White House teleprompter operator Gabriel Perez is under investigation for allegedly using his insider access to President Donald Trump’s prepared speeches to place bets on a prediction market platform.
Perez is believed to have used Kalshi to wager on whether specific words or phrases would appear in the president’s public remarks. As the teleprompter operator, he already knew which words would appear in Trump’s speeches and used this access to game the system.
Kalshi is a prediction market platform that allows users to bet on outcomes of real-world events such as elections, economic data trends, weather, and others.
Perez has operated Trump’s teleprompters since the 2016 campaign and served as a technical assistant to the president. He allegedly bet on more than a dozen speeches over a three-month period. These included his December primetime address, his January speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the February State of the Union address, and March remarks during a Medal of Honor ceremony, according to ABC News.
Trump’s teleprompter operator since 2016, Gabriel Perez, is under investigation for using inside knowledge of President Trump’s speeches to bet on Kalshi. He raked in over $100K.
— Gina Milan (@ginamilan_) July 16, 2026
How dumb can one person be? What an absolute stab in the back to Trump and everyone else in the… pic.twitter.com/xshmlljJ1X
Perez reportedly made over $90,000 before Kalshi froze his account. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt discussed the matter during a Thursday press briefing. She confirmed Perez had been placed on unpaid administrative leave and said Trump viewed the situation as a “disgrace.”
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“He believes it's deeply unfortunate and, frankly, a disgrace,” she said. “And the individual that was cited in that report is complying with the CFTC but has been put on paid administrative leave.”
LEAVITT: "It's a disgrace."
— NATIVE_AMERICAN_BITCH_FROM_THA_SLAPAHOE_TRIBE 𖧶🪓 (@TRUMPGIRL_STL) July 16, 2026
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the teleprompter operator named in a report alleging he profited from reading President Trump's speeches has been placed on paid administrative leave.
"The President... believes it's deeply… pic.twitter.com/wQScuTvj9F
The authorities say Perez sometimes adjusted or withdrew bets mid-speech when Trump went off script and skipped expected sections. Kalshi’s surveillance team flagged the activity as suspicious because it did not match the usual trading patterns. It quickly linked his account to a federal employee. The platform does not allow trading on nonpublic information obtained through employment.
Federal regulators began handling the case after Kalshi referred the trades. Perez sat for an interview with investigators and is in settlement talks. The government has not yet pressed criminal charges and Manhattan federal prosecutors declined to open a criminal investigation.
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