A White House official confirmed to The Post that the warning was sent to all staffers in an email from the White House Management Office on March 24.

A day earlier, anonymous accounts made a blitz of trades just 15 minutes before President Trump announced a pause on strikes on Iran for five days, according to the Wall Street Journal. In less than two minutes, more than $760 million worth of oil futures contracts had changed hands, Dow Jones Market Data showed.

The White House warned staffers not to use insider information to place bets on prediction markets. Getty Images

Then, three accounts on Polymarket raked in more than $600,000 this week by correctly betting on the timing of the ceasefire. The identity of the traders remains unknown.

Polymarket did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

Prediction markets like it and Kalshi allow traders to wage bets on everything from politics, sports and pop culture to the likelihood of the president saying “Sleepy Joe” or “Trump Derangement Syndrome” on a certain day.

Critics have been quick to blast the perfectly-timed wartime trades as instances of insider trading, and members of Congress have recently introduced several bills seeking to restrict public officials’ use of futures markets.

Ethics rules already ban government workers from using insider scoops for personal gain and from gambling while on federal property, but critics have argued that’s not enough.

“President Trump has been crystal clear: while he seeks a strong and profitable stock market for everyone, members of Congress and other government officials should be prohibited from using nonpublic information for financial benefit,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle told The Post.

“The only special interest that will ever guide President Trump is the best interest of the American people,” Ingle said.

A flurry of suspicious trades were made 15 minutes before President Trump announced a pause on strikes on Iran. Westend61 – stock.adobe.com

He added that any implication that Trump administration officials have engaged in insider information is “baseless and irresponsible reporting.”

In January, an unknown trader won more than $400,000 from bets that Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro would soon be out as leader – less than five hours before his capture by US forces.

Bettors reaped $54 million from wagers on former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s ouster that were placed before he was killed in US-Israeli air strikes.

Kalshi is currently being sued for refusing to pay out those winnings, arguing that the bets do not count because the platform does not allow wagers related to death.

Meanwhile, Israel has arrested several people – including military reservists – for allegedly using classified information to place bets on Polymarket about military strikes.

Polymarket accounts raked in more than $600,000 this week by correctly betting on the timing of the ceasefire. AFP via Getty Images

US states have argued that the increasingly popular markets are the same as online gambling platforms, which require approval for state licenses and bans on users under 21.

Arizona, Connecticut and Illinois are currently fighting for the ability to restrict prediction markets.

New Jersey’s efforts to do the same recently suffered a major setback when a federal appeals court ruled Kalshi is under the exclusive jurisdiction of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Last month, Kalshi and Polymarket added new anti-insider trading rules to their platforms as members of Congress introduced a flurry of legislative proposals aimed at the new markets.

Sens. John Curtis (R-Utah) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) have pushed legislation to hand over control of prediction markets to state regulators, while lefty California Gov. Gavin Newsom banned state-appointed officials with insider information from using the markets.

Prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket allow traders to wage bets on politics, sports and pop culture. NurPhoto via Getty Images

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) also announced a ban on prediction markets among his office staffers, and last week blasted a Polymarket contract linked to the rescue mission of a US service member whose plane was shot down over Iran. 

“They could be your neighbor, a friend, a family member. And people are betting on whether or not they’ll be saved,” Moulton wrote in a post on X. “This is DISGUSTING.”

In a response to Moulton’s criticism, Polymarket wrote: “We took this market down immediately as it does not meet our integrity standards. It should not have been posted, and we are investigating how this slipped through our internal safeguards.”

Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Andy Kim (D-NJ) also introduced legislation that would ban prediction markets related to war or military action.

Dems have also taken aim at the Trump family’s ties to prediction markets, since Donald Trump Jr. is an adviser to both Kalshi and Polymarket.

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President Donald Trump established PCAST through an executive order on Wednesday, aimed at bringing together leading figures in science and technology to advise the president and strengthen US leadership in those fields.

The new role positions Sacks to oversee a broader range of technology issues and deepen the White House’s engagement with major tech companies.

“We’ve accomplished a lot in the first year, but the President wants to keep the pedal to the metal on everything tech. That’s exactly what we will do,” Sacks told FOX Business.

