Even Trump’s Teleprompter Guy Made a Killing on Prediction Markets? Maybe It’s Time to Admit We Have a Problem.

2 min readThis administration is nothing if not the perfect manifestation of the most basic question of all American political history: “Me some too, yes?”It’s nothing but grifters all the way down. Seriously, though, the teleprompter guy? From ABC News:President Donald Trump’s longtime teleprompter operator is believed to have made tens of thousands of dollars by placing bets on more than a dozen of Trump’s speeches on the prediction market Kalshi, federal investigators with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission found, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. Gabriel Perez, a technical assistant to the president who has been operating Trump’s teleprompter since 2016, is in talks with federal regulators to settle allegations he used his inside knowledge of the president’s speeches to win more than $100,000, the sources said.Karoline Leavitt and the White House communications shop responded with a brief bit of sketch comedy.Leavitt said she was unaware of any other White House staffers who have made such trades. “The White House has strict ethics guidelines that we expect all staffers and officials to follow,” said White House spokesperson Davis Ingle when contacted by ABC News.What in the hell did this guy bet on?In addition to February’s State of the Union address, sources said CFTC investigators discovered that Perez placed bets on more than a dozen Trump speeches over a three-month period, including a December primetime address, a January speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and Trump’s remarks in March during a Medal of Honor ceremony. Later in March, the White House issued an internal memo warning staff against using nonpublic information to place bets on prediction markets, sources previously confirmed to ABC News.My guess? A lot of over/under action. Number of times the president will mention the 2020 election. Number of times he will mention sharks, magnets, or windmills. Number of mispronounced words. Number of garbled sentences. Number of empty threats.I hope he didn’t get busted before he got down on Thursday night’s extravaganza. He’s going to need bail money.