Trump aide made $100,000 betting on president's speeches
What's the story
Gabriel Perez, an aide to Donald Trump, is said to have made nearly $100,000 by betting on the content of Trump's speeches. The bets were placed on Kalshi, a prediction market that allows users to speculate about future events. According to NPR, Perez placed these bets over several months last year and earlier this year.
Betting tactics
Perez allegedly changed bets in real-time during Trump's speeches
Kalshi's platform features a "mention market," where users can place bets on key phrases or words that may come up in upcoming events.
For instance, one question currently open for betting is "What will Domino's say during their next earnings call?"
Perez placed bets on what Trump would say while working as the president's teleprompter operator. He would even change his contracts in real-time during Trump's speeches, according to ABC News.
Speech dynamics
Perez had final eyes on Trump's prepared remarks
As Trump's teleprompter operator, Perez had the final eyes on nearly all of the president's prepared remarks. He was also known to take last-minute edits from Trump himself.
In some cases, investigators found instances where Perez would back out of certain bets mid-speech if Trump skipped over a word he had previously bet would be mentioned.
Market scrutiny
Kalshi flagged suspicious activity and launched investigation
Kalshi, which prohibits such behavior, flagged suspicious activity on its platform and launched an investigation.
The company discovered that the account belonged to a federal employee and subsequently froze his funds while reporting the matter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
ABC News reported that federal prosecutors in Manhattan have declined to pursue a criminal investigation against Perez.