A senior White House aide, Gabriel Perez, who has served as President Donald Trump's teleprompter operator since 2016, has been placed on unpaid administrative leave amidst a federal investigation into allegations of insider trading on a prediction market. The announcement was made by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday, confirming Perez would not be operating the teleprompter for the President's primetime address that evening.
"He believes it is deeply unfortunate and, frankly, a disgrace." — Karoline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary
Leavitt initially misstated the nature of Perez's leave, calling it "paid" before quickly correcting herself to clarify it was "administrative leave without pay." She emphasized that the decision to place Perez on leave was made by President Trump himself. The allegations center on Perez's alleged use of advance knowledge of the President's speech content to place bets on the prediction platform Kalshi, a practice that reportedly generated significant profits.
According to federal records and reports from ABC News and CNN, Perez is believed to have placed bets across more than a dozen of President Trump's addresses. These events included high-profile engagements such as February's State of the Union address, a January appearance before the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and a December primetime speech. The alleged scheme, known as a "mention market," allows users to wager on whether a public figure will utter specific words, phrases, or subjects during a live appearance. Perez is reported to have accumulated upwards of $90,000 in profit from these trades, though these funds are currently frozen pending review.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a federal agency that regulates futures and options markets, is actively examining Perez's trades. A source familiar with the matter told The Post that Perez is "fully cooperating with the CFTC on the matter." The CFTC has not yet publicly detailed its findings, and a spokesperson for the agency declined to comment when contacted.
The unusual betting activity was not initially discovered by external reporters but rather by Kalshi's own internal monitoring system. Robert DeNault, Kalshi’s head of enforcement and legal counsel, confirmed the company's proactive role in a social media statement. DeNault stated, "The Kalshi surveillance team promptly flagged, investigated and referred these trades to the CFTC," adding that the platform has fully cooperated with investigators and provided all collected evidence.
Perez's role at the White House extended beyond his teleprompter duties. Government payroll records list his official title as Deputy Assistant to the President, a position with an annual salary of $175,000. Press Secretary Leavitt conveyed President Trump's reaction to the news of his aide's alleged misconduct, describing his sentiment in stark terms. "He believes it is deeply unfortunate and, frankly, a disgrace," Leavitt told reporters.
Leavitt underscored the stringent ethical guidelines that govern all White House employees. She explained that "there are very strict ethical guidelines here at the White House that explicitly state not to do this, and the White House Counsel’s office makes that clear to all of us who sign up to work in government on behalf of the president." She unequivocally placed responsibility for the alleged breach on Perez, stating, "This individual unfortunately violated the plan, and therefore he’s paying the consequences." Leavitt confirmed that every incoming staffer signs a formal ethics pledge during onboarding, though she could not confirm whether Kalshi's platform was accessible or restricted on White House computer networks.
This is not the first instance of alleged prediction-market misconduct involving government personnel this year. In April, U.S. Army Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke was charged by prosecutors for allegedly using classified military intelligence for personal profit. Van Dyke is accused of leveraging nonpublic details about a covert raid targeting Venezuela to amass approximately $409,000 in winnings on a separate platform, Polymarket. Court records indicate he placed 13 individual bets totaling $33,000 between late December 2025 and early January 2026, wagering on the operation that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. Van Dyke has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial. His prosecution marked the first time the Justice Department brought insider-trading charges specifically tied to a prediction market, with the CFTC filing parallel civil charges.
The Van Dyke case prompted the White House to circulate a staff-wide memo in March, explicitly cautioning employees against using nonpublic government information for prediction-market betting. The popularity of prediction markets has surged nationwide, attracting bettors to a wide array of wagers, from political outcomes to sports championships. As of now, no criminal charges have been filed against Gabriel Perez, and the CFTC investigation remains ongoing.