The council will include up to 24 members, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.

David Sacks has been appointed co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). AP

A senior adviser to the president told FOX Business that Sacks will continue serving as AI and crypto czar while taking on a broader portfolio.

“David will always be his crypto and AI czar, but to the admin more broadly, this new role will allow him to advise on a broader range of critical tech issues,” the adviser said.

As AI and crypto czar, Sacks has helped drive a series of policy shifts aimed at reshaping US artificial intelligence strategy, including rolling back prior restrictions and expanding federal oversight.

Trump established PCAST through an executive order on Wednesday. AP

In his first week in office, Trump signed an executive order revoking a Biden-era policy that took a more cautious approach to emerging technologies like AI and blockchain.

Trump later signed another executive order in December 2025 establishing a national framework for AI regulation, preempting state-level rules. The order argued that US companies must be able to innovate “without cumbersome regulation.”

In July 2025, the White House released its “Winning the AI Race” action plan, outlining more than 90 federal policy initiatives focused on accelerating innovation, building infrastructure and strengthening the nation’s position in global AI development and security.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg will join the tech advisory council. AP

More recently, the White House unveiled a national AI policy framework aimed at creating a “consistent” standard for development nationwide while addressing concerns around censorship, free speech and child protection.

Sacks has also played a key role in shaping the administration’s cryptocurrency agenda.

Within days of taking office, Trump signed an executive order promoting US leadership in digital assets, banning the development of a central bank digital currency and creating a presidential working group on the issue.

Sacks at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. AP

In March 2025, Trump signed an order establishing a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a US Digital Asset Stockpile, positioning the country as a leader in government-backed digital asset strategy.

Congress followed with the passage of the GENIUS Act in July 2025, the first major federal legislation on digital assets, creating a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins. The bill passed with bipartisan support in both chambers.

The administration has also moved to ease regulatory pressure on the crypto industry, including ending several SEC investigations and installing crypto-friendly leadership at key agencies.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was defunded — a move Sacks called his “personal favorite” — eliminating what he described as the crypto industry’s most aggressive enforcement arm.

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Late Thursday, WBD deemed a revised bid of $31 a share from rival Paramount Skydance a “reasonably superior offer,” forcing Netflix to pull its bid thus ending a six-month takeover battle that has captivated Wall Street and the media business.

The backdrop of the announcement was the increasingly insurmountable regulatory hurdles Netflix faced in dealing with the Trump administration. As first reported by The Post, earlier Thursday, Sarandos sat with a skeptical Attorney General Pam Bondi, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Justice Department antitrust officials to try to convince the administration not to oppose the deal on antitrust grounds.

Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos failed to convince a skeptical Trump administration to approve his proposed takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery – and with that, his nearly done deal to buy WBD’s streaming service and studio went into a death spiral.

He argued that combining Netflix’s No. 1 streaming service with WBD’s No. 3 largest streamer wouldn’t constitute a streaming monopoly.

Sarandos was said to have sought a meeting with President Trump, his second one since the bidding war for WBD began and the president’s absence may have foreshadowed his tenuous position with the administration. Sources tell The Post that the White House was unmoved by Sarandos’ arguments, that competition from social media negates their antitrust concerns, and that the administration would oppose the deal. That left the Netflix chief with a choice: he could litigate a decision by the DOJ antitrust division – a two-year process with an uncertain outcome – or he could walk.

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Late Thursday, he chose the latter.

“We’ve always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance’s latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive, so we are declining to match,” Sarandos and and co-CEO Greg Peters said in a statement. “This transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price.”

“Netflix is a great company and throughout this process Ted, Greg, Spence and everyone there have been extraordinary partners to us. We wish them well in the future,” said David Zaslav, president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery. “Once our Board votes to adopt the Paramount merger agreement, it will create tremendous value for our shareholders. We are excited about the potential of a combined Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery and can’t wait to get started working together telling the stories that move the world.”

Sarandos departing the White House on Thursday. Getty Images

Netflix’s pullout – first reported by The Post in an X posting – is also a huge victory for Paramount Skydance as it attempts to build a media and programming empire with its existing media properties, including a studio, a streaming service and the CBS news and entertainment divisions. 

