Thursday, July 16, 2026

President Donald Trump's longtime teleprompter operator, Gabriel Perez, has placed nearly $100,000 in bets on the prediction market Kalshi tied to the content of Trump's upcoming speeches — accused of insider trading from inside the White House. Public Citizen has again demanded the Commodity Futures Trading Commission enforce insider-trading laws on prediction markets, citing the operator's profitable wagers.

In Georgia, the Republican-dominated state election board has hired a pro-Trump private investigator who explicitly declared "I stand with Trump" to probe bogus fraud claims, as the board labors to blow the results ahead of the midterms.

A Marshall Project analysis of child-welfare data across eight states shows that mothers of Black newborns are referred to law enforcement over alleged substance use during pregnancy at significantly higher rates than mothers of white newborns, referrals that frequently stem from false positives.

Truth Social is monetizing presidential communication by selling instant access to Trump's posts to banks and traders, even as Trump promotes companies on the platform in which he holds stock. Simultaneously, Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO) went on the Charlie Kirk Show to advocate annexing Greenland on the fantastical premise that Denmark might become an Islamic theocracy.