San Francisco’s city attorney is urging a state court to block Trump’s social media platform Truth Social from offering customers who pay $100,000 per month priority access to the president’s and other high-level officials’ posts before they’re available to other users.
Trump Media & Technology Group is aiding and abetting Trump’s violations of federal ethics and anti-corruption law and violating other federal laws that protect against insider trading, city attorney David Chiu said in the lawsuit filed in San Francisco Superior Court
The lawsuit comes on the heels of a similar one filed in federal court last week where two nonprofits challenged the constitutionality of the paid service called “Truth API.”
Providing early access to subscribers of “announcements of consequential government decisions that can move financial markets” would create “a financial gain for Trump Media,” as well as for President Donald Trump, who owns 41% of Trump Media through a revocable trust in which he is the sole beneficiary, the lawsuit said.
Trump Media’s “creation and operation of a commercial mechanism that monetizes preferential access to information derived from Trump’s government service while that information remains unavailable to the general public violates the public trust and California’s Unfair Competition Law, which prohibits unlawful and unfair business practices,” according to the lawsuit.
Trump Media didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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The city is seeking an order enjoining paid access to Trump’s post and $2,500 in civil penalties for each behind-a-subscription post that allegedly violates California’s Unfair Competition Law.
The key theory of the complaint is that Trump’s posts are tantamount to insider trading and unfair business practices. The state’s law should apply to Trump due to the market-moving power of announcements from a president who exercises broad authority over trade sanctions and cash infusions into companies, they argue.
The complaint points to a May 2025 post breaking the news of the US Steel and Nippon Steel merger which sent the American company’s stock soaring 22.5%. It also cites Trump’s January 2026 post in which he released monthly employment numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics 12 hours before their official release to the public.
“Truth API disadvantages regular investors, including individuals who hold investments via pension funds, 401(k) plans, and other retirement funds, whose investment vehicles do not and/or cannot obtain Truth API’s early-access information,” the complaint said.
On Monday a group of former prosecutors and federal agents filed an amicus brief in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York arguing the paid subscription could violate federal securities laws, the Trade Secrets Act, and could constitute illegal outside compensation for federal employment.
“There is no legitimate, let alone significant, government interest in allowing public officials to profit personally by selling early access to official government announcements,” they said.
Platkin LLP, Washington Litigation Group, and Democracy Defenders Fund represent the city alongside the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office.
The case is California v. Trump Media & Tech Grp., Cal. Super. Ct., complaint filed 9/22/26.