The head of its news division, former opinion journalist Bari Weiss, will now likely control a combined news division that includes WBD’s cable news network CNN.

Netflix’s pullout is also a huge victory for David Ellion’s Paramount Skydance as it attempts to build a media and programming empire.  REUTERS

People at Paramount and their partners at Redbird will begin the onerous process of combining all their operations as soon as Friday, when they and WBD are expected to make an announcement on the future of the company.

The war for the future of David Zaslav-run WBD has captivated Wall Street, Washington and the media business for the past six months given the culturally important properties at stake and the boldfaced names involved in the negotiations. Warner Bros. is the home of the Warner studio, HBO Max and cable properties like CNN, TNT and Discovery. Players in the mix included the people who run Paramount Skydance, known as PSKY – indie producer David Ellision, backed by by father, the mega billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, and their partners at RedBird Capital, run by media deal specialist Gerry Cardinale.

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The bidding war became contentious at times. PSKY sued to block WBD’s initial decision to accept the Netflix bid, claiming that the board ignored its superior offer because of the friendship between Zaslav and Sarandos. Paramount later launched a “hostile” bid directly appealing to shareholders that its then $30 a share offering for the entire company was superior to the $27.75 per share bid Netflix offered on top of an uncertain valuation for a spinout of WBD’s cable properties that it didn’t want.

The Netflix-WBD marriage was seen barreling to a March 20 shareholder vote when the tide began to turn in PSKY’s favor. Investors like Mario Gabelli, a longtime WBD shareholder, began to question Netflix’s value proposition; the way the deal was structured, a planned cable-property spin out would have been loaded with billions of dollars of debt. That meant its value might be less than $1 a share, making PSKY’s offer too good to pass up.

The war for the future of David Zaslav-run WBD has captivated Wall Street, Washington and the media business for the past six months. Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

Netflix investors also began to worry that the company was entering uncharted territory since most of its growth has come organically – without the need of bid deals, the regulatory scrutiny it brings and the mountains of debt needed to pay for its $73 billion offering. Netflix market value sank around $200 billion since it was rumored to be bidding on WBD.

Then came increased pushback from the Trump administration and Republicans in congress, and not only on antitrust grounds. Conservative lawmakers believe Netflix’s entertainment offerings skew to the left, and they aren’t looking to give it more market power.

People at Paramount and Redbird will begin the onerous process of combining all their operations as soon as Friday, when they and WBD are expected to make an announcement on the future of the company. REUTERS

Susan Rice, the partisan Democrat and former Obama national security chief who is a Netflix board member, appeared to confirm their worst suspicions. She recently appeared on a podcast in which she ripped Trump and warned that corporations that “take a knee” to his administration should expect to be “held accountable” if Dems return to power.

In response, the president demanded that Sarandos either fire Rice or “pay the consequences.” 

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His resignation was confirmed by White House spokesman Kush Desai late Tuesday.

President Donald Trump appointed Miran in September to a seat on the Fed’s seven-member board of governors after Adriana Kugler, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, abruptly resigned.

Federal Reserve governor Stephen Miran resigned from his position as chair of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers. AP

Miran completed her term, which ended Jan. 31.

Yet he can remain on the Fed’s board until a replacement is confirmed by the Senate.

It is unusual for someone to keep a White House position while also serving as a Fed governor, a nonpartisan position.

Previous presidents have appointed aides to the Fed, but for decades they gave up their White House positions before joining the Fed. Miran took an unpaid leave of absence instead.

Miran said when he was named in September that he would step down from his position at the CEA if he remained on the Fed board after Jan. 31.

Miran’s tenure ended on Jan. 31 as White House spokesman Kush Desai confirmed his departure from his position late Tuesday. AFP via Getty Images

Fed governors vote on interest rate decisions and bank regulatory policy.

“In accordance with the pledge he made to the Senate during his confirmation to the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, Stephen Miran has submitted his resignation from the Council of Economic Advisers,” Desai said.

The move underscores the intrigue around the Fed and its upcoming personnel changes.

Trump has nominated Kevin Warsh, a former Fed official, to replace current Fed chair Jerome Powell, whose term atop the central bank ends May 15.

