White House teleprompter operator accused of betting on Trump speeches
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The White House on Thursday condemned the Trump administration teleprompter operator accused of betting on President Donald Trump’s speeches as a “disgrace,” saying he had been placed on paid administrative leave as part of a federal investigation.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Donald Trump had been briefed on the matter and condemned the staff’s alleged behavior at Thursday’s White House press conference.
“Obviously, I’m aware of the report. So is the president. I talked to him about it,” Leavitt said. “He believes this is extremely unfortunate and frankly a disgrace.”
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President Trump reads from a teleprompter as he delivers remarks in the White House Rose Garden in Washington, D.C., on June 1, 2020. (Bill O’Leary/Washington Post via Getty Images)
Leavitt said the employee had been placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation and confirmed that a different teleprompter operator would conduct Trump’s speech Thursday evening.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Thursday, July 16, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
ABC News First, it was reported that federal investigators at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission had found a White House staffer identified by sources as Gabriel Perez, Trump’s teleprompter operator since 2016, who allegedly made tens of thousands of dollars by betting on the content of Trump’s speeches through the Kalshi prediction market.
“The White House has strict ethics rules that we expect all staff and officials to follow,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle told Fox News when asked about the report. he said. “The personnel in question is cooperating fully with the CFTC.”
A CFTC spokesperson told Fox News that the agency “cannot confirm or deny an investigation.”
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi in the Oval Office of the White House on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
The case began after Kalshi’s surveillance systems flagged a series of unusual trades in March involving markets tied to words and phrases expected to appear in Trump’s public statements.
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Kalshi said the trades stood out because they did not follow typical trading patterns, and they also received complaints from market makers through the platform’s reporting channels. After reviewing account information, the company said it determined the trader was a federal employee working as a White House teleprompter operator.
Kalshi said he froze the account before the trader could withdraw most of the alleged profits, leaving more than $90,000 on the platform while the matter was referred to federal regulators.
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“Our oversight team immediately flagged these transactions following an exchange investigation and referred them to the CFTC,” Robert DeNault, Kalshi’s enforcement officer, told Fox News. “We are assisting regulators in this matter and providing the evidence we have gathered, as we do with every referral.”
Kalshi said the markets involve 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 added that it has been working with the CFTC for months as the investigation continues.
