US President Donald Trump. Photo: AFP
The White House has placed one of President Donald Trump’s longtime teleprompter operators on unpaid administrative leave over allegations that he used advance knowledge of the president’s speeches to make more than $100,000 through prediction market bets, according to multiple US media reports.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the decision during a briefing on Thursday, saying the employee “will no longer be here” and had been placed on unpaid administrative leave pending his departure.
ABC News identified the employee as Gabriel Perez, who has reportedly operated Trump’s teleprompter since 2016.
According to ABC News, Perez is in talks with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to resolve allegations that he placed wagers on prediction market platform Kalshi over whether Trump would use specific words, phrases or discuss certain topics in more than a dozen speeches, including his February State of the Union address and remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
