Teleprompter to Profits: Trump Speech Operator in Talks With CFTC Over $100K Kalshi Run 🎤

Gabriel Perez, the technical assistant who has operated President Donald Trump's teleprompter since 2016, is in talks with federal regulators to settle allegations that he used nonpublic information to profit from prediction-market bets tied to Trump's speeches, according to an ABC News report Thursday citing sources familiar with the matter. The report said Perez placed bets on more than a dozen Kalshi markets and generated more than $100,000 in profits. Kalshi flagged the activity through its surveillance systems and referred the trades to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The contracts were part of Kalshi's "Mentions" markets, which let users wager on whether specific words, phrases or topics will appear in public speeches. According to ABC's sources, Perez sometimes exited positions mid-speech when Trump skipped prepared passages containing words he had bet would be mentioned. Regulators identified bets linked to more than a dozen speeches over roughly three months, including the State of the Union and remarks at the World Economic Forum.

The White House placed Perez on unpaid administrative leave after the report, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, adding that Trump called the alleged conduct a "disgrace."

The case adds to a series of insider-trading concerns drawing scrutiny to prediction markets. In March, six Polymarket traders earned roughly $1 million after correctly betting the United States would strike Iran before the end of February, a trade Bloomberg, citing analytics firm Bubblemaps, said was placed only hours before explosions were first reported in Tehran. Separately, wallets earned more than $1.2 million betting on an onchain investigation into DeFi platform Axiom shortly before blockchain investigator ZachXBT published allegations of insider trading involving an employee, while another trader made about $400,000 by correctly wagering on the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro shortly before the news became public.

Lawmakers have begun responding. Last month, Republican Representative Bryan Steil, who chairs the House subcommittee on digital assets, introduced legislation that would prohibit members of Congress and their immediate families from trading prediction-market contracts tied to public policy and political outcomes.

Kalshi and the CFTC did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the status of settlement talks with Perez.