DOJ defends Trump charging $100K for early access to Truth Social posts
A Justice Department lawyer defended Truth Social's $100,000-per-month API fee for faster access to Trump's posts by invoking Theodore Roosevelt's fireside chats and JFK's television mastery, prompting Judge Paul Oetken to point out that Roosevelt, notably, did not charge for his radio addresses. The Intercept and the Freedom of the Press Foundation sued in August, arguing the scheme forces media outlets to pay for a speed advantage or risk getting scooped on market-moving presidential announcements.
DOJ attorney Brantley Mayers argued the pricing was a 'completely private commercial decision' by Truth Social, not Trump personally, since the company itself isn't named as a defendant. The Intercept's attorney called the arrangement 'clearly corrupt,' estimating it could net the president roughly $1.2 million per year per subscriber while creating what Oetken himself called 'two classes of people' with unequal access to official statements.
Oetken did not rule from the bench and will issue a written decision, leaving unresolved whether a sitting president can sell paid early access to his own public announcements through a company he owns.
The full dispatch is available from the source below.