U.S. President Donald Trump’s longtime teleprompter operator is suspected of making more than $100,000 by betting on the president’s speeches, using inside information he had about the remarks Trump was expected to deliver, ABC News reported Thursday night.
Sources familiar with the details told ABC News that federal investigators found he had made the money on the prediction platform Kalshi, including by betting on the State of the Union address Trump delivered to Congress in February.
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The teleprompter operator bet on more than 12 speeches. Trump addresses Congress
(Photo: Kenny Holston / POOL / AFP)
The teleprompter operator — the person who manages the device from which speakers read their prepared remarks in front of the camera — is Gabriel Perez, who has worked as a technical aide and teleprompter operator for Trump since 2016, during the first campaign in which Trump ran for president, and won. According to sources who spoke with ABC News, federal investigators from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are now in talks with him to resolve the allegations against him. He has admitted to the actions.
According to the ABC report, the affair came to light when Kalshi alerted the CFTC, which serves as its regulator, to suspicious activity in its “mentions” market, where users can bet on whether specific words, phrases or topics will be said during a public speech. Kalshi's lead attorney Bobby Denault confirmed the details to the network, and White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in response to an inquiry on the matter: “The White House has strict ethics guidelines that we expect all staff and officials to follow. The staffer in question is fully cooperating with the CFTC.”
Sources who spoke with ABC said that, in addition to the State of the Union address, Perez bet on more than a dozen other Trump speeches delivered over a three-month period. Those speeches included a prime-time address in December, a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January and a Trump speech in March during a Medal of Honor ceremony.
According to ABC, sources said investigators found instances in which Perez withdrew from certain bets in the middle of a speech, when Trump skipped a portion of the prepared remarks that included a word Perez had previously bet would be mentioned. Trump is known to frequently depart from the prepared speech shown on the teleprompter.
Trump speaks in Davos. Perez also bet on the speech there
(Photo: Evan Vucci/AP)
Later, in March, the White House issued an internal memo warning employees against using nonpublic information to place bets in prediction markets. ABC noted that Perez continues to serve as one of Trump’s teleprompter operators.
Sources who spoke with the American news network said Perez is usually the last person to review nearly all of the president’s written remarks, and is often known as the person who receives last-minute edits from Trump himself. He was previously questioned by Congress and federal investigators about edits made before Trump’s speech around the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol, which ended in destruction inside Congress and the deaths of five people.
Gabriel Perez has worked as a technical aide and teleprompter operator for Trump since 2016
(Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
According to sources familiar with the investigation, Perez appeared for questioning before regulators in recent months and admitted to some of the bets he placed. They said that at one point during the investigation the CFTC alerted federal prosecutors in Manhattan to Perez’s actions, but they declined to open a criminal investigation. According to the sources, CFTC regulators expressed willingness to reach a settlement with Perez and discussed terms that would require him to return his profits and refrain from carrying out similar transactions in the future.
Kalshi has a policy prohibiting users from placing bets based on information obtained through their work, and last month the company updated its policy to require users to disclose their place of employment.