The good news: White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is back from maternity leave. We missed her.
The bad news: she has to take questions from the press regarding a very, let’s say, awkward matter. An employee allegedly channeled his inner Nancy Pelosi and has been profiting off inside information gleaned from one of the most secure locations in the world: the White House.
I had never thought about it before, but once the news sinks in, you quickly realize that the WH teleprompter operator would have early access to all sorts of privileged information.
Apparently, this guy took full advantage:
President Donald Trump's longtime teleprompter operator is believed to have made tens of thousands of dollars by placing bets on more than a dozen of Trump's speeches on the prediction market Kalshi, federal investigators with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission found, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
Gabriel Perez, a technical assistant to the president who has been operating Trump's teleprompter since 2016, is in talks with federal regulators to settle allegations he used his inside knowledge of the president's speeches to win more than $100,000, the sources said.
If you notice any awkward pauses in President Trump’s big speech Thursday night, it will likely be because he’s getting used to a new teleprompter operator. It’s not as easy as you might think to time the scrolling to a person’s individual speaking rhythm. Just imagine Biden’s operator back in the day — they wouldn’t even be able to understand what he just said (mumbled), so how could they keep track of where he was in the speech?
Reporters peppered Leavitt with questions at the briefing, but she was up to the task. The dude has been placed on leave while the investigations continue, she said:
.@PressSec on teleprompter operator: "The president...believes it's deeply unfortunate and frankly a disgrace...the individual has been put on paid administrative leave. There will be a teleprompter operator tonight...but it will not be the one, unfortunately, in that story." pic.twitter.com/JGiDsyUv4V
— CSPAN (@cspan) July 16, 2026
Leavitt:
Obviously, 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, and the individual cited in that report is complying with the CFTC but has been put on paid administrative leave [she later clarified that it was “unpaid” leave].
So there will be a teleprompter operator tonight, of course, but it will not be the one, unfortunately, in that story.
Trump’s teleprompter operator since 2016, Gabriel Perez, is under investigation for using inside knowledge of President Trump’s speeches to bet on Kalshi. He raked in over $100K.
— Gina Milan (@ginamilan_) July 16, 2026
How dumb can one person be? What an absolute stab in the back to Trump and everyone else in the… pic.twitter.com/xshmlljJ1X
Trump’s teleprompter operator since 2016, Gabriel Perez, is under investigation for using inside knowledge of President Trump’s speeches to bet on Kalshi. He raked in over $100K.
How dumb can one person be? What an absolute stab in the back to Trump and everyone else in the administration. Truly disgraceful.
Army Special Ops Soldier Charged by DOJ for Using Classified Info on Maduro Op to Win Wager
Since Perez knew in advance what the president was going to say in speeches like the State of the Union, he would place bets that certain topics would get a “mention.” But his activity didn’t go unnoticed:
According to Kalshi, the company’s surveillance in March flagged trades on contracts related to public statements by Trump that did not follow typical patterns of buying and selling.
Some of the trades were separately flagged by market makers in so-called whistleblower channels.
Kalshi’s surveillance analysts used data collected during the onboarding of customers and monitoring procedures to discover that the account holder worked for the federal government and a teleprompter operator, according to the company.
Kalshi then froze the account, retaining almost all of the profits.
The CFTC discovered that he made bets on over a dozen Trump speeches, including one in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and Trump’s remarks in March during a Medal of Honor ceremony.
As the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement says, “Bet with your head, not over it.” Unfortunately for Perez, he didn’t heed that advice.
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