How White House Speech Access Became an Insider-Trading Case

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has ordered Gabriel Perez, a former White House employee who operated President Donald Trump's teleprompter, to pay a civil penalty of $65,000 for insider trading. Perez must also hand over roughly $108,000 in profits he made by betting on what the president would say, the CFTC announced. Together, the penalty and disgorgement total about $173,000.

Perez worked as a teleprompter operator, a role that gave him advance access to Trump's speech texts and to last-minute changes. Between December 2025 and February 2026, he used that information to place wagers on prediction platforms Kalshi and Polymarket, where users can bet on whether specific events, words, or topics will occur during a speech. Polymarket is not authorized to operate in the United States; Kalshi is regulated by the CFTC.

The penalty was originally higher but was reduced because Perez cooperated with investigators after the White House suspended him when the suspicion arose, according to the agency. The CFTC also publicly thanked Kalshi for its assistance in the case. Perez has agreed not to violate insider-trading rules again and is subject to a three-year trading ban.

What the CFTC's Settlement Signals for Prediction Markets

A New Insider-Information Risk in Event Contracts

The case shows how prediction markets create a direct route from nonpublic government information to a financial payoff. Perez had legal access to Trump's prepared remarks and last-minute edits, exactly the information that determines whether a speech-related contract resolves in a trader's favor. The CFTC treated that advance knowledge as a violation of the same insider-trading principle applied to stocks and futures: using material nonpublic information for personal gain.

For platforms, the risk is not only theoretical. Kalshi's cooperation with the agency—publicly acknowledged by the CFTC—helps the regulated exchange distance itself from the misconduct. Polymarket, by contrast, is not authorized in the U.S., and the case highlights the regulatory gap between the two platforms.

Cooperation Lowered the Price

The penalty was substantially reduced because Perez cooperated and accepted restrictions. The final $65,000 civil fine is modest by CFTC enforcement standards. The more meaningful consequence may be the three-year trading ban and the precedent that White House support staff can be pursued for using presidential speech information in prediction markets.