Gabriel Perez, the White House teleprompter operator who earned $175,000 a year as a technical assistant to the president, no longer works in the federal government, according to an anonymous White House official cited by The Guardian on July 28, 2026. The official would not confirm whether Perez resigned voluntarily or was terminated from his position. HuffPost, the Morning Call, and the Stamford Advocate all independently confirmed the departure the same day, citing the same White House source The Guardian.

Perez had been placed on unpaid leave earlier in July 2026 after an ABC News investigation reported that he used inside knowledge of President Trump's speeches to win more than $100,000 betting on prediction markets. Prediction markets are platforms where users bet money on the outcome of future events, much like a stock market for things that haven't happened yet. The bets allegedly included wagers on the State of the Union address ABC News.

The suspicious activity took place on Kalshi's "Mentions" market, a platform allowing users to place financial bets on specific phrases and words used in public speeches. Kalshi's policy explicitly prohibits betting based on non-public information users gain because of their job, and the platform recently began requiring users to disclose their place of employment. Robert Denault, Kalshi's lawyer and head of enforcement, confirmed on X that the company's surveillance team flagged the trades, investigated them internally, and referred the matter to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) — the federal agency that regulates derivatives and futures markets. Reuters reported the CFTC probe on July 16, 2026, noting that Perez was under investigation for potential insider trading, which is the illegal practice of profiting from information not available to the public Reuters.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt publicly addressed the allegations, describing the reports of insider trading as "deeply unfortunate and, frankly, a disgrace." Perez operated Donald Trump's teleprompter since 2016 and had traveled and worked alongside the president for roughly a decade, according to Yahoo News. A photograph published by The Guardian shows him adjusting a teleprompter at a caucus night party in Des Moines, Iowa, in January 2024.

White House personnel records published in the 2026 Annual Report to Congress on White House Staff listed Perez's $175,000 salary for his teleprompter work. A site-restricted search of whitehouse.gov for "Gabriel Perez" returned no results as of July 28, 2026.

The broader context here involves the intersection of regulated prediction markets and federal executive branch access. Kalshi, which operates under CFTC oversight, has positioned its "Mentions" market as a venue for forecasting public statements. When a federal employee with direct, pre-public knowledge of presidential speeches places bets on the specific content of those speeches, it tests whether existing insider trading frameworks — designed for traditional securities markets like stocks and bonds — can adequately address newer prediction-market instruments.

The CFTC referral and investigation will likely examine whether Perez's advance access to speech content constituted material non-public information under commodity futures law. Material non-public information is data that has not been released to the public and could affect an asset's price once it becomes known. Kalshi's recent requirement for employment disclosure suggests the platform itself is grappling with the challenge of policing insider activity when the definition of "inside information" extends beyond corporate earnings reports to political speech. The gap between policy language and enforcement capacity remains wide.

For federal ethics regulators, this case highlights the complexity of monitoring personnel whose roles grant unusual but non-public access to information that carries market value. A teleprompter operator occupies a niche but informationally rich position within the executive branch. Think of it this way: if a movie studio employee knew the ending of a highly anticipated film before anyone else and bet on how audiences would react, the principle would be the same — using access to information others don't have to gain a financial edge. The outcome of the CFTC investigation could set precedent for how non-financial federal employees are treated when they monetize access to government information through emerging market instruments.

The broader stakes extend to prediction market operators. Kalshi's decision to flag, investigate, and refer the activity may strengthen its regulatory standing, but the incident also illustrates the inherent vulnerability of political event markets to insider activity. Other exchanges offering similar products will likely face pressure to implement comparable employment disclosure requirements and surveillance mechanisms.

Perez's decade-long proximity to the president adds another layer. His role placed him in rooms where policy and messaging decisions were finalized, creating a continuous pipeline of potentially market-moving information. Whether the CFTC pursues enforcement or closes the investigation without action, the case establishes a framework for future inquiries into the monetization of political access through prediction markets.