White House teleprompter operator placed on leave after allegedly making $100K betting on Trump speeches

Jul 16, 2026

White House teleprompter operator Gabriel Perez has been placed on unpaid administrative leave after allegedly using inside knowledge of President Donald Trump's speeches to win over $100,000 on the prediction market Kalshi. Kalshi's surveillance team flagged the suspicious trades on its "Mentions" market and froze $90,000 of Perez's profits. While federal prosecutors declined to bring criminal charges, Perez is in settlement talks with the CFTC to return his profits.

Gabriel Perez betting allegations

▪Gabriel Perez allegedly placed bets on more than a dozen of Donald Trump's speeches over a three-month period, including the State of the Union address, a December primetime address, a January World Economic Forum speech, and a March Medal of Honor ceremony.
▪Gabriel Perez would occasionally withdraw or back out of bets mid-speech when Donald Trump skipped over portions of his prepared remarks that contained the wagered words.
▪Gabriel Perez, a technical assistant and teleprompter operator for President Donald Trump, allegedly used inside knowledge of the president's speeches to win more than $100,000 on the prediction market Kalshi.

Kalshi prediction market surveillance

▪Kalshi froze approximately $90,000 in profits in Gabriel Perez's account before the funds could be withdrawn and banned Gabriel Perez from betting on the platform.
▪Kalshi's surveillance team detected unusual betting activity on its "Mentions" market, where users bet on whether specific words or phrases are uttered during public speeches, and flagged the trades to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

White House ethics response

▪The White House issued an internal memo in March 2026 warning staff against using nonpublic government information to place bets on prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket.
▪White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on July 16, 2026, that Gabriel Perez has been placed on unpaid administrative leave, and President Donald Trump described the situation as a "disgrace."

CFTC investigation findings

▪The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating Gabriel Perez's trading activity, though the agency declined to publicly confirm or deny the probe.
▪Federal prosecutors in Manhattan declined to open a criminal investigation into Gabriel Perez after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission alerted them to the matter.

Settlement talks with regulators

▪The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is in settlement talks with Gabriel Perez, discussing terms that would require him to return his profits and refrain from making similar trades.
▪Gabriel Perez sat for an interview with regulators in recent months and acknowledged some of the prediction market trades.

Prediction market insider trading cases

▪Former Republican Congressman George Santos has been under investigation for allegedly manipulating a Kalshi market by claiming he would attend Donald Trump's 2026 State of the Union address and then cashing out on a "no" trade when he skipped it.
▪The Department of Justice recently brought its first prediction market insider trading cases against a U.S. Army special forces soldier who bet on the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and a Google employee who bet on search trends.