Gabriel Perez, the White House teleprompter operator, has been placed on unpaid administrative leave after reports that he made more than $100,000 betting on Donald Trump’s speeches. The White House said Trump made the decision himself after the allegations surfaced, while Perez is now in talks with federal regulators over the case.
Gabriel Perez and Kalshi
Federal investigators with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission found that Perez is believed to have made tens of thousands of dollars by placing bets on more than a dozen of Trump’s speeches on Kalshi. Those trades were tied to a three-month period and included a December primetime address, a January speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and Trump’s remarks in March during a Medal of Honor ceremony.
Kalshi’s head of enforcement, Bobby DeNault, said, “Our surveillance team promptly flagged and referred these trades to the CFTC, and we are cooperating and assisting regulators.” The company said its surveillance team spotted suspicious activity on its Mentions market, which lets users bet on whether specific words, phrases or topics are uttered during a public speech.
White House and ABC News
Karoline Leavitt said she spoke with President Trump about the matter and that he thought it was a “disgrace.” She also said she was unaware of any other White House staffers who had made similar trades. Davis Ingle said, “The White House has strict ethics guidelines that we expect all staffers and officials to follow.”
ABC News reported the allegations before the White House action, and Leavitt said Trump decided to put Perez on unpaid leave. Perez has operated Trump’s teleprompter since 2016 and typically has the final eyes on nearly all of the president’s prepared remarks, often taking last-minute edits from Trump himself.
Remarks in January
The betting pattern drew attention because Trump often does not stick to prepared text. In remarks in January to the Detroit Economic Club, he said, “you take a big chance, especially me because I go off teleprompter about 80% of the time.” Investigators also found that Perez would back out of some bets mid-speech when Trump skipped a word he had expected to hear.
The case now moves into the settlement talks Perez is having with federal regulators. The unresolved issue is how many of his bets succeeded and what penalty, if any, the regulators will impose.
