to us directly.” By late August, Trump Media had signed up more than a dozen subscribers, including financial news organizations and trading firms — enough, based on the company’s own disclosures, to secure more revenue in a single month than the company earned from all sources in the first quarter of 2026 combined.

American Oversight and Campaign for Accountability say they are unwilling or unable to pay Trump Media’s subscription fee for financial, legal, and ethical reasons, and as a result now receive delayed access to official government information relative to paying subscribers — undermining their ability to track and report on the administration’s actions in real time.

The complaint argues that the arrangement violates the First Amendment’s protection of the public’s right to receive government information and to access designated public fora; the Fifth Amendment’s guarantees of equal protection and due process; and the Paperwork Reduction Act, which requires agencies to make public information available “on a timely basis, on equitable terms.” It also argues that by routing official government announcements through a paywall, defendants have unconstitutionally delegated control over the public’s access to that information to a private company with a direct financial stake in restricting it.

Truth API is also the subject of a separate legal challenge. In August, The Intercept and the Freedom of the Press Foundation, represented by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The lawsuit brought by American Oversight and Campaign for Accountability asks the court to declare the Truth API arrangement unconstitutional and unlawful, and to bar defendants from posting official government information first or exclusively through Truth Social accounts covered by Truth API.

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About American Oversight

American Oversight is a non-partisan, 501(c)(3) nonprofit ethics watchdog that uses public records requests backed by litigation to expose official misconduct, threats to democracy, and abuses of power at all levels of government. Documents obtained by American Oversight have supported investigative work by journalists, congressional committees, and independent watchdogs, and have been featured in hundreds of news reports across the country. Follow us at @weareoversight and learn more at americanoversight.org.

About Campaign for Accountability

Campaign for Accountability works on behalf of the public interest to expose corruption, negligence, and unethical behavior wherever it may occur. We investigate the actions of powerful interests at every level of society, ranging from the largest corporations to the smallest county governments. Our current priorities include federal accountability, state oversight, corporate responsibility, consumer protection, and reproductive rights. Follow us and learn more at campaignforaccountability.org.