Donald Trump's longtime teleprompter operator has been placed on unpaid leave after allegedly using advance access to the president's speeches to win more than $100,000 (£73,988) on a political betting platform.
The six‑figure haul has prompted a federal investigation and raised questions over whether a Trump staffer turned insider knowledge of the president's words into private profit.
Gabriel Perez, who has operated Trump's teleprompter since 2016, is accused of betting on whether specific words and phrases would appear in some of the president's most closely watched public addresses.
Regulators and the White House are examining whether a staffer with direct access to Trump's prepared scripts improperly used that position to place bets.
Trump Teleprompter Operator Faces Betting Allegations
Investigators at the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) are examining whether Perez exploited non‑public information through trades on 'Mentions' markets run by prediction platform Kalshi.
Those markets let users bet on whether particular terms, from economic buzzwords to country names, will be spoken during scheduled speeches or live addresses, according to coverage of Kalshi's products and the Perez case.
Reporting on the investigation says Kalshi's internal surveillance systems flagged trading patterns linked to more than a dozen Trump speeches over roughly three months, including the State of the Union and other prime‑time events.
Those reports say Perez is believed to have profited by nearly $100,000 (£73,988) before most of the funds were frozen, with Kalshi referring the case to the CFTC and cooperating with regulators.
The White House has confirmed that Perez has been placed on unpaid administrative leave while the civil investigation continues, and officials have said staff are barred from using non‑public information for personal financial gain.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump viewed the alleged conduct as 'deeply unfortunate and frankly a disgrace' and said Perez's unpaid leave was a decision by the president.
Perez, who has operated Trump's teleprompter across Trump's campaigns and time in office, is reported to have been in discussions with regulators about a possible settlement that could see him repay his alleged profits and agree not to place similar bets in future.
Sources familiar with the probe have said that federal prosecutors in Manhattan were briefed but declined to open a criminal investigation, and that CFTC regulators have instead been pursuing a negotiated civil resolution.
Kalshi 'Mentions' Markets Under Scrutiny
Kalshi has promoted its Trump‑related 'Mentions' markets as a way for traders to speculate on the exact wording of speeches, with contracts paying out if phrases such as 'trillion', 'border' or 'Bitcoin' are used at least once.
Reporting on the case says investigators believe Perez sometimes adjusted his positions mid‑speech when Trump skipped or improvised around parts of the prepared text that contained words he had backed.
An Instagram post shared by political account purpleroom_politics said Perez was under CFTC investigation for using his view of Trump's teleprompter scripts to move in and out of positions on Kalshi's speech markets.
The post added that he was negotiating a civil settlement that would require him to forfeit his alleged winnings, while setting out broader questions around staffers using privileged access to the president's words in this way.
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External coverage of Kalshi's products has detailed how markets tracking Trump's major addresses can attract significant trading volume as users guess which themes or phrases will feature.
Reporting on those markets has noted that odds build up on potential keywords such as 'America 250', 'border', 'Israel' or 'fake news', underlining how closely Trump's rhetoric is monitored by political bettors.
Ethics Concerns Over Trump Speech Bets
The allegations have focused attention on federal ethics rules that prohibit government employees from using confidential or non‑public information obtained through their jobs for personal financial gain, even when that information is not classified.
Perez's situation is believed to be the first known instance of officials investigating suspected insider trading on a prediction market from inside the White House, after he allegedly used advance knowledge of a president's public remarks.
In March, according to reporting on the case, the White House issued an internal memo warning staff not to use non‑public government information to place bets on platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket, with the document stating it could be a criminal offence for officials to buy or sell contracts on those sites using information from their roles, even though Perez's case is currently being handled as a civil matter.
Perez's role has drawn particular scrutiny because teleprompter operators work at the final stage of speech preparation and delivery, and he had already faced questions from congressional and federal investigators over past alterations to Trump's remarks around the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol before the current betting case emerged.
