In a republic built on the premise that power must not be sold, a federal lawsuit now asks whether a president's words can be legally packaged as a premium financial product. Fifty-three former federal prosecutors have entered the fray, arguing that Trump Media's $100,000 Truth Social API — granting Wall Street early access to presidential posts before the public sees them — crosses from commerce into corruption. The case, filed in Manhattan's Southern District, touches something ancient in democratic theory: the idea that information wielded by the state belongs, in some fundamental sense, to