Former White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews was incensed on Friday, speaking about President Donald Trump’s current staff, his new Truth Social scheme and accusations of insider trading.
Read more ‘Humiliation’: Young MAGA voters explain why they’re ditching Trump
It was reported this week that Trump’s teleprompter operator used nonpublic information from the president’s speeches to bet on prediction markets. Gabriel Perez, a technical assistant to Trump, won more than $100,000 betting on things that Trump would or wouldn’t say, even though he knew ahead of time.
“Our surveillance team promptly flagged and referred these trades to the CFTC, and we are cooperating and assisting regulators,” said Kalshi’s head of enforcement Bobby DeNault in a statement.
It comes the same week that Trump’s social media company made a lucrative deal with traders and investors to sell “real-time access to Truth Social posts” from the top accounts, like Trump’s.
As Bloomberg explained, Truth Social will allow “high-frequency and algorithmic trading firms” to have an edge on what the White House staff and officials might announce that could impact the stock markets.
It’s unknown how much Trump’s company will charge for the service, but over the past several months, Trump has been accused of pumping up stocks in which he is invested.
CNN’s K-File reported on Thursday that there were at least 20 major stocks that Trump purchased before announcing “government actions that could benefit the companies he just invested in” on his social media.
The White House claims that Trump’s stock trades are conducted by financial managers. They claim Trump and his family have no control over them.
Both stories infuriate Matthews. MS NOW host Alicia Menendez asked, “Is the message supposed to be pay for my early access subscription on Truth Social, and you too can be on the inside?”
Read more Two calls from ‘different agencies’ suggest McConnell died: Kentucky governor
Matthews called it precisely what they are hoping will happen.
“I think that the president knows that his voice can move markets. And so they know that this will be profitable for him,” Matthews explained. “And they’re selling access to the presidency, and they’re hopeful that people will be inspired by someone like the teleprompter, Gabe, who was able to make $90,000 with that inside information on cash. And he is likely to be caught by the FTC because of his role in the White House.”
Meanwhile, she said, an average person who signs up for early access on Truth Social can somehow play the prediction markets and other betting services.
“I don’t know how Kashi or Polymarket or any of these other betting services are going to be able to regulate that,” she added. “It really is just legalizing essentially insider trading essentially insider trading. And I think that if the average American sees no problem with it, then they’re able to do it themselves, then they might be willing to dismiss the behavior that we’re seeing come from the president.”
She recalled Trump’s old campaign promise of “drain the swamp,” and both administrations have proven “that he’s actually the biggest swamp creature of all, selling access to the presidency. I mean, you think about someone like Jimmy Carter, who had to put his peanut farm in a blind trust because people were worried about it looking like a conflict of interest?”
Now, Trump has been able to use the White House “to increase his net worth by billions,” she said. It’s the reason the midterm elections will be important, because these are all things that must be investigated along with the government contracts that the Trump companies have been awarded.
“There needs to be accountability because we’ve never seen corruption like this at this scale. And it’s exactly what Donald Trump accused Joe Biden of doing. But Trump is actually doing it — and doing it ten times worse,” she said.
Previous presidents wanted to avoid the implication of insider trading, so putting any assets in a blind trust was the ethical option. Trump never did that, despite promising he would.
Read more MAGA exposed by cartoonish obsession with ‘manliness’: doctor
