Challenging President Trump’s Corrupt Truth Social Pay-For-Early-Access Scheme

President Donald Trump has developed yet another mechanism to attempt to profit off the presidency. The social media platform that the president owns, Truth Social, announced it would offer subscribers who pay a $100,000 premium early access to official presidential announcements, giving select individuals access to government information before the general public, and creating opportunities for financial gain tied to the president’s official actions.

This scheme creates an obvious risk of corruption and undermines the anti-corruption principles embedded in the Constitution, federal ethics laws and long-standing standards of public service.    

The Intercept, a nonprofit media outlet, sued over this scheme, arguing it is a direct violation of the First Amendment. The plaintiffs argue that journalists and the public have long had equal, simultaneous access to presidential statements, and that selling early access to some subscribers while everyone else is left in the dark violates their constitutional rights.

Campaign Legal Center and Singleton Schreiber filed a brief in support of blocking President Trump's Truth Social scheme on behalf of 53 former federal prosecutors and federal agents who served in the Justice Department across 11 presidential administrations, Republican and Democratic alike.  

The brief details how the arrangement gives wealthy, high-frequency traders who pay for the subscription a head start on presidential announcements on topics ranging from tariffs to military decisions to public health matters, while the public and press are kept waiting. The brief also argues that the Truth Social scheme is potentially criminal, has no legitimate government purpose and raises serious concerns about preferential access to presidential communications.