WASHINGTON: Donald Trump has suspended a teleprompter operator over allegations he placed bets with a prediction market on the content of the US president’s speeches.

The White House said on Thursday that Gabriel Perez allegedly made more than $100,000 with bets placed on the prediction market Kalshi about specific words or phrases that would appear in the president’s speeches, ABC News reported.

“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,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

The teleprompter operator was put on unpaid administrative leave and “will no longer be working at the White House”, Leavitt added.

Kalshi said it had alerted its regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), to suspicious activity related to Trump’s speeches that “jumped out” to analysts.

“Our surveillance team promptly flagged and referred these trades to the CFTC after an exchange investigation,” Robert DeNault, head of enforcement at Kalshi, said.

“We have been assisting regulators on this matter and provided evidence we collected, as we do in any referral.” More than $90,000 in profits made by the operator had been frozen in his account before he could withdraw it from the platform, and he is currently in talks on a settlement, Kalshi said.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2026