Gabriel Perez, a longtime teleprompter operator for President Donald Trump, is currently in talks with federal regulators to settle allegations that he used inside knowledge of presidential speeches to win more than $100,000 on the prediction market Kalshi. Federal investigators with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission discovered that Perez placed bets on more than a dozen of the president’s speeches, and he has now been placed on unpaid administrative leave as a result, ABC News reported.
Perez has served as a technical assistant to the president and has operated the teleprompter for Trump since the 2016 campaign. This role provides him with final eyes on nearly all of the president’s prepared remarks, and he is frequently involved in processing last-minute edits from the president himself. Because of this position, he holds unique access to the content of speeches before they are delivered.
The investigation began after Kalshi alerted the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to suspicious activity on its Mentions market. This specific market allows users to bet on whether particular words, phrases, or topics will be uttered during a public speech. Bobby DeNault, who serves as the head of enforcement for Kalshi, stated, “Our surveillance team promptly flagged and referred these trades to the CFTC, and we are cooperating and assisting regulators.”
Kalshi’s politics-related bets have been a hotbed of controversies
According to sources familiar with the matter, investigators found that Perez placed bets on a wide range of addresses over a three-month period. This included the State of the Union address in February, a primetime address in December, a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January, and a Medal of Honor ceremony in March. Investigators also identified instances where Perez would back out of bets mid-speech if the president skipped over a portion of the text that included a word he had previously bet would be mentioned.
President Trump is known for often deviating from his prepared remarks. During remarks to the Detroit Economic Club in January, which investigators believe was one of the speeches involved in the trades, the president noted, “You know, when you go up here, you take a big chance, especially me because I go off teleprompter about 80% of the time.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the decision to place Perez on unpaid leave was made by the president himself, who reportedly viewed the situation as a “disgrace.” A White House spokesperson, Davis Ingle, emphasized that the administration maintains strict ethics guidelines for all staffers. The White House had previously issued an internal memo in March that warned staff against using nonpublic information to place bets on prediction markets.
While the Commodity Futures Trading Commission alerted federal prosecutors in Manhattan at some point during the investigation, those prosecutors declined to open a criminal investigation. Regulators are currently discussing settlement terms with Perez that would require him to return his profits and agree to refrain from making similar trades in the future.
Kalshi has a policy prohibiting users from placing bets based on information obtained through their employment, and the company recently updated its rules to require users to disclose their place of work.
Published: Jul 16, 2026 04:00 pm