Trump names Katie Zacharia press secretary; Kalshi probes bets that called it early

President Trump named Katie Zacharia, a communications adviser at his family's social media company, as the new White House press secretary on Friday, filling a post that had sat without a permanent occupant for six weeks. Within hours, a second story broke alongside it: the prediction-market exchange Kalshi is investigating a cluster of well-timed wagers that correctly called Zacharia's selection before it was public.

Trump announced the pick in a Truth Social post, writing that Zacharia "has the respect of" the press corps, the public and his administration, according to excerpts carried by Time's report on the appointment. She replaces Karoline Leavitt, who left the job on Aug. 27 to spend more time with her children; Fox News hired Leavitt as a contributor the same week.

"It is my Great Honor to have just appointed, as Press Secretary, Katie Zacharia," Trump wrote, calling her "a devoted fan and member of MAGA." Zacharia responded on the same platform that it was "the honor of a lifetime" and that "following the fabulous Karoline Leavitt is a high standard, and one worth meeting."

A trail of small bets, a short window

Before Friday afternoon, Kalshi's own market gave Zacharia roughly a 1 percent chance of getting the job, according to the Wall Street Journal's reporting on the trades, which was corroborated by multiple outlets that reviewed the exchange's public order data. Three wagers stand out:

• A $19 bet placed around 10:43 p.m. Thursday, which stood to pay about $1,896.
• A roughly $74 bet placed around 1:41 p.m. Friday — minutes before news organizations began reporting Zacharia's selection — with a potential payout near $3,689.
• A roughly $80 bet placed in the same window Friday, carrying a potential payout of about $4,023.

A Kalshi spokeswoman confirmed the company is examining the trades, describing the review as part of the exchange's effort to "protect market integrity," but declined to say who placed the bets or whether the matter would be referred to regulators. Trading on Kalshi is anonymous to the public, though the company retains identifying account records.

Not the first time

This is the second episode in less than a year tying Trump-orbit personnel decisions to suspiciously accurate Kalshi trading. In August, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ordered former White House teleprompter operator Gabriel Perez to pay $172,539 — disgorgement of profits plus a civil penalty — after finding he traded Kalshi "mention market" contracts on words Trump would use in speeches while Perez still had advance access to the text. Perez, who settled without admitting the findings, also accepted a three-year trading ban.

That case, and a separate Justice Department complaint against a soldier accused of trading on Polymarket using classified intelligence about a military operation, pushed the agency toward closer scrutiny of so-called event contracts. In March, the CFTC opened a rulemaking process examining event contracts on prediction markets, asking for public comment on listing standards and safeguards against abusive trading. A month later, Senate Democrats led by Jeff Merkley urged the commission to bar event contracts tied to elections, war and other government actions entirely, arguing the markets invite insider trading by people with access to nonpublic government information. The agency has not acted on that request.

The six-week vacancy

Zacharia's appointment also ends an unusually long gap at the presidential podium. Leavitt's exit left Principal Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly fielding most day-to-day questions, while names including Kelly, CNN contributor Scott Jennings and Communications Director Steven Cheung circulated as possible permanent replacements, according to wire-service reporting on the stalled search. The White House went more than 40 days without a formal televised briefing, an unusual silence for an administration that otherwise holds frequent on-camera sessions.

Zacharia, a lawyer with a degree from Pepperdine's Caruso School of Law, has been a senior communications adviser at Trump Media & Technology Group, which runs Truth Social, and a frequent cable-news surrogate for the administration on Fox News, Fox Business and Newsmax. She briefly served as a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman and deputy assistant secretary earlier this year before leaving after about six weeks. The New York Times first reported she was being offered the job; a follow-up account noted she had not immediately accepted when the offer first leaked, before Trump's post made the appointment official.

What's next

The timing raises the stakes beyond the usual staffing churn. Trump has told rally crowds in recent weeks that his administration is "doing an extremely poor job of promotion," and the new press secretary takes over five weeks before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, in which Republicans are defending narrow majorities in both chambers of Congress. The White House has not said when Zacharia will begin holding briefings or whether she will face reporters before Election Day.

Kalshi has not said whether it will refer the press-secretary trades to the CFTC, as it did with the Perez case after its own surveillance system flagged the activity, and there is no public indication yet that the commission has opened its own inquiry into these trades. The White House did not respond to reporters' requests for comment on the betting pattern. Unless Kalshi or regulators identify the traders, the central question — whether someone with advance knowledge of Trump's decision placed the bets — is likely to remain open for weeks, if it is resolved publicly at all.

The episode lands squarely on the White House press corps, whose access has been a recurring flashpoint this year, including a September decision to bar CNN, MS NOW and Politico reporters from parts of the White House, which the White House Correspondents' Association said it "unequivocally opposes," objecting to any effort to limit journalists from areas long open for newsgathering. A new press secretary typically sets the tone for that relationship for the balance of a term, and Zacharia will do so with a midterm campaign, and now a regulatory inquiry touching her own appointment, running in parallel. For Kalshi and the CFTC, the case is also a test of whether earlier warnings to federal employees about trading on nonpublic information are being heeded at the senior levels of the West Wing, not just among junior staff.