The New York Times’s weekend exclusive story should have provoked outrage. Trump Media & Technology Group is launching a paid service that will enable institutional traders and financial firms to receive President Donald Trump’s Truth Social posts in “milliseconds” — giving them a speed advantage to profit off market-moving announcements before the general public. It ought to be a tipping point scandal. But America’s system of checks and balances is in trouble. South Africans know about such things. Former president Jacob Zuma provided its constitutional order with a stellar test. While the negative consequences are still playing painfully out – as the Madlanga commission has exposed in relation to criminal justice agencies ― in the end Zuma lost and the constitution prevailed. The Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (Casac) litigated more than a dozen constitutional challenges to Zuma’s conduct ― mainly in defence of the integrity of a number of constitutional institutions ― and won almost all of them.I used to begin the slide deck for my constitutional law lectures at UCT with a big photo of Zuma suggesting that constitutional law owes him a debt of gratitude for providing it with an opportunity to pass a litmus test. In various ways, Zuma was held to account. The question for Americans is whether the US constitution can contain Trump. The signs are not good. There are plenty of lessons for the US to heed from South Africa’s state capture era. Here, the rule of law held primarily because the integrity of the courts remained intact. But Trump used his first term to make three appointments that shifted the US Supreme Court from a 5–4 conservative majority to a 6–3 conservative majority. Hence, public activism will be critical. Alongside the constitutional litigation, there was Save South Africa and numerous other campaigns, which helped to steel the nerves of those within the ANC with the fortitude to stand up to Zuma and ultimately take him down. The “No Kings” movement in the US may be the equivalent, but there is zero indication that the GOP is remotely inclined to pull Trump into line. Hence the need for that big tipping point moment, which in Zuma’s case came in the form of the “Weekend Special” with the attempt on December 9 2015 to appoint a Gupta brother stooge as minister of finance. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back. By Sunday night, Des van Rooyen was gone, to be replaced by the late great Pravin Gordhan, who then led the fightback against Zuma.So, what will be the Trump tipping point? Selling advance access to market-moving news straight from the horse’s mouth is brazen stuff. It makes Zuma look like a complete amateur. Some credible sources estimate that Trump and his family may have made as much as $2bn in 2025 alone from exploiting his position in the White House. Democrat members of congress have called for an investigation by the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) into insider trading. From my own direct experience of the SEC, as an expert witness in the case where it brought charges against Hitachi for breaches of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act when its South African subsidiary made payments to the notorious ANC front, Chancellor House, to win energy construction contracts at the Medupi and Kusile power stations, it is a fine example of the kind of well-resourced and staffed institutions that are vital to US democratic wellbeing. As yet, the SEC has not moved against Trump. Has it also been captured? As with the Zuma years, one can only sympathise with the honest public officials who continue to serve despite the corruption swirling around them. This includes the diplomats who work for political appointee ambassadors, such as the Maga-esque US ambassador to South Africa – a man who has the temerity to criticise South Africa’s own government and offer unsolicited advice on its democratic credentials when Americans are themselves imperilled. As the great Norwegian centre forward Erling Haaland would say, “stay humble, bru”. Calland is emeritus associate professor in public law at UCT, a member of the Casac and author of the play, The Brothers, Number One and a Weekend Special. Business Day