White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has addressed reports that a teleprompter operator is under investigation over claims he used non-public information to make bets on Donald Trump’s speeches.
Gabriel Perez has been placed on unpaid administrative leave after being accused of making more than $100,000 by wagering on events connected to President Donald Trump’s public remarks.
Perez has reportedly worked for Trump for around a decade, having begun in 2016. Among the appearances tied to the allegations is the State of the Union speech, along with more than a dozen other Trump remarks over a three-month period, according to reports.
During a press briefing on Thursday, Leavitt was asked “who was running the teleprompt tonight” following news of the investigation involving Perez.
“Obviously I’m aware of the report, the President is to,” she said. “I spoke with him about it. He believes it is deeply unfortunate and frankly a disgrace.
“The individual that was cited in the report is complying with the CFTC but has been put on paid administrative leave,” she confirmed.
“There will be a teleprompter tonight, of course, but it will not be the one, unfortunately, from that story.”
The allegations center on claims that Perez used advance knowledge to place bets through Kalshi, a prediction market platform launched in 2021. Kalshi is a federally regulated prediction market where users can trade on yes-or-no outcomes and other event contracts, including markets tied to public speeches and specific phrases.
Sources told ABC that Kalshi alerted its regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), to what was described as “suspicious acitivity”.
According to the outlet, the activity involved the platform’s “mentions” market, where users can wager on whether particular words, phrases or themes will be included in a public speech.
“Our surveillance team promptly flagged and referred these trades to the CFTC, and we are cooperating and assisting regulators.”
The statement was attributed by ABC to Kalshi’s head of enforcement, Bobby DeNault.
The BBC reported that the company allegedly identified the account holder as a federal employee who operated White House teleprompters by reviewing account data. The company also reportedly froze a portion of the profits and barred the account from further trading while regulators reviewed the activity.
The CFTC told the broadcaster it could not “confirm or deny” the existence of an investigation.
Reports also claim the platform locked the account before any profits could be withdrawn.
Perez is said to have built a close professional relationship with Trump over the years, and the President has previously praised his work in public.
During a Reno campaign stop in 2024, he said: “I have a guy, Gabe, he’s excellent. I’ve had some real bad ones, but I have Gabe, some of the bad ones, they go so fast. I will go and I say, slow the damn thing.
“No, a good one is really like gold.”
According to reports, investigators believe Perez may have placed bets on Trump’s December primetime address, his remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, a Medal of Honor ceremony in March, and a later speech at the Detroit Economic Club. White House staff were also reportedly warned in March not to use nonpublic government information to bet on prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket.