White House Touts Insider Trading As Workforce Program
The White House designated former teleprompter operator Gabriel Perez as the first graduate of its “Read the Speech, Beat the Market” economic-mobility initiative after regulators said he used advance access to President Donald Trump’s remarks to place more than $100,000 in profitable wagers. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission ordered Perez to surrender $107,539.02, pay a $65,000 penalty and accept a three-year trading ban, formally recognizing that federal service remains a path to prosperity for employees who receive tomorrow’s market results before lunch.
Perez wagered on which words and phrases Trump would use in speeches between December 2025 and February 2026 through Kalshi “mention markets,” an investment strategy commonly known as possessing the answer key. Administration officials praised Perez for converting confidential information into private-sector value without burdening taxpayers with the intermediate step of a salary increase. “Gabriel took words that were sitting around doing nothing and turned them into more than one hundred thousand beautiful American dollars,” Trump said. “That is manufacturing, that is innovation, and frankly the CFTC should be giving him a medal instead of asking for the money back.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the punishment demonstrated the administration’s commitment to fair markets, where government insiders may trade on privileged information only after acquiring the proper job title, consulting contract or senator’s telephone number. Officials distinguished Perez’s conduct from respectable influence-based investing, explaining that he committed the technical error of being a teleprompter operator rather than a cabinet secretary, major donor or congressional spouse.
The administration is reviewing a broader federal retirement plan under which employees would receive a Kalshi account, a classified briefing and one complimentary ethics waiver. Workers could convert nonpublic information into matching contributions, while taxpayers would retain their traditional role as the people who learn what happened after the profits have been withdrawn. Regulators said expansion must wait until they determine whether knowing the future creates an unfair advantage over investors equipped only with money, lobbyists and advance notice from elected officials. The settlement therefore confirms that insider trading is not corruption when properly administered as workforce development.
* None of the quotes in this article were spoken by an actual person. More info.