Folks, I almost spilled my coffee reading this one. A federal lawsuit has been filed against President Donald Trump, claiming that his expensive subscription for instant access to his Truth Social posts is unconstitutional. I mean, who wouldn’t want to pay top dollar to read Trump’s tweets a few milliseconds before the rest of us? The Intercept and the Freedom of the Press Foundation are jointly suing Trump and his White House social media team for restricting their access to the president’s posts on Truth Social, citing violations of their First and Fifth Amendment rights.
The plaintiffs argue that Trump’s posts are essentially official statements, and that by selling preferential access to them, he’s violating their right to access public information. And let’s be real, Trump does use his platform to announce some pretty big deals – policy decisions, executive orders, personnel changes, and even war declarations. It’s like he’s trying to make Twitter great again or something.
Now, Trump Media, the company behind Truth Social, has started selling direct access to its application programming interface (API) for a hefty fee – we’re talking between $60,000 and $100,000 a month. And apparently, some high-frequency trading companies are willing to pay that kind of cash for the privilege of reading Trump’s posts a few seconds before the rest of us. Bless their hearts.
But here’s the thing: the government can’t just limit access to public information without a legitimate reason, according to Katie Fallow, deputy litigation director at the Knight First Amendment Institute. And Nikhel Sus, chief counsel for Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington, argues that even a delay of milliseconds is a First Amendment violation. I mean, I’ve seen some creative interpretations of the Constitution in my time, but this one takes the cake.
The lawsuit also raises some interesting questions about the Presidential Records Act, which states that the president’s official statements are owned by the United States, not by Trump or his company. So, is Trump essentially selling access to something he doesn’t own? You can’t make this stuff up, folks.
Somewhere in Atlanta, a producer thought this sounded terrifying, and now we’ve got a lawsuit on our hands. The courts will have to figure out whether this special access is really a big deal, or if it’s just a fancy way for Trump to make some extra cash. And let’s not forget, this is the same Trump who’s been known to tweet some, shall we say, “interesting” things in the past.
The Freedom of the Press Foundation and The Intercept are arguing that this preferential access could restrict their ability to scrape all of Trump’s posts and determine which ones are anti-media arguments. Because, you know, that’s a thing now – scraping Trump’s tweets to see if he’s being mean to the media. And they’re also arguing that this could violate the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fifth Amendment. It’s like they’re trying to throw the whole Constitution at Trump and see what sticks.
In the end, this lawsuit is going to be a wild ride, folks. It’s got everything: Trump, Twitter, high-frequency trading, and the Constitution. What more could you ask for? And who knows, maybe we’ll even get some answers about what exactly Trump is trying to accomplish with his Truth Social platform. But until then, I’ll just be over here, sipping my coffee and enjoying the show. After all, as the great philosopher once said, “The president’s official statements are not the private data of a company but are owned by the United States under the Presidential Records Act.” Yeah, good luck with that, Trump.
Armchair patriot. Believes in the free market, cold beer, and that there’s always a guy named George behind every CNN segment.
Former remote-throwing champion turned #1 couch commentator on liberal panic in the media. Born in Texas (or so his mug says), he earned a degree in Fake Newsology & Beer Philosophy from YouTube University.
