TMTG lands in legal trouble

US President Donald Trump’s media firm TMTG is facing a legal challenge from press groups in the country, over a new Truth Social service that gives paying customers early access to his posts. The lawsuit seeks to stop Trump from using the platform to release official government information exclusively, while allowing investors to pay for earlier access to his posts.The Intercept Media and the Freedom of the Press Foundation, on Wednesday, filed a lawsuit in federal court, challenging Trump Media & Technology Group’s Truth API service. They are also seeking to prevent him from using Truth Social, which is operated by TMTG, to publish official information exclusively on the platform.Earlier this month, TMTG, which Trump owns through a trust, launched Truth API as a paid service for investors seeking privileged access to his social media posts.The lawsuit describes the service as “profoundly corrupt” and unconstitutional and names Trump and two senior advisers as defendants.“The President stands to gain financially by giving ‘market-moving’ government information to those who are willing and able to pay his personal company,” the court papers filed in Manhattan district court said.TMTG has said that Truth API will provide customers with Trump’s posts “milliseconds” before the same posts become available to the public.The company had promoted the service to trading firms and other Wall Street businesses for fees of up to $100,000 a month.

Trump posts, markets react

Trump’s social media posts have regularly covered issues with the potential to affect financial markets, including developments in the war in Iran and decisions over which countries could face tariffs.Such posts have frequently triggered significant moves in commodities, equity indices and individual company shares.The Intercept and FPF said they regularly cover Trump’s social media activity but have been left facing “delayed access” to announcements, according to FT. They also said they faced “permanent bars to the president’s archived posts, making it harder for both organisations to do their jobs”.

TMTG defends paid access service

A TMTG spokesperson said, “Information from President Trump is disseminated by countless platforms and news outlets, many of which offer subscription APIs.”The spokesperson added that, “leftwing activists are trying to wrongfully weaponise the courts to censor him again and harm our shareholders”.TMTG interim chief executive Kevin McGurn told the FT last week that around 10 groups had already signed up for Truth API, paying between $60,000 and $100,000 a month.The company is also working on “an expansion” of Truth API aimed at retail investors, McGurn said. TMTG is in “active conversations with hyperscalers, some of the largest news organisations and developers of large language models”.The legal challenge comes as TMTG continues to expand the paid service around access to Trump’s posts. Meanwhile, TMTG shares fell more than 6% on Wednesday. The company reported a $238mn loss in the second quarter of this year.