White House teleprompter operator suspected of profiting off Trump's words

+ National White House teleprompter operator suspected of profiting off Trump's words July 17, 20264:42 AM ET Heard on Morning Edition By Hosts White House teleprompter operator suspected of profiting off Trump's words Listen &middot; 1:56 1:56 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5896512/nx-s1-9852463" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript President Trump's longtime teleprompter operator has been accused of profiting off of his access to the president's prepared remarks by placing bets on the prediction market site Kalshi. Sponsor Message Transcript LEILA FADEL, HOST: President Trump's longtime teleprompter operator was not running the prompter last night. Gabe Perez is on unpaid leave because he allegedly made nearly $100,000 by placing bets on what Trump would or would not say in speeches. He used the prediction market site Kalshi. Perez has worked for the president since 2016 and got a shoutout from Trump on the campaign trail in Reno in 2024.

+ (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I have a guy, Gabe. He's excellent. I've had some real bad ones, but I have Gabe. Some of the bad ones, they go so fast. You know, I will go and bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop. I say, slow the damn thing. No. A good one is really like gold. A MARTÍNEZ, HOST: Kalshi surveillance systems detected unusual behavior around presidential speeches, and an investigation led to Perez. That's according to two people with knowledge of the investigation who were not authorized to speak publicly. Perez is now in settlement talks with federal regulators. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed this during Thursday's press briefing. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) KAROLINE LEAVITT: I'm aware of the report. The president is too. I spoke with him about it. He believes it's deeply unfortunate and, frankly, a disgrace. FADEL: Kalshi froze about $90,000 of Perez's profits, and he has been banned from betting on the site. White House staff have been warned not to use government information on prediction market sites. The behavior could also be criminally prosecuted. Columbia University law professor Joshua Mitts studies market manipulation and insider trading. JOSHUA MITTS: Legally, it's not always straightforward whether the person was, in fact, receiving confidential information or not. MARTÍNEZ: He doesn't think this kind of insider betting, though, is widespread. MITTS: For most people in positions of power, this will be too risky to justify the few thousand dollars that they might make. MARTÍNEZ: And Mitts says as prosecutors and regulators catch insider trading, it will deter people from trying. (SOUNDBITE OF NORTH AMERICANS' "THE LIVING END") Copyright &copy; 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. Facebook Flipboard Email Read & Listen Home News Culture Music Podcasts & Shows Connect Newsletters Facebook Instagram Press Public Editor Corrections Transcripts Contact & Help About NPR Overview Diversity NPR Network Accessibility Ethics Finances Get Involved Support Public Radio Sponsor NPR NPR Careers NPR Shop NPR Extra Terms of Use Privacy Your Privacy Choices Text Only Sponsor Message Sponsor Message Become an NPR sponsor (function () { var loadPageJs = function () { (window.webpackJsonp=window.webpackJsonp||[]).push([[22],{310:function(e,n,o){o.p=NPR.serverVars.webpackPublicPath,Promise.all([o.e(1),o.e(2),o.e(3),o.e(4),o.e(80)]).then((e=>{o(15),o(769),o(155),o(176),o(93),o(447),o(254),o(128),o(130),o(754),o(175),o(755),o(255),o(78),o(773)}).bind(null,o)).catch(o.oe)},782:function(e,n,o){e.exports=o(310)}},[[782,0]]]); }; if (document.readyState === 'complete') { loadPageJs(); } else { window.addEventListener('load', function load() { window.removeEventListener('load', load, false); loadPageJs(); }); } })();