White House teleprompter operator Gabriel Perez bet on the contents of Trump's speeches, profiting more than $90,000

On July 16, 2026, the White House placed Gabriel Perez, President Trump's longtime teleprompter operator, on unpaid administrative leave amid a federal investigation into his trading on the prediction-market platform Kalshi. Perez, whose official title is deputy assistant to the president and technical adviser, has worked with Trump since 2016 and is among the handful of aides trusted with the president's remarks -- often the last person to see a speech before it is delivered. According to reporting by ABC News, CNN, CBS News and NPR, he made more than $90,000 betting on Kalshi "mention markets," where users wager on which words and phrases the president will use during public events.

Kalshi's surveillance systems detected trades that did not follow typical patterns and, on examining the accounts behind them, found they belonged to a federal employee. The exchange froze roughly $90,000 in profits, banned Perez from the platform, and referred the matter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the agency that regulates prediction markets. Robert DeNault, Kalshi's head of enforcement, said the surveillance team "promptly flagged and referred these trades to the CFTC." Using nonpublic information to trade on the platform is prohibited by Kalshi's rules and can carry criminal exposure. In a March 2026 memo, the White House had warned staff that "the misuse of nonpublic information by government employees for financial benefit is a very serious offense and will not be tolerated."

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump considered the reports "deeply unfortunate and frankly a disgrace," and that another operator would run the teleprompter for the president's address to the nation that evening. The CFTC said it could not confirm or deny an investigation. Perez, who did not respond to reporters' requests for comment, is cooperating with the CFTC and is in settlement talks over the trades, according to people familiar with the matter cited by CBS News and NPR.

Updates

2026-07-28 — Perez no longer works in the federal government [5]

A White House official confirmed on July 28, 2026 that Gabriel Perez "no longer works in the federal government," but would not say whether he resigned or was terminated.