White House "Official" Teleprompter Operator Made Over $100,000 by Predicting Market Moves with Insider Information

Original｜Odaily (@OdailyChina)

Author｜Golem (@web3_golem)

Recently, another insider trading scandal surfaced at the White House.

A White House staffer made hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit by trading in prediction markets using insider information. The true identity of this insider was merely a long-time operator of Trump's teleprompter. The employee has now been suspended without pay.

This teleprompter operator becomes the third individual identified by the U.S. Department of Justice who profited significantly from insider information in prediction markets, following a special forces soldier involved in the Maduro capture operation and a Google security engineer. (Related reading: 《After 4 months, Polymarket helped Trump catch the military operation leaker, but the cost was...》《Checking answers before submitting? Google engineer embroiled in Polymarket insider trading case》）

Reported by Kalshi, Funds Frozen, but Escapes Criminal Charges

The protagonist is Gabriel Perez, who has been operating Trump's teleprompter since 2016. Perez's journey to this job is quite dramatic. In 2016, Trump's campaign team urgently needed a teleprompter operator. Searching Google for "teleprompter," they found Perez's company, and thus Perez was hired by the Trump team.

Gabriel Perez

Although hired somewhat by chance, over the past decade, Perez gradually became one of Trump's closest aides. Politico even called Perez "the only person Trump trusts." He often receives last-minute revisions to Trump's public speeches directly from the President himself.

As a result, Perez was one of the few people with early access to Trump's complete speech drafts and had final editing power over almost all of Trump's prepared remarks. This position held considerable influence. Perez's official White House title was Deputy Assistant to the President and Technical Advisor, with an annual salary of $175,000, only $20,000 less than senior staff like Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt.

Such a salary places him among high earners in the U.S., but the greedy Perez wanted more.

When prediction markets became popular, countless players began betting on whether Trump would mention specific words in his speeches. Perez realized his "privilege" could bring him even greater wealth.

CFTC investigators found that over approximately three months, Perez placed bets on over a dozen of Trump's speeches, making a total profit exceeding $100,000. These included Trump's primetime address in December last year, his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January, the State of the Union address in February, and his remarks at the Medal of Honor ceremony in March.

The U.S. President's statutory salary is $400,000. With various allowances, the President receives about $569,000 annually. If Perez hadn't been caught, at his rate of earning $100,000 in three months, his annual income would surpass the President's salary, despite having less power.

However, even knowing the speech content in advance, Perez couldn't always successfully predict which words Trump would say, as Trump often "improvises" [^1] off-script. When Trump skipped a word Perez had bet on during a speech, he would immediately sell to cut his losses. [^1] Trump himself admitted during a speech at the Detroit Economic Club in January that he doesn't look at the teleprompter 80% of the time.

Similar to the special forces soldier and the Google security engineer, Perez's exposure stemmed from a proactive report by the prediction market platform. Perez frequently used Kalshi for his insider trading. Starting in March this year, Kalshi's monitoring system flagged unusual transactions related to specific words mentioned in Trump's speeches, leading them to identify Perez.

After completing an internal investigation, Kalshi swiftly froze over $90,000 in Perez's account and referred the case to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Upon learning of this, Trump commented, "It's despicable," and personally decided to suspend Perez without pay.

Due to his greed, Perez lost everything – he couldn't keep his prediction market profits and lost his original job. However, compared to the special forces soldier and the Google engineer, Perez was fortunate because U.S. judicial authorities did not pursue criminal charges. He won't face prison time.

During the investigation, the CFTC notified federal prosecutors in Manhattan, but they declined to open a criminal inquiry. According to sources familiar with the matter, CFTC regulators have indicated a willingness to reach a settlement with Perez and have discussed terms with him. The expected outcome is that Perez must return the profits and cease similar trading activities.

Perez is Just the Beginning of the Crackdown on Insider Trading in 'Mention' Markets

The reason Perez avoided prison is that prosecutors didn't consider his actions a criminal offense. He didn't leak crucial government information in advance or pose a threat to national security. As Trump put it, "It's just despicable," undermining the integrity of government officials.

In March of this year, the White House warned staff not to use non-public information to bet in prediction markets. White House spokesperson Davis Ingle stated, "The White House has strict ethical guidelines, and we expect all staff and officials to adhere to them."

But Perez is certainly not the only White House staffer profiting from insider information. Trump himself, who openly runs paid subscription groups, is hardly in a position to criticize this teleprompter operator. (Related reading: $100,000 a month, Trump starts selling 'Alpha')

It's no wonder Perez couldn't resist the temptation. The 'mention' market in prediction markets is arguably the easiest prediction category to manipulate. When the cost for insiders to participate is extremely low, but the potential returns are enormous, it ceases to be a moral issue and becomes a problem of mechanism design. In the face of profit, even seemingly respectable politicians with righteous stances cannot guarantee they will never cross that line.

The 'mention' market involves users betting on specific words, phrases, or topics that will be mentioned in public speeches. Compared to other events (like political elections, sports events), the cost of cheating in the 'mention' market is very low. This applies not only to someone like Perez who knows the speech content in advance but also to the speaker themselves. For them, cheating is as simple as uttering a word, making the phrase 'a single word worth a thousand gold' quite literal.

During the Grammy Awards ceremony in February this year, after saying "Welcome back to the Grammys," host Trevor Noah suddenly shouted "Potato." While everyone was bewildered, Noah continued, "If you bet on me saying that word on Polymarket, you made a killing," and congratulated user "Noah 22." However, the Polymarket prediction "What will be mentioned at the Grammys?" didn't even have "potato" as an option, and the user "noah-22" was purely fictional.

Grammy host shouts 'potato' during ceremony

Some later analyses suggested this was a Polymarket marketing stunt, but it clearly demonstrated the host's ability to manipulate the 'mention' market.

An even more direct example occurred in October 2025 during Coinbase's Q3 earnings call. Near the end of the call, CEO Brian Armstrong mentioned he noticed many people were betting on what words he would say. So, he opened Polymarket, read out every word listed in the options, ultimately causing the market to have a 100% win rate for all outcomes, resulting in a draw.

These are just two examples showcasing the control speakers have over the 'mention' market. Undoubtedly, many others are profiting from this beneath the surface. However, as prediction market regulation tightens, insider trading in the 'mention' markets may be fully purged. Perez is just the beginning.

Last month, Kalshi updated its policy, requiring users to disclose their employers. Kalshi's Head of Enforcement, Bobby DeNault, explained the reasoning: "If you possess certain information due to your job or employment relationship, and you have a related legal duty, you are obligated not to appropriate that information for yourself or use it for personal gain." Polymarket hasn't yet imposed such strict disclosure requirements on users, but with the prediction market track becoming increasingly focused on compliance, stricter rules from Polymarket are likely on the horizon.

From the special forces soldier and the Google engineer to the White House teleprompter operator, prediction markets are progressively cleansing themselves of insider trading. Simultaneously, the market is undergoing a process of disenchantment. What was once thought to reflect collective wisdom is now revealed to be a cash machine for a few insiders.

While purging insider trading makes prediction markets more compliant, it also moves them further away from the truth and closer to being a pure casino.