San Francisco is suing Trump Media & Technology Group over who gets a head start on the president's posts.
The lawsuit, filed today in California state court, targets the company's Truth API feed, a paid product that gives subscribers early access to Trump's posts on Truth Social before the public sees them. San Francisco alleges the arrangement is a "corrupt business scheme" that violates the state's Unfair Competition Law. The complaint also argues it runs afoul of federal ethics and anti-corruption laws barring insider trading, statutes built to stop people from profiting off information the public doesn't have yet.
The case turns on a pointed question: can a sitting president's own company legally charge for early access to what he's about to say publicly? San Francisco's complaint says no, framing the API feed less as a subscription perk and more as a paid pipeline into information other citizens don't yet have.
The White House, meanwhile, is sticking to the marketing line. Spokesperson Davis Ingle called Truth Social the "most powerful and popular social media platform in the world," a claim that doesn't hold up against any credible traffic data.