White House Teleprompter Operator Suspended as CFTC Probes Kalshi Betting on Trump Speeches

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is investigating Gabriel Perez, President Donald Trump’s longtime teleprompter operator, for allegedly using nonpublic knowledge of Trump’s speeches to place winning bets on the prediction market platform Kalshi. Kalshi’s surveillance team flagged the trades on its “Mentions” market, where users bet on specific words or phrases a public figure will utter, and referred the matter to the regulator, according to sources familiar with the probe.

Investigation Details

Perez is accused of making trades tied to more than a dozen Trump speeches over a three-month period, including the February State of the Union address, a January speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and remarks during a Medal of Honor ceremony in March. Sources told ABC News that Perez’s profits exceeded $100,000, while other outlets reported the amount as more than $90,000; Kalshi froze the majority of the funds after identifying suspicious activity. “Our surveillance team promptly flagged and referred these trades to the CFTC, and we are cooperating and assisting regulators,” Kalshi’s head of enforcement, Robert DeNault, said in a statement quoted by multiple outlets.

Perez has cooperated with the investigation, including sitting for an interview with regulators, according to sources. The CFTC alerted federal prosecutors in Manhattan, who declined to pursue criminal charges. Settlement discussions are ongoing, with terms expected to require Perez to forfeit his profits and refrain from similar trades.

White House Response

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Perez has been placed on unpaid administrative leave, a decision she said Trump made himself, calling the alleged conduct “a disgrace.” Leavitt told reporters the individual will not be handling the teleprompter for Trump’s Thursday night address. A White House spokesperson, Davis Ingle, stated that “the White House has strict ethics guidelines” and that the staffer is fully cooperating with the CFTC.

Perez, whose official title is deputy assistant to the president and technical advisor, has operated Trump’s teleprompters since the 2016 campaign and is among the highest-paid White House staff, with a reported 2026 salary of $175,000. His role gives him near-final access to Trump’s prepared remarks, which the president frequently edits at the last moment.

Broader Regulatory Context

In March, the White House issued an internal memo warning staff against using nonpublic information to bet on prediction markets, calling it “a very serious offense.” CFTC Chair Mike Selig, a Trump appointee, has pledged to crack down on insider trading in these markets, which have seen explosive growth this year. The Perez case marks the first known instance of a White House employee being investigated for insider trading on a prediction platform.

Kalshi has since updated its policies to require users to disclose their place of employment. The probe follows two recent high-profile prediction-market insider-trading cases: a U.S. Army special forces master sergeant charged in connection with bets on a mission to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, and a Google employee accused of using internal search data for Polymarket contracts. Both have pleaded not guilty.