Trump teleprompter operator faces insider trading probe

• Gabriel Perez, President Donald Trump’s teleprompter operator since 2016, will no longer work at the White House after allegedly netting close to $100,000 betting on the president’s own remarks.
• Kalshi froze more than $90,000 of the profits and referred the trades to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which is now investigating.
• Federal prosecutors declined to pursue criminal charges; regulators are instead discussing a civil settlement requiring Perez to forfeit his profits.

A veteran White House aide will no longer work at the White House after federal regulators opened a probe into whether he used advance knowledge of President Donald Trump’s speeches to trade on the prediction market Kalshi.

Gabriel Perez, who has operated Trump’s teleprompter since 2016, is cooperating with a Commodity Futures Trading Commission investigation into the alleged scheme.

Kalshi sounds alarm

Kalshi identified the suspicious activity through its customer onboarding data and market surveillance systems, after the trades broke from typical buying and selling patterns on its “Mentions” markets, where users bet on whether specific words or phrases will be said during a public event.

Market makers also flagged irregularities through the platform’s whistleblower channels, and Kalshi’s internal investigation included an interview with Perez himself, according to Reuters.

Robert DeNault, head of enforcement at Kalshi, said:

“Our surveillance team promptly flagged and referred these trades to the CFTC after an exchange investigation.”

Perez is alleged to have made close to $100,000 in profits. Kalshi says it froze more than $90,000 of that amount before it could be withdrawn, and Perez has since been banned from betting on the platform.

White House fallout

Perez, a technical assistant with access to draft remarks and last-minute revisions, was placed on unpaid leave once the case became public.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt later confirmed he will no longer work at the White House, and said the president was aware of the matter and considers it “unfortunate” and a “disgrace.”

Karoline Leavitt said:

“The White House has extremely strict ethical guidelines with respect to issues like this.”

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan reviewed the case but declined to pursue criminal charges, according to ABC News. Regulators are instead said to be discussing a civil settlement that would require Perez to forfeit his profits and accept restrictions on future trading.

According to sources familiar with the matter, the wagers covered more than a dozen speeches between December and March, including the February State of the Union address and a January appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Perez’s position gave him early sight of prepared remarks, letting him anticipate likely phrasing even when Trump departed from the script.

Wider regulatory reckoning

The case is the first known instance of a White House staffer facing scrutiny for allegedly exploiting inside access on a prediction market, though it follows other 2026 cases, including a special forces soldier charged over bets tied to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Congress has moved in parallel: the Senate passed a resolution in April barring senators from trading on event contracts.

Kalshi had already announced in June, ahead of this case becoming public, that it would require employment disclosures from users trading on sensitive contracts and launch a dedicated whistleblower portal, a move that echoes how rival Polymarket tightened its own rules earlier this year.

As prediction markets expand further into politically sensitive territory, the case is likely to add pressure on platforms to tighten how they police access to nonpublic information.