White House Places Trump’s Teleprompter Operator On Leave Amid Insider Betting Investigation

The White House has placed President Donald Trump‘s longtime teleprompter operator on unpaid administrative leave after reports alleged he made more than $100,000 by betting on the contents of the president’s speeches using nonpublic information.

The employee, identified as Gabriel Perez, has worked with President Trump since 2016 and allegedly used advance access to prepared speeches to place wagers on prediction market platform Kalshi. According to reports, the bets focused on whether Trump would mention specific words, topics, or policy proposals during major public appearances, including the State of the Union address and speeches at international events.

Kalshi’s internal monitoring systems reportedly detected suspicious betting patterns and referred the matter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The platform froze more than $100,000 in alleged profits while federal regulators opened an investigation into whether Perez improperly used confidential government information for personal financial gain.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Perez has been placed on unpaid leave pending the outcome of the investigation. She said the administration maintains strict ethics rules prohibiting employees from using nonpublic information for personal profit and stressed that any violations are taken seriously.

President Trump also addressed the allegations, reportedly calling the situation “a disgrace” and saying government employees should never profit from privileged information obtained through their official duties.

Perez has not been criminally charged and is reportedly cooperating with investigators. Federal regulators are continuing to review the betting activity to determine whether any laws or ethics rules were violated.