The staff member allegedly made over $100,000 on Kalshi.
Gabriel Perez, President Donald Trump’s teleprompter operator, has been placed on administrative leave after it was discovered he bet on dozens of the President’s speeches on Kalshi, ABC News reports. Officials from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the body that currently oversees betting platforms like Kalshi, are reportedly willing to settle with Perez if he returns his winnings.
Perez allegedly made more than $100,000 betting on the length of President Trump’s speeches, including the State of the Union address, a speech at the World Economic Forum in January and remarks at a Medal of Honor ceremony in March. “Perez typically has the final eyes on nearly all of the president’s prepared remarks,” ABC News writes, which likely made it easier to place informed bets. If that wasn’t enough of a giveaway, Perez reportedly backed out of certain bets when Trump went off script.
Kalshi “promptly flagged and referred” those trades to the CFTC, according to a statement provided to ABC News, and Perez has reportedly already confessed to some of the trades in an interview with investigators. At a press conference, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the President is aware of the Perez’s actions and called them “deeply unfortunate” and a “disgrace.” Leavitt added that Perez had been put on unpaid administrative leave and that he will “no longer be here.”
In April 2026, Kalshi introduced new policies to prevent politicians and athletes from betting on their own elections or games. The company later suspended three political candidates from its platform for breaking those same policies. Kalshi introduced further restrictions in June, requiring users to disclose where they work before placing certain bets.
Attempts to tamp down insider trading might not have done much to discourage anyone, and states trying to regulate prediction markets have been blocked. After New Jersey banned Kalshi, a US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the state had no right to ban the platform, putting power firmly in the CFTC’s hands.
