Gabriel Perez, President Trump's longtime teleprompter operator, has been placed on unpaid administrative leave after federal investigators found he allegedly used advance knowledge of the president's prepared remarks to place winning bets on the prediction market Kalshi, netting more than $100,000.
How the Scheme Allegedly Worked
Perez, a technical adviser to the president who has operated Trump's teleprompter since 2016, is accused of placing bets on Kalshi's "Mentions" markets — a product that lets users wager on specific phrases or words a public figure will say in an upcoming speech. Because Perez had direct advance access to the text of Trump's prepared remarks through his teleprompter role, investigators say he was uniquely positioned to place highly accurate bets on what the president would say, across more than a dozen speeches. Speeches reportedly involved in the bets included February's State of the Union address, a December primetime address, a January speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and remarks at a March Medal of Honor ceremony.
How It Was Caught
According to Kalshi, the company's surveillance team detected unusual trading patterns on the mentions markets tied to Perez's account as early as March, after which the platform froze more than $90,000 of his profits before any withdrawal could be made. Kalshi's head of enforcement, Robert Denault, said in a statement that the company's "surveillance team promptly flagged, investigated and referred these trades" to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the federal agency with regulatory authority over prediction markets. Kalshi has said it requires users to disclose their place of employment and explicitly prohibits betting based on nonpublic information — the exact conduct Perez is accused of.
The White House's Response
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Perez's unpaid leave at a briefing Thursday, saying she had personally spoken with Trump about the situation. "I spoke with him about it. He believes it's deeply unfortunate and frankly a disgrace," Leavitt told reporters. She emphasized that the White House maintains strict ethical guidelines that explicitly prohibit this kind of conduct: "There are very strict ethical guidelines here at the White House that explicitly state not to do this." Leavitt confirmed Perez is cooperating with the CFTC but has been removed from his duties, telling reporters, "There will be a teleprompter operator tonight of course, but it will not be the one unfortunately in that story." When pressed on whether other staffers with access to nonpublic information might be engaged in similar conduct, Leavitt said she was unaware of any others but did not rule it out.
A Warning That Came Months Before the Suspension
The episode wasn't entirely without prior warning from within the administration. According to CBS News, the White House Management Office had sent a letter to White House aides back on March 24 — around the same time Kalshi's surveillance systems first flagged Perez's account — explicitly instructing staff not to place bets on prediction markets using nonpublic information. That the guidance predates the public revelation of Perez's alleged conduct suggests White House officials may have had some awareness of potential issues with insider trading on prediction markets well before Thursday's disclosure.
Why It Matters
The case highlights a growing regulatory concern as prediction markets like Kalshi have exploded in popularity, allowing users to bet real money on everything from election outcomes to the specific wording of a politician's speech. Because these platforms operate similarly to financial derivatives markets — falling under CFTC oversight — allegations of trading on nonpublic, privileged information carry echoes of traditional insider-trading enforcement, even though the "security" in question here is simply what a public figure is expected to say. The case adds to a broader wave of scrutiny facing prediction markets, following other recent incidents that have drawn regulatory and public attention to how easily insider access can be exploited on these platforms.
What's Next
With Perez reportedly in talks to settle the allegations with the CFTC and roughly $90,000 of his winnings still frozen by Kalshi, the case is likely to become a notable test of how aggressively regulators pursue insider-information cases on prediction markets. It remains unclear whether Perez will face additional consequences beyond his unpaid leave, or whether the White House will conduct a broader review of staff access to information that could be exploited on similar platforms.