White House teleprompter operator exits government after $100K Kalshi speech-prediction scandal

A White House teleprompter operator accused of using inside knowledge to profit from prediction-market bets on President Donald Trump's speeches is no longer employed by the federal government, the Associated Press reported Tuesday. A White House official confirmed that Gabriel Perez, who had been placed on unpaid leave earlier this month, no longer works for the government, but declined to specify whether he resigned or was fired.

Perez was accused of leveraging nonpublic information to earn more than $100,000 trading on Kalshi prediction markets linked to Trump's speeches, according to an earlier ABC News report. Kalshi's surveillance team identified the suspicious trading activity and referred the matter to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the regulator that oversees the federally designated contract markets where event contracts are listed.

Kalshi's user agreement prohibits trading based on information obtained through a user's employment, a rule designed to keep event contracts free from insider-style advantages. The referral to the CFTC marks a notable test of the agency's jurisdiction over prediction markets, an industry that has expanded rapidly beyond traditional crypto and finance circles into politics, sports and current events.

The Perez case emerged as prediction-market platforms, including Kalshi and Polymarket, have drawn increased regulatory attention from US authorities and state lawmakers. A related legal development came when a US judge temporarily blocked a Minnesota law seeking to restrict prediction-market activity within the state, underscoring the unsettled legal landscape surrounding the sector.

Prediction markets, where users buy and sell contracts priced between $0.01 and $1.00 that resolve based on real-world outcomes, have grown into a multibillion-dollar category that increasingly intersects with crypto-native trading infrastructure. The Perez incident highlights how employment-based access to information can collide with platforms built for public event speculation, even when no traditional securities are involved.