President's Teleprompter Operator Facing Insider Trading Allegations
Mike Goodpaster Published 23/07/2026
President Donald Trump's teleprompter operator is facing insider trading allegations after he made thousands of dollars via trades on Kalshi. Gabriel Perez is a technical assistant to the President. He has been operating Trump's teleprompter since 2016.
Perez is in talks with federal regulators seeking to settle allegations that he used his inside knowledge of the president's speeches to win more than $100,000 in trades on the prediction market site Kalshi. Officials from Kalshi alerted the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the federal regulator of prediction markets, to suspicious activity on its "Mentions" market. That market is where users can make trades over whether certain words, phrases, or topics are spoken during a public speech.
President's teleprompter made $100,00 trading on the President's speeches
According to reporting by ABC News, Perez made more than $100,000 in trades on Kalshi relating to speeches made by President Trump.
"Our surveillance team promptly flagged and referred these trades to the CFTC, and we are cooperating and assisting regulators," Kalshi's head of enforcement, Bobby DeNault, said in a statement provided to ABC News.
Perez has been working as Trump's teleprompter person for his speeches since he first ran for President in 2016. Sources told ABC News that Perez is usually the final person to have eyes on the majority of the president's prepared remarks. It's also known that Perez is often required to make last-minute changes to the remarks at the request of Trump.
CFTC investigators found that Perez placed bets on more than a dozen of Trump's speeches. Perez was making those trades over three months from December 2025 through March 2026.
Investigators indicated that they uncovered instances in which Perez backed out of certain trades in mid-speech when Trump would skip over a portion of his speech. The omitted part of the speech included the word Perez was trading on being said during the speech.
Kalshi indicated that it had frozen more than $90,000 in Perez's account with the prediction market site. The company froze the account before Perez could withdraw any of his winnings.
Mentions are a popular offering with players on prediction market sites.
"The words of political leaders like Presidents and Fed chairs cause billions of dollars of movement in FX markets, oil futures, [and] the stock market," Kalshi said.
The White House has placed the teleprompter on unpaid leave
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Perez was removed from his duties. He was placed on unpaid administrative leave. She offered further suggestions that the man who has been serving as the President's teleprompter for the past decade would no longer be working at the White House.
Leavitt indicated that President Trump thought what Perez had done was a "disgrace."
"The White House has strict ethics guidelines that we expect all staffers and officials to follow," White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said when contacted by ABC News.
Investigators aren't expecting any criminal charges
While his White House career may be over, it appears that Perez won't face the wrath of the legal system. Expectations are that no criminal charges will be forthcoming against the White House teleprompter.
Sources told ABC News that the CFTC had referred Perez's case to federal prosecutors in Manhattan. However, they are declining to open a criminal investigation.
CFTC regulators are expressing a willingness to settle with Perez. Terms of that settlement are already in discussion. It would require that Perez surrender all of the profits that he made on the trades with Kalshi. He would also be prohibited from making any further trades.