Gabriel Perez, the White House technical aide who operated Trump’s teleprompter since 2016, is alleged to have used advance access to speech text to place prediction-market wagers on which words Trump would use, netting over $100,000 from bets on mor

2026-07-17

Gabriel Perez, the White House technical aide who operated Trump’s teleprompter since 2016, is alleged to have used advance access to speech text to place prediction-market wagers on which words Trump would use, netting over $100,000 from bets on more than a dozen speeches. Prediction-market operators flagged the trading to the CFTC; investigators say Perez sometimes exited bets when Trump deviated from scripts. Perez is negotiating a potential settlement with regulators that could include disgorgement and a commitment to stop such trading; the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan declined to open a criminal probe. The White House says it is cooperating with the CFTC.