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Yet Powell could, under a quirk in the Fed’s structure, remain on the board after his term as chair ends and deny Trump the opportunity to fill another seat.

Many observers, as result, expect Warsh to take Miran’s seat and then be elevated to replace Powell in May, but that sequence of events hasn’t yet been confirmed.

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Two women, 48-year-old Kelly A. Mallia and 62-year-old Valerie A. Mallia, were taken into custody by the Sarasota Sheriff’s Department on December 16. The arrest took place at the Paradise Arcade at 6030 N. Lockwood Ridge Road, according to a statement from the sheriff’s office.

The operation took place after a search warrant was executed in collaboration with the Florida Gaming Control Commission. 81 slot machines were found at the arcade, which have now been seized by Commission agents, along with the cash inside them.

Image: Sarasota Sheriff Department

Next steps in the Sarasota investigation

The sheriff’s office also noted that the arcade had been served with a cease-and-desist letter earlier in the year. The women were charged with keeping a gambling house and owning or possessing slot machines. The first charge could result in up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine, while the latter could result in 60 days in prison and fines of up to $10,000 per machine. Both women have been bonded out of the Sarasota County Jail.

“The slot machines are now securely stored as the investigation continues,” wrote the Sheriff’s department in the statement. “This operation follows a Cease-and-Desist letter issued earlier this year.

“SCSO and FGCC continue to shut down these illegal gambling establishments. If you have one, it would be a great time to close your business because you could be next!!”

There’s no word yet on when the next legal steps will take place. Such operations are far from uncommon in Florida, with authorities seizing more than 250 slot machines earlier this year and 147 machines just this month. Last month, the Florida Attorney General said publicly that he wants to increase the penalties faced by people involved in Illegal gambling operations.

Featured image: Google Maps

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The high-level meeting that took place about 10 days ago hasn’t been previously reported. Several White House officials also suggested during the sitdown that a broader investigation is necessary focusing on Netflix’s market power, a government official who attended the confab said.  

“Basically everyone agreed that Netflix presents unique antitrust concerns and if it won the bidding war it would be one long slog and touch off an investigation along the lines of those of Google and Amazon,” the government official said. 

Netflix’s interest in acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery has raised antitrust concerns at the White House, sources told The Post. Getty Images

“Netflix already has market dominance but if you add a major streaming service that would stifle competition at some point,” the official added.

White House and Netflix press reps had no immediate comment.

The meeting comes as the Warner Bros. Discovery board has scheduled a Monday afternoon deadline to receive a second round of offers for the company. WBD controls the No. 1-ranked Warner Bros. studio and the No 3 streaming service, HBO Max, as well as a slew of cable channels including HBO and CNN.

Paramount Skydance, controlled by Hollywood producer David Ellison and his father, billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, is expected to raise its initial bid, which in mid-October came in at $23.50 a share for the entire company.

Cable giant Comcast, run by Brian Roberts, is also expected to sweeten a more recent offer, although it has been given low odds of making it through the Trump regulatory gauntlet because of the president’s disdain for Comcast’s relentlessly anti-MAGA cable channel MSNBC, recently renamed MS NOW. 

Warner Bros. Discovery’s board has scheduled a Monday afternoon deadline to receive a second round of offers for the company. SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Meanwhile, Netflix is also expected to make a sweetened bid for WBD’s studio and streaming service – and faces a different but equally difficult set of hurdles getting regulatory approval, Trump officials said during the meeting.

The 28-year-old company created by Reed Hastings and led by its voluble CEO Ted Sarandos is currently the world’s largest streaming service with 300 million subscribers. White House officials at the meeting suggested its size could hamper competition in streaming where Americans increasingly consume their entertainment as cord cutting continues to shrink the cable TV business. They also raised the likelihood of European regulatory push back, the government official said.

Sarandos as well as a slew of company legal officials and lobbyists have been pressing the flesh in DC. As previously reported by The Post, they’ve been pleading a case that an acquisition of the No. 3 streamer and a major studio wouldn’t violate antitrust laws because of a legal theory known as “category ambiguity.”

