White House 'Official' Teleprompter Operator Makes Over $100,000 Predicting Insider Information

*Original ｜Odaily Planet Daily ( @OdailyChina )

*Author ｜Golem ( @web3_golem )

Recently, another insider trading scandal has emerged from the White House.

A White House staff member made a profit of over $100,000 in the prediction market through insider information, and this insider turned out to be a long-time operator of the teleprompter for Trump’s speeches. The employee has now been suspended and is not receiving a salary.

This teleprompter operator has become the third insider disclosed by the U.S. Justice Department who used insider information to make significant profits in the prediction market, following a special forces soldier involved in the capture of Maduro and a Google security engineer. (Related reading: " After 4 months, Polymarket helped Trump catch the military operation leaker, but at a cost... " " Looking at the answers before handing in the exam? Google engineer caught in Polymarket insider trading case ")

Reported by Kalshi, funds frozen, but ultimately not criminally liable

The main character is named Gabriel Perez, who has been responsible for 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, so they searched for "teleprompter" on Google and found Perez’s company, leading to his hiring by the Trump team.

Gabriel Perez

Although Perez was hired by chance, over the past ten years, he gradually became one of Trump’s closest aides. The U.S. publication Politico even stated that "Perez has become the only person Trump trusts," as he often receives last-minute modifications to public speeches directly from Trump himself.

As a result, Perez became one of the few individuals who had access to Trump’s complete speech drafts in advance and had final approval over almost all of Trump’s prepared speeches. This power is not insignificant; Perez’s official title at the White House is Deputy Assistant to the President and Technical Advisor, with an annual salary of $175,000, just $20,000 less than senior officials like Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Press Secretary Caroline Levitt.

Such a salary places him in the high-income bracket in the U.S., but the greedy Perez was not satisfied.

As prediction markets became popular, countless players began betting on which specific words Trump would "mention" in a particular speech. Perez realized that his "privilege" could bring him even more wealth.

CFTC investigators found that Perez had placed bets on dozens of Trump’s speeches over about three months, with total profits exceeding $100,000. This includes Trump’s prime-time speech in December last year, his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January this year, the State of the Union address in February, and Trump’s speech at the Medal of Honor ceremony in March.

The statutory annual salary for the President of the United States is $400,000, and with various allowances, the President can earn about $569,000 per year. If Perez had not been caught, at his rate of making $100,000 in three months, although he does not hold the same power as the President, his annual income would exceed the President’s salary.

However, even with prior knowledge of the speech content, Perez could not always successfully predict which words Trump would mention in his speeches, as Trump often deviates from the script to "improvise." When Trump skips a word that Perez has bet on during a speech, he immediately sells to cut losses. Trump himself admitted during a speech at the Detroit Economic Club in January that he does not look at the teleprompter 80% of the time.

Like the special forces soldier and the Google security engineer, Perez’s exposure also stemmed from proactive reporting by the prediction market platform. Perez frequently used Kalshi for insider trading, and starting in March of this year, Kalshi’s monitoring system detected some unusual trades related to specific words mentioned in Trump’s speeches, leading them to pay attention to Perez.

After the internal investigation concluded, Kalshi quickly froze over $90,000 in Perez’s account and referred the matter to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Upon learning of this, Trump commented that "this is disgraceful" and personally decided to suspend Perez without pay during the suspension.

Due to his greed, Perez ultimately lost both his profits in the prediction market and his job. However, compared to the special forces soldier and the Google security engineer, Perez is somewhat fortunate, as U.S. judicial authorities did not file criminal charges against him, and he does not have to go to jail.

During the investigation, the CFTC had notified the federal prosecutor in Manhattan, but the prosecutor refused to initiate a criminal investigation. According to insiders, CFTC regulators have expressed a willingness to reach a settlement with Perez and have discussed related terms with him, resulting in a requirement for Perez to return his profits and cease similar trading activities thereafter.

Perez is just the beginning of clearing out insider traders in the "mention" market

The reason Perez does not have to go to jail is that prosecutors believe he did not commit a criminal offense, as he neither leaked important government information in advance nor posed a threat to national security. As Trump said, "this is just disgraceful," as it undermines 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 Engel stated, "The White House has strict ethical guidelines, and we expect all staff and officials to adhere to these guidelines."

However, Perez is certainly not the only staff member in the White House profiting from insider information, and Trump, who openly charges for his own groups, is even less qualified to comment on this teleprompter operator (Related reading: " $100,000 a month, Trump starts selling 'Alpha' ").

It is no wonder that Perez could not resist temptation; the "mention" market in prediction markets is indeed the easiest category to manipulate. When the cost of participation for insiders is driven down to a very low level while the potential returns are extremely high, it is no longer a moral issue but a matter of mechanism design. In the face of interests, even seemingly respectable politicians cannot guarantee they will never cross that line.

The "mention" market allows users to bet on specific words, phrases, or topics that will be mentioned in public speeches. Compared to other events (such as political elections, sports events, etc.), the cheating costs in the "mention" market are extremely low. Not only for people like Perez who can know the speech content in advance, but for the speaker themselves, cheating can be as simple as a single word, materializing the concept of "a word worth a thousand gold."

At the Grammy Awards in February this year, host Trevor Noah exclaimed "Potato" right after saying "Welcome back to the Grammys." While everyone was stunned, Trevor Noah continued, "If you bet on me saying this word on Polymarket, you would have made a fortune," congratulating user "Noah 22." However, in reality, there was no option for "potato" in the prediction market for "what will be mentioned at the Grammy Awards," and user "noah-22" was purely fictional.

The Grammy host shouting potato during the awards ceremony

Some analysts later suggested that this was a marketing stunt by Polymarket, but it already demonstrated the ability of the parties involved to manipulate the "mention" market.

Another more direct example occurred during Coinbase’s Q3 earnings call in October 2025, when CEO Brian Armstrong noted that he discovered many people betting in the prediction market on what he would mention during the call. He then opened Polymarket and read through all the options, ultimately resulting in a 100% win rate for that market, ending in a tie.

These are just two examples showcasing the control individuals have over the "mention" market, and there are certainly many others who profit from this hidden beneath the surface. However, as regulation of prediction markets deepens, insiders in the "mention" market may also be completely cleared out, with Perez being just the beginning.

Last month, Kalshi updated its policy, requiring users to disclose their workplace. Kalshi’s enforcement director Bobby DeNault explained that the reason for this move is, "If you possess certain information due to your work or employment relationship, and you have relevant legal responsibilities, you are obligated not to appropriate that information for personal gain or use it for private purposes." Polymarket has not yet imposed such strict disclosure requirements on users, but in the increasingly competitive and compliant landscape of prediction markets, it is believed that Polymarket will soon implement stricter compliance requirements as well.

From special forces, Google engineers to White House teleprompter operators, prediction markets are gradually clearing out insider trading. At the same time, the market is undergoing a demystification process; what was once thought to reflect collective wisdom is, in reality, just a cash machine for a few insiders.

While clearing out insider trading will make prediction markets more compliant, it will also distance them from the truth and bring them closer to being mere casinos.

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