Officials probe whether White House teleprompter operator profited off Trump's words

Summary

Then-candidate Trump speaking in front of a teleprompter during a campaign rally in Reno, Nevada in 2024. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption Federal regulators are in settlement talks with President Trump's longtime teleprompter operator, who is alleged to have made nearly $100,000 on the prediction market site Kalshi, according to two people with knowledge of the probe who were not authorized to speak publicly. He is suspected of profiting off of his access to the president's prepared remarks on a type of betting on Kalshi known as "mention markets," where people wager on words and expressions the president will or will not say during public events. Prediction markets allow people to bet on elections, global policy or even what color tie the president will wear. The markets have exploded in growth in recent months, leading to several instances of high-profile insider trading. But this marks the first time someone inside the White House has been investigated for allegedly abusing that access for prediction market profits. Gabriel Perez, who has worked for the president since 2016, is now negotiating with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over his alleged lucrative betting activity on the "mention markets." Ahead of Trump's address to the nation later on Thursday, Kalshi traders have already wagered more than $800,000 on whether the president will say words like "Hormuz," or "rigged election," or "fake news." In the case of Perez, Kalshi's surveillance systems detected unusual betting on "mention" markets involving the president that did not follow typical behavior, and when the company examined the accounts behind it, investigators saw that he was a federal employee, according to a source with direct knowledge of the inquiry. Records show that as a deputy assistant to the president, Perez was paid $175,000 a year. Trump would sometimes make references to him during appearances, like he did during a 2024 campaign stop in Reno , Nevada in 2024. Some traders who consider "mention" markets something of a full time job have installed TV antennas to get a tiny fraction-of-a-second advantage during live events.