Netflix chief Ted Sarandos and company legal officials and lobbyists have been pleading the case in Washington, DC that a deal for No. 3 streamer HBO Max and a major studio wouldn’t violate antitrust laws. Alan West/Hogan Media/Shutterstock

According to the theory, antitrust law doesn’t necessarily apply to streaming services because of the prevalence of content that’s available on YouTube, TikTok and other social media. The idea is that streaming video is now so ubiquitous that it can’t be cornered and price gauged in the traditional sense.

But the pitch, while winning converts with members of the WBD board and some quarters of the DC regulatory framework, is now being met with significant skepticism from senior White House officials who advise Trump on media policy, according to a government official who attended the meeting last week. 

Trump officials also voiced concern that Netflix is already wielding enormous power in the Hollywood ecosystem, not just with consumers but also when dealing with program creators and talent. A recurring theme of Trump’s regulatory agenda during his first term and today has been anti-competitive business models of media and tech concentration, the source noted. 

Paramount Skydance, controlled by Hollywood producer David Ellison, above, and his father, billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, is expected to raise its initial bid of $23.50 a share for all of Warner Bros. Discovery. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

If Netflix’s bid won out, the scale and scope of the deal to buy HBO Max and the studio should lead to a lengthy, possibly yearslong probe by the DOJ’s antitrust division run by Trump appointee Gale Slater. The probe could expand beyond the merits of its WBD deal to its entire operations, “something that the company has avoided until now,” the government official who attended said.  

The meeting follows a letter by GOP California congressman Darrell Issa to Slater and her boss US AG Pam Bondi warning that “Netflix currently wields unequaled market power. Adding both HBO Max’s subscribers and Warner Bros.’ premier content rights would further enhance this position.”

But Sarandos may feel he has no choice but to make a run at WBD, and eventually fight off Trump’s regulatory cops in federal court if they nix his bid.

“If Paramount owns all its content plus Warner and HBO they will have control of a massive and quality library, and put Netflix behind the eight-ball in terms of negotiating for WBD content on its streaming service,” a media industry insider told The Post.

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The royal from Saudi Arabia was visiting the United States for the first time in seven years to discuss political and economic matters with President Donald Trump, only weeks after Trump’s media company announced plans to add prediction markets to Truth Social through an exclusive partnership with Crypto.com’s Derivatives North America unit.

Bettors lose out on black tie betting on Mohammed bin Salman

The crown prince was given a fanfare welcome by the President, including an honour guard, fighter jet displays, and all the trimmings of the red carpet.

The display by the White House has been controversial amid crunch talks on oil, artificial intelligence, and nuclear capabilities.

US intelligence agencies assessed that the crown prince was likely involved in the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a conclusion that strained US–Saudi relations and distanced Saudi leadership from American political circles for nearly a decade.

Against this backdrop of unresolved geopolitical tension, attention still turned to prediction markets, which focused on Prince Mohammed’s attire at a black-tie event during his return to US soil.

The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia just referenced the polymarket about him wearing a suit & tie.

Simulation confirmed?pic.twitter.com/jPHJpDkzXK

— Polymarket (@Polymarket) November 19, 2025

Bettors had been given a seventeen times their initial stake opportunity if the crown prince was to attend an event hosted by the White House in a black suit.

He disappointed those staking on the possibility of him wearing the western formal suit, and both Kalshi and Polymarket posted on social media about his tongue-in-cheek response to the betting links.

pic.twitter.com/t44g1YkdHr The Crown Price of Saudi Arabia is a fan of prediction markets

Bullish

— Kalshi (@Kalshi) November 19, 2025

“Before I came here, someone told me that there are betting sites where you can bet on me wearing a black suit, and if you bet on me, you could get almost 17x. Sorry, you lose the bet. Better luck next time,” he said about the predictions market.

Outcome betting has been a varied and evolving marketplace since prediction markets played a considerable part in the previous presidential elections.

Other bets involving the Saudi stay included whether the President would embrace the crown prince in a hug, whether they would shake hands and also what the current President might mention in their exchange.

Ironically, Google announced on Wednesday (November 19) that Saudi Arabia was one of the countries that would restrict offline gaming advertisements, where these promotions violate the local laws.

Featured image: The White House via X

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