Trump’s shadow economy

School’s out for summer — and for one White House staffer, months of seaside lolly-licking beckon. Yes, Gabriel Perez’s schedule is wide open now that he’s been placed on unpaid leave after the online prediction market Kalshi snitched to federal regulators. They alleged that Trump’s beloved teleprompter operator “Gabe” had placed bets on what the president would include in his speeches, the scolds. Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary, called the situation “a disgrace”; ABC News revealed last Thursday that Perez had allegedly won more than $100,000 by taking positions on speeches which he would seem to have had access to ahead of time — including the State of the Union address — in the so-called “mentions” market which bets on particular phrases cropping up. Kalshi recently introduced