White House Sidelines Teleprompter Operator Over $100,000 Trump Speech Bets

3 articles · Updated · abcnews.com · Jul 16

Gabriel Perez was placed on unpaid leave after federal investigators found he allegedly used advance access to Trump’s prepared remarks to profit more than $100,000 on Kalshi prediction markets.
More than a dozen speeches over three months drew scrutiny, including the State of the Union, Davos remarks and a Medal of Honor ceremony; investigators said Perez sometimes changed bets mid-speech when Trump skipped scripted lines.
Kalshi flagged the trading and referred it to the CFTC, which is discussing a settlement that would force Perez to surrender profits and stop similar trades; Manhattan prosecutors declined to open a criminal case.
March brought an internal White House memo warning staff not to use nonpublic information for prediction-market bets, underscoring the ethics risk around a staffer who had final access to many of Trump’s speeches.
The case lands as U.S. authorities pursue some of the first insider-trading actions tied to prediction markets, a fast-growing sector Trump has said he supports despite misgivings.