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2026-07-17 09:16:14
[White House teleprompter operator suspended after betting nearly $100,000 on presidential speech information] (1) The White House confirmed that Gabriel Perez, a longtime teleprompter operator for Trump, has been placed on unpaid executive leave. He is cooperating with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) investigation into allegations of betting using insider information, after the prediction market platform Kalshi flagged several suspicious transactions related to the president's speeches. (2) White House Press Secretary Levitt stated that Trump is aware of the matter and considers it "regrettable and shameful." She emphasized that the White House has strict ethical guidelines and that White House legal counsel has explicitly prohibited such behavior from all staff. (3) Kalshi's monitoring system detected unusual trading in "mention markets" (betting on specific words or phrases) involving Trump's public statements, which did not conform to normal trading patterns. This incident has also sparked broader scrutiny of insider trading in prediction markets.
