As the Pentagon and Congress crack down on government insiders using prediction markets, two Democratic senators want to know what steps the White House is taking to guard against potential insider trading among President Donald Trump’s staff — particularly after a White House teleprompter operator allegedly made $100,000 on Kalshi by betting on which words the president would use in his speeches.
The operator, Gabriel Perez, who had access to Trump’s draft speeches, paid a $173,000 fine, was banned from gambling and lost his job. But he was not criminally prosecuted.
The lack of criminal charges stands in contrast to the case of a special forces soldier who took part in the operation to capture Nicolás Maduro and then used that information to make more than $400,000 on Polymarket. The soldier was eventually charged with using classified information for personal gain.
In April, the Senate also barred its members and staff from using prediction markets. And some House members have prohibited their staff from using the platforms as well.
Now, two Democratic senators want to know why the White House has not issued its own regulations in the wake of the arrest of Trump’s longtime teleprompter operator.
In a new letter, obtained first by MS NOW, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., ask White House counsel Will Scharf whether any other White House employees have placed similar bets on prediction markets. The senators also want to know whether White House staff have received any training on the issue — and whether anyone in the White House discussed the teleprompter case with federal regulators or prosecutors.
The letter requests answers by Nov. 23.
“The White House continues to take no meaningful action to address these problems,” the Democratic senators wrote, “all while the President and his family stand to personally profit from their participation in prediction markets.”
White House spokesman Davis Ingle did not say whether any review of staff activity on prediction markets was underway. But in a statement to MS NOW, he said federal ethics rules already “prohibit White House employees from using nonpublic information obtained through their government work to place bets on prediction markets or otherwise further their own financial interests or those of others.”
Representatives for Polymarket, Donald Trump Jr., and Gabriel Perez — the White House teleprompter operator — did not respond to requests for comment.
But Kalshi noted that it was the company’s own internal regulators who caught Perez.
Kalshi’s surveillance systems “flagged his trades as unusual activity,” and investigators identified him as a White House staffer, said Robert DeNault, Kalshi’s head of enforcement. The company then referred the case to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
“Perez was charged and penalized by both the CFTC’s Division of Enforcement and Kalshi,” DeNault said in a statement to MS NOW. “It doesn’t matter who you are: violate Kalshi exchange rules or federal law and you will face the consequences.”
DeNault said members of Congress and executive and judicial branch officials are “strictly prohibited” from opening Kalshi accounts, and that the company supports legislation barring congressional staffers and lawmakers from insider trading. He said Kalshi briefed the House Oversight Committee on the case over the summer.
The Trump family has a significant financial stake in prediction market companies. Trump Jr. is an adviser to both Kalshi and Polymarket. His venture capital firm, 1789 Capital, this year led a $1 billion Polymarket funding round, putting in about $300 million on top of roughly $200 million it had invested earlier. Trump Jr. told The New York Times in July that he invested as a private citizen and held “no policy position and no role within the administration whatsoever.”
Asked whether Donald Trump Jr.’s role as a Kalshi adviser affected how the company handled the case, DeNault said it hadn’t. “We handled the matter concerning Mr. Perez the same as we would handle any potential violation of our exchange rules or the law,” he said.
But the president’s own company has also moved into the business.
Trump Media, which owns Truth Social, announced plans to launch its own prediction market, called Truth Predict, though it has since scaled back those plans.
While the White House has pointed to existing ethics rules governing staff and prediction markets, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently took additional steps to tighten the restrictions.
In an Oct. 20 memo to senior Pentagon leaders and combatant commanders, Hegseth barred troops and Pentagon civilians from using inside information to bet on military operations — specifically naming Polymarket and Kalshi.
“Our enemies watch movements in these markets,” Hegseth wrote.
Federal rules currently bar all federal government personnel from profiting off inside information. But Hegseth’s memo reinforced that ban and went further than those restrictions.
In August, Reuters reported that more than 150 Polymarket wallets may have traded on military secrets.
The post Democrats call for Trump to bar White House staff from using prediction markets appeared first on MS NOW.
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