US President Donald Trump. Photo: AFP
The White House has placed one of President Donald Trump’s longtime teleprompter operators on unpaid administrative leave over allegations that he used advance knowledge of the president’s speeches to make more than $100,000 through prediction market bets, according to multiple US media reports.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the decision during a briefing on Thursday, saying the employee “will no longer be here” and had been placed on unpaid administrative leave pending his departure.
ABC News identified the employee as Gabriel Perez, who has reportedly operated Trump’s teleprompter since 2016.
According to ABC News, Perez is in talks with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to resolve allegations that he placed wagers on prediction market platform Kalshi over whether Trump would use specific words, phrases or discuss certain topics in more than a dozen speeches, including his February State of the Union address and remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Leavitt said Trump had been informed of the allegations and described the matter as “deeply unfortunate” and “a disgrace.”
Kalshi also confirmed on Thursday that it had flagged suspicious trading activity linked to Trump’s speeches and referred the matter to federal regulators.
“The Kalshi surveillance team promptly flagged, investigated and referred these trades to the CFTC,” the company’s Head of Enforcement and Legal Counsel, Robert DeNault, said in a statement posted on social media.
He added that the company had cooperated with regulators by providing all evidence gathered during its internal review.
The CFTC has not publicly announced any enforcement action against Perez.
