Federal regulators are in settlement talks with President Donald Trump's longtime teleprompter operator over allegations that he earned nearly $100,000 on prediction market platform Kalshi by using advance access to the president's prepared remarks.

The investigation centers on Kalshi's "mention markets," where users wager on whether specific words or phrases will be spoken during the president's public appearances.

From NPR:

This marks the first time someone inside the White House has been investigated for allegedly abusing that access for prediction market profits.

Gabriel Perez, who has worked for the president since 2016, is now negotiating with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over his alleged lucrative betting activity on the "mention markets."

Ahead of Trump's address to the nation later on Thursday, Kalshi traders have already wagered more than $800,000 on whether the president will say words like "Hormuz," or "rigged election," or "fake news."

In the case of Perez, Kalshi's surveillance systems detected unusual betting on "mention" markets involving the president that did not follow typical behavior, and when the company examined the accounts behind it, investigators saw that he was a federal employee, according to a source with direct knowledge of the inquiry.
Read more: https://www.npr.org/2026/07/16/nx-s1...r-operator-bet