Gabriel Perez, who operated President Donald Trump’s teleprompter since 2016, is no longer working in the federal government, a White House official announced on Tuesday. The official declined to specify whether Perez resigned or was fired from his position.
The departure comes weeks after federal investigators discovered that Perez had allegedly used his insider knowledge of Trump’s speeches to place lucrative bets on what the president would say during major addresses. According to sources familiar with the matter, Perez won more than $100,000 through these wagers on the online prediction market Kalshi, using the platform’s “Mentions” market where users can bet on whether specific words, phrases, or topics will be mentioned during public speeches.
The controversy erupted in mid-July when the prediction market Kalshi flagged suspicious trading activity to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal agency that regulates such markets. Investigators with the CFTC then discovered that Perez had placed bets on more than a dozen Trump speeches over a three-month period. The speeches included the State of the Union address in February, Trump’s remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January, a December primetime address, and a Medal of Honor ceremony in March.
As a technical assistant to the president, Perez had unusual access to Trump’s prepared remarks. Sources indicated that Perez typically had the final eyes on nearly all of the president’s speeches and was known to make last-minute edits at Trump’s direction. This privileged position gave him a significant advantage when placing bets on what the president would actually say.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt condemned the alleged betting scheme when it became public. She described Trump’s reaction, saying the president believed the conduct was “deeply unfortunate and, frankly, a disgrace.” Leavitt announced that Perez had been placed on unpaid administrative leave pending the investigation and confirmed that a different teleprompter operator would handle Trump’s speeches going forward.
The alleged scheme became more sophisticated when investigators discovered that Perez sometimes backed out of bets mid-speech if Trump deviated from his prepared remarks. This detail suggested Perez was actively managing his wagers based on real-time information about whether the president was following the script. Trump is well known for frequently departing from his teleprompter text, sometimes going off-script for extended periods.
Sources told investigators that Perez met with federal regulators in recent months to discuss the suspicious betting activity. He reportedly acknowledged some of the trades during these meetings. Rather than pursuing criminal charges, federal prosecutors in New York City appeared willing to settle the matter with Perez, according to reports. The settlement terms allegedly would require Perez to return all profits from the betting while refraining from placing such bets in the future.
The White House took action to address the broader problem after investigators had already identified Perez’s trades. In March, the White House issued an internal memo warning all staff members against using nonpublic information to place bets on prediction markets. Kalshi, the platform on which the bets were placed, also tightened its policies. The company began requiring users to disclose their place of employment and enforced its existing policy prohibiting bets based on information users obtained through their jobs.
Kalshi’s lawyer and head of enforcement said the company’s surveillance team “promptly flagged, investigated and referred these trades” to the CFTC. The platform also froze Perez’s account, locking more than $90,000 in profits he had accumulated on the site.
The case has raised questions about White House ethics procedures and sparked discussions about how prediction markets should regulate users with access to privileged information. White House officials have indicated that stricter controls around speech access and accelerated regulatory oversight of prediction markets may result from this episode. Perez’s departure marks the conclusion of a decade-long tenure handling Trump’s teleprompter that now ends under a cloud of federal investigation and allegations of insider trading.