Chicago – August 29, 2026
A former White House teleprompter operator has been ordered to pay more than $172,000 after using advance access to President Donald Trumpâs speeches to place bets on what he would say.
Gabriel Perez, who operated the teleprompter for the White House, made trades on the prediction-market platform Kalshi between December 2025 and February 2026, wagering on specific words and phrases Trump was expected to use in public remarks. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which regulates such contracts, said Perez âmisappropriatedâ material, nonpublic information obtained through his government job, breaching his duty of trust and confidence.
Under a settlement announced on Friday, Perez must surrender $107,539.02 in profits from the trades and pay an additional $65,000 civil monetary penalty. The CFTC noted the penalty was reduced in light of his âexemplary cooperationâ with investigators. He has also been barred from trading on prediction markets for three years.
Perez was placed on unpaid leave from his White House role after officials discovered the betting activity, which included wagers tied to major addresses such as the State of the Union and a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
