Prediction platform Kalshi is looking into three modest wagers involving Katie Zacharia that are set to return roughly $9,600 following her shares trading at just 1% probability on the exchange.
The forecasting market Kalshi is currently examining a set of transactions that accurately anticipated President Donald Trump selecting conservative pundit Katie Zacharia as his upcoming press secretary for the White House, reported Friday by The Wall Street Journal.
A representative for Kalshi verified the investigation to the Journal while withholding additional remarks. While public users see Kalshi transactions as anonymous, the organization maintains logs identifying the actual participants.
Various news organizations, including The New York Times, started breaking news about Zacharia’s appointment around 2 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday. Publicly available transaction data analyzed by the Journal indicates that at least three wagers were placed on her beforehand.
A $19 wager executed near 10:42 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday stands to yield $1,896 once the market officially finalizes. Two additional stakes, valued at roughly $74 and $80, were executed close to 1:41 p.m. on Friday and are projected to return $3,689 and $4,023 respectively.
Prior to these news reports, Kalshi participants priced Zacharia’s odds of securing the role at approximately 1%, as noted by the Journal. Trump officially announced the selection through a Truth Social publication on Friday afternoon, designating Zacharia to follow Karoline Leavitt. Trump stated, “I am confident that Katie will deliver strong results for our Country.”
Zacharia functions as a principal communications consultant at Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social. As noted in Trump’s announcement, she previously held roles as a representative and deputy assistant secretary for public affairs within the Department of Homeland Security.
Insider trading on prediction markets
The White House did not provide a statement when approached by the Journal, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission opted not to reply prior to the publication time. According to the Journal, the White House had previously circulated an internal memo cautioning personnel against leveraging nonpublic details for personal financial benefit following a sequence of precisely timed wagers connected to the Iran conflict.
During August, former White House teleprompter worker Gabriel Perez agreed to restitute $107,539 in gains alongside a civil penalty of $65,000 to resolve CFTC allegations accusing him of wagering on Kalshi mention markets after reviewing drafted statements by Trump. The CFTC acknowledged Kalshi’s assistance during the inquiry.
Additionally, Kalshi enforced a lifetime ban against former Representative George Santos on August 31 relating to wagers concerning his presence at the State of the Union, alongside a fine exceeding $71,000. Santos had previously consented in July to remit $35,000 to settle with the CFTC regarding those exact wagers, while neither confirming nor refuting the commission’s conclusions.
Back in June, Kalshi initiated a policy mandating participants to reveal their employers prior to engaging in sectors identified as carrying elevated vulnerabilities for market manipulation or insider trading. The enterprise noted at that juncture that it had submitted upwards of 20 notifications to law enforcement and initiated more than 150 inquiries over the initial quarter.
Representative James Comer, serving as House Oversight Committee Chair, initiated an investigation concerning insider trading across Kalshi and Polymarket during May, seeking records regarding identity verification protocols and suspicious activity detection on the networks.
The Block has contacted both Kalshi and the White House seeking statements.
Originally published at https://www.theblock.co/news/regulation/2026-10-10-kalshi-is-investigating-bets-on-trumps-press-secretary-pick-placed-before-announcement-wsj-418222.
