WH teleprompter op accused of betting on Trump speeches

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - A White House teleprompter operator is under federal investigation after allegedly placing bets on the contents of President Donald Trump’s speeches, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Thursday.

The operator was identified on Kalshi, a prediction market platform, where he allegedly wagered on the contents of presidential addresses. Surveillance teams flagged his account as suspicious after he accumulated close to $100,000 on the platform. The funds were frozen before the account was referred to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Leavitt, returning to the White House Briefing Room Thursday following maternity leave, said both she and President Trump had been informed of the investigation. She said the operator had already been placed on unpaid leave.

“Look, there are very strict ethical guidelines here at the White House that explicitly state not to do this,” Leavitt said. “And the White House counsel’s office makes that clear to all of us who sign up to work in government on behalf of the president. So I think there has been a plan in place. This individual unfortunately violated the plan, and therefore he’s paying the consequences for it.”

Leavitt said she was not aware of any other White House staffers or administration officials under investigation related to the matter.

Kalshi co-founder and CEO Tarek Mansour appeared on Capitol Hill earlier this week, where he touted the platform’s security standards to avoid nearly this exact situation.

“We’ve taken a very strong stance against insider trading. We have policed it. We’ve done an incredible job at essentially catching all the bad actors and rooting them out of the system,” Mansour said. “One, because it’s very important that people trust the system and two, it’s in our interest; if people don’t trust the system, they stop using it.”

Ahead of Trump’s primetime address on election security Thursday, Leavitt confirmed teleprompters would still be used — operated by someone other than the individual named in the investigation.

“There will be a teleprompter operator tonight, of course, but it will not be the one, unfortunately, in that story,” Leavitt said.