Ruben Gallego Backs Bill Banning Paid Access to Federal Officials' Social Media Posts

Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) is backing a bill that would prohibit social media companies from selling prioritized access to government employees' accounts.

The Context

President Donald Trump's Truth Social posts are closely watched by financial traders, and trades can be executed within seconds of his posts going live.

The Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) launched Truth API at the beginning of August, which charges these traders $100,000 a month to get access to the posts of the highest-ranking Truth Social accounts within "milliseconds," allowing trades to be conducted even faster, since the automated systems of financial traders can still be subject to "blink and you'll miss it" effects, figuratively speaking.

Such a system has raised concerns that this is effectively a form of insider trading, and Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) has introduced the No Preferential Release of Federal Information for Transactions (NO PROFIT) Act, banning this practice, with Sen. Gallego's backing.

What Lawmakers are Saying

"While American families struggle to afford groceries, healthcare, and gas, Donald Trump is selling early access to his social media posts for a profit. That's not a subscription service; it's corruption in broad daylight," said Sen. Gallego in a statement. "This bill will stomp out this form of corruption now and forever."

Similarly, Sen. Warner, who introduced the bill, said, "The president's company selling prioritized access to the president's market-moving posts is corrupt and erodes public confidence."

"Americans should have free and equal access to public statements made by U.S. government officials," Sen. Warner continued. "My bill would make sure social media companies can't sell prioritized access to government employees' accounts and that someone can't knowingly trade with information obtained through access to those accounts. Early access to government information should not be sold to whoever will pay the price."

Similar Legislation

In March, Representative Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) introduced the Banning Event Trading on Sensitive Operations and Federal Functions (BETS OFF) Act, which similarly prohibits anyone who feasibly controls, and likely knows, the outcome of world events like wars and government actions from placing a bet on it on prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket.