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(https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world/us_and_canada) US & Canada           Ex-White House teleprompter operator ordered to pay $172,000 for Trump speech bets      (Exterior shot of the White House's South lawn, the Truman balcony (portico area enclosed by six white columns in the Ionic style, with a distinctive scroll-shaped ornaments called volutes on the capital. A yellow crane can be seen emerging from trees to the left of the frame)    Image source,  Getty Images  Image caption,  The staffer was found to have made tens of thousands of dollars through betting on what the president would say in his speeches       By Rorey Bosotti     Published 3 hours ago           A former White House teleprompter operator has been ordered to pay more than $172,000 (£127,000) for using inside information to bet  on US President Donald Trump's speeches.  Gabriel Perez was found to have made trades on what the president would say during addresses between December 2025 and February 2026 on Kalshi - a prediction markets platform where users can bet on real-world events. Its regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), said Perez would have to surrender profits of $107,539.02 (£79,452) and pay a civil penalty of $65,000 (£48,000). The White House has not yet commented. In July, (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjrvdqyr5d5o) then-press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Perez was on unpaid leave and would not return to his post. Announcing the settlement on Friday, the CFTC said Perez had "misappropriated" his prior knowledge of Trump's speeches to place bets "in breach of his duty of trust and confidence". It said his civil penalty had been reduced due to his "exemplary co-operation" with the investigation. Perez has also been banned from trading for three years. Writing on X, Kalshi's lead lawyer Bobby DeNault welcomed the decision: "It doesn't matter who you are: violate our rules or federal law and you will face the consequences." The company previously told the BBC its analysts had noticed unusual betting on "mention markets" – contracts where users predict whether a speaker will use common terms, such as specific countries, campaign slogans or words – in March. It said it had used account data to find that the user was a federal employee operating White House teleprompters, and had reported the activity to the regulator. "The words of political leaders like Presidents and Fed chairs cause billions of dollars of movement in FX markets, oil futures, [and] the stock market," it said in a statement in July. The same month, the White House Management Office had sent a letter to aides telling them not to place bets on prediction markets, administration officials told the BBC's US media partner CBS News.          To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 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