Ex-White House teleprompter operator ordered to pay $172,000 over Trump speech bets
US regulators have ordered former White House teleprompter operator Gabriel Perez to pay more than $172,000 for using insider knowledge to bet on President Trump's speeches. Perez placed the trades on prediction platform Kalshi between December 2025 and February 2026.
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has ordered Gabriel Perez, a former White House teleprompter operator, to pay more than $172,000 after he used privileged knowledge of President Donald Trump's speeches to place bets on a prediction markets platform.
According to the regulator, Perez traded on Kalshi between December 2025 and February 2026, drawing on advance knowledge of what Trump would say gained through his role operating the teleprompters the president reads from during addresses.
The CFTC said Perez had misused his position, breaching a duty of trust and confidence by exploiting information available to him only because of his job. He has been ordered to surrender profits of $107,539.02 and pay a separate civil penalty of $65,000. That penalty was reduced in recognition of what the regulator called his exemplary cooperation with investigators. Perez has also been barred from trading for three years.
The White House has not yet issued a comment on the settlement. In July, then-press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Perez had been placed on unpaid leave and would not return to his position.
Kalshi's lead lawyer, Bobby DeNault, welcomed the outcome in a post on X, stating that anyone who violates the platform's rules or federal law will face consequences regardless of who they are.
The company had earlier told the BBC that its analysts flagged unusual activity in March on so-called mention markets, where users bet on whether a speaker will use particular words, such as the names of countries or campaign slogans. Using account data, Kalshi traced the activity to a federal employee who operated White House teleprompters and reported the matter to regulators.
Kalshi noted that remarks by political figures, including presidents and central bank chairs, can move billions of dollars in currency, oil and stock markets. That same month, the White House Management Office sent a letter instructing staff not to place bets on prediction markets.
