Ex-White House Teleprompter Operator Fined $172,000 for Insider Trading on Trump Speeches

A former White House teleprompter operator, Gabriel Perez, has been ordered to pay over $172,000 for using privileged information to place bets on presidential speeches. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced the settlement on Friday, August 29, 2026, requiring Perez to repay $107,539.02 in illicit profits and a $65,000 civil penalty.

Perez utilized his access to advance copies of President Trump's speeches to bet on specific words or phrases being used on Kalshi, a prediction market platform, between December 2025 and February 2026. This insider trading on "mention market" contracts was detected by Kalshi's surveillance systems, which subsequently froze his account and collaborated with federal authorities in the investigation.

As part of the settlement, Perez also agreed to a three-year ban from trading on prediction markets and to cease and desist from future violations of the Commodity Exchange Act. He had been placed on unpaid leave in July 2026 following the accusations and is no longer employed by the federal government.