Trump teleprompter op on unpaid leave over $100K insider trading bets

Gabriel Perez, who has operated President Trump's teleprompter since 2016, is now on unpaid leave following reports that he exploited his insider access to place winning bets on the online prediction market Kalshi. According to ABC News, Perez used his knowledge of what the president would say in major speeches—including the State of the Union address earlier this year—to bet on Kalshi's "Mentions" market, where users wager on specific phrases and words likely to appear in public addresses. His bets reportedly netted him more than $100,000.

Kalshi's enforcement chief, Robert Denault, disclosed on X that the platform's "surveillance team promptly flagged, investigated and referred these trades" to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal body with regulatory authority over such betting. Denault said Kalshi has been assisting regulators and provided all collected evidence. Kalshi's policy explicitly prohibits users from betting based on information they gain because of their job. The platform recently tightened oversight by requiring users to disclose their place of employment.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the situation, describing it as "unfortunate" and "a disgrace." She stated that President Trump is aware of the matter and that the aide is on unpaid leave. Leavitt asserted that "the White House has extremely strict ethical guidelines with respect to issues like this." ABC News based its reporting on multiple sources with knowledge of the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The case arrives amid broader scrutiny of financial gain within the Trump administration. Trump's own financial disclosures show he made $1.2 billion（約1900億円） from crypto businesses in 2025. World Liberty Financial generated more than $500 million（約800億円） from sales of "governance tokens," while CIC Digital brought in more than $600 million（約960億円） from sales of "meme" coins bearing his face. Both types of tokens have declined sharply in value since their launch. Additionally, Trump's media company announced plans to charge for expedited access to Truth Social posts. The White House press secretary has previously stated that "the president is abiding by all conflict-of-interest laws that are applicable to the president" and called it "absurd" to suggest the president is profiting off the presidency.

The case underscores the tension between administrative insiders' access to nonpublic information and the rules designed to prevent them from profiting from it. Kalshi's "Mentions" market had operated without robust employment-disclosure requirements until recently; the platform now requires users to disclose their place of employment and explicitly prohibits betting based on job-related information. Perez's alleged trades—placing bets on specific words and phrases in the president's speeches—exploited the informational advantage of operating the teleprompter from which Trump reads. The White House's characterization of the situation as "unfortunate" and a "disgrace," coupled with its assertion of "extremely strict ethical guidelines," reflects an attempt to distance the administration from the conduct while signaling that enforcement mechanisms exist. However, the broader context—in which Trump's own financial disclosures show $1.2 billion（約1900億円） in crypto profits in 2025, including more than $500 million（約800億円） from World Liberty Financial and over $600 million（約960億円） from CIC Digital's "meme" coin sales, both of which have fallen sharply since launch—suggests that profiting from the presidency remains a live issue within the administration's orbit.