A White House teleprompter operator who’s worked with President Donald Trump since 2016 is under federal investigation for allegedly making tens of thousands of dollars betting on the contents of Trump’s speeches — and the president just called it “a disgrace.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Thursday that Trump had been personally briefed on the matter.
“He believes it’s deeply unfortunate and, frankly, a disgrace.”
The staffer — identified by sources as Gabriel Perez — allegedly placed bets through the prediction market platform Kalshi on specific words and phrases expected to appear in Trump’s public remarks. Federal investigators with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are now looking into whether Perez used his insider access to make winning bets on presidential speeches.
Leavitt said the employee has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the investigation. A different teleprompter operator handled Trump’s speech Thursday evening.
ABC News first broke the story after Kalshi’s surveillance systems flagged unusual trades in March. The trades stood out because they didn’t follow typical betting patterns — and drew complaints from other users through the platform’s whistleblower channels.
After reviewing account information, Kalshi identified the trader as a federal employee working as a White House teleprompter operator.
Kalshi froze the account before the trader could withdraw most of the alleged profits, leaving more than $90,000 on the platform while referring the matter to federal regulators.
“Our surveillance team promptly flagged and referred these trades to the CFTC after an exchange investigation.”
Robert DeNault, Kalshi’s head of enforcement, told Fox News the company has been assisting regulators and provided evidence collected during their internal review.
White House spokesman Davis Ingle said the administration has “strict ethics guidelines that we expect all staffers and officials to follow.” He confirmed the staffer in question is fully cooperating with the CFTC investigation.
Kalshi said the markets involved common words and topics expected to appear in presidential speeches — including country names, economic terms, campaign language, and social issues — rather than classified or sensitive information. The company has worked with the CFTC for months as the investigation continues.
A CFTC spokesperson declined to confirm or deny an investigation when reached by Fox News.
