US President Donald Trump’s teleprompter operator is on unpaid leave over possible insider trading.
The White House said on Thursday that there were reports Gabriel Perez used his inside knowledge to make bets about the president’s speeches on the online prediction market Kalshi to win big.
Kalshi contacted federal regulators about bets allegedly made about what the president would say in public addresses, according to the firm’s enforcement chief.
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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president is aware of the situation, which she described as “unfortunate” and “a disgrace”.
“The White House has extremely strict ethical guidelines with respect to issues like this,” Leavitt told reporters, saying the aide is on unpaid leave.
Kalshi referred its findings to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal agency that regulates prediction markets.
One of the sources said Perez made more than $128,601 ($US90,000) in profits from the trades in question, but the profits have been frozen.
Kalshi recently began requiring users to disclose their place of employment, and the platform’s policy prohibits betting based on information that users gain because of their job.
The White House warned its staff earlier this year against insider trading on prediction markets.
The March 24 memo told employees that “the misuse of nonpublic information by government employees for financial benefit is a very serious offense and will not be tolerated”.
Who is Gabriel Perez? Perez is Trump’s longtime teleprompter operator who has travelled and worked with the president for a decade.
His official title is “deputy assistant to the president and technical advisor”.
He is one of the handful of aides the president trusts with his remarks and is often the last person to see Trump’s speeches before he delivers them.
Given how often the president makes last minute edits to public remarks, he works extremely closely with Perez and has previously argued that he is the only person who can operate his prompter.
Perez is among the highest-paid members of White House staff. According to a report submitted to Congress, Perez’s 2026 salary is $US175,000.
Trump praised Perez during an event in Reno on the 2024 campaign trail, saying, “I have a guy, Gabe. He’s excellent. I’ve had some real bad ones, but I have Gabe”.
Gabriel Perez cleans the teleprompter before US President Donald Trump speaks at a Florida summit on March 27. Credit: AP New fee to hit some Truth Social users Robert Denault, Kalshi’s lawyer and head of enforcement, said on X that the “Kalshi surveillance team promptly flagged, investigated and referred these trades” to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission that has regulatory authority over such matters. His statement did not name Perez.
“We have been assisting regulators on this matter and provided all evidence that we collected, as we do with any referral,” Denault said.
Attention on members of the administration profiting from the presidency has reached all the way to Trump himself.
Trump’s media company announced on Thursday that it would charge for special high-speed access to Truth Social posts, including possibly his own affecting national security and financial markets.
In his most recent financial disclosures, Trump reported making $US1.2 billion from his crypto businesses in 2025, raking in profits while his investors suffered losses in marketplaces that Trump has sought to shield from tighter federal regulation.
Trump got more than $US500 million from his World Liberty Financial business selling new crypto products, including “governance tokens”, according to the required annual disclosure report with the Office of Government Ethics.
It also showed another crypto business, CIC Digital LLC, took in more than $US600 million from sales of souvenir-type “meme” coins stamped with his face. Both the tokens and the coins have plunged in value since the sales.
The president has also profited from merchandising deals and high-dollar political and official events at his properties, significantly increasing his net worth since returning to power.
Trump’s aides have stood by his personal and family business practices.
“The president is abiding by all conflict-of-interest laws that are applicable to the president,” Leavitt said earlier this year, adding that it would be “absurd for anyone to insinuate that this president is profiting off of the presidency”.
– With CNN