Trump Media's 50-Millisecond Feed Advantage Likely Unlawful, Law Professor Says

Trump Media is selling early access to President Trump's Truth Social posts for up to $100,000 a month, offering subscribers a roughly 50-millisecond head start before posts appear publicly. In a Reason interview, Harvard Law professor Jack Goldsmith and former SEC general counsel John Coates discussed whether the arrangement is lawful. Coates said the setup lets Trump profit indirectly through his 41% stake in the company, even though his shares are held in a revocable trust managed by his son.

Coates acknowledged that paying for low-latency access to public information is common—arbitrageurs pay millions to co-locate servers near exchanges or news sources. But he argued that those sellers own the information they distribute. Trump's presidential announcements, by contrast, belong to the public, not to Trump Media or Trump personally. When Trump posts about matters of state, he is acting in a public role, and selling a timing advantage on that information amounts to letting traders profit ahead of the public on information that belongs to the public.

The interview did not produce a definitive legal ruling, and Coates noted a nuance: posts that are purely personal rants might be treated differently. But his central conclusion is that the early-access feed is likely unlawful because it monetizes public information on a differential basis. Goldsmith and Coates agreed on the facts of the arrangement, with Coates providing the legal analysis.