The White House has recently sent an internal memorandum to its employees warning them that their participation in betting applications or financial markets to profit from the development of the war in Iran using insider information is strictly prohibited. The internal document, issued by the Office of Management and Budget and dated March 24, directly addresses a controversy that has been surrounding the Trump Administration for months, previously confined to social media and involving the platform Polymarket, which has investors such as Donald Trump Jr. and his firm 1789 Capital.
Participants have even made death threats against journalists (such as the defense correspondent for the 'Times of Israel', Emanuel Fabian) for publishing information contrary to their bets. Beyond private betting, Bloomberg highlights the enormous economic impact that even the slightest public statement from Trump on the matter can have, pointing out strange scenarios like the one that occurred on March 23, when Trump announced a five-day pause in his threat to attack Iranian power plants. In just two minutes after 6:49 AM, futures contracts equivalent to six million barrels of Brent and West Texas Intermediate were traded.
Trump's post on Truth Social appeared around 7:05 AM that day. In response to the publication of the memorandum in the 'Wall Street Journal' and through Bloomberg, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle insisted that President Donald Trump "has made it clear" that neither Congress members nor White House employees can use insider information for financial gain. A series of timely bets on Iran made on Polymarket by newly created anonymous accounts have generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits so far, leading analysts to closely examine the transactions for signs of insider activity.
Some payments related to the Iran war are now frozen due to a dispute, and operators cannot cash out while users debate what constitutes a ceasefire. "All federal employees are subject to government ethical standards, which prohibit the use of non-public information for economic gain. However, any insinuation that Administration officials are participating in such activities without evidence is unfounded and constitutes irresponsible information," added Ingle.
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST Earlier this month, the U. S. Department of Defense had to publicly deny information published by the 'Financial Times' that pointed to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, whose broker at the financial advisory firm Morgan Stanley contacted BlackRock in February, before the invasion of Iran, to make a "multibillion-dollar" investment in a defense asset fund.
"Neither Secretary Hegseth nor any of his representatives contacted BlackRock to discuss any such investment," stated Defense spokesperson Sean Parnell, referring to the 'Financial Times' report, which he denounced as "another unfounded and dishonest defamation designed to mislead the public. " A group of Democratic senators led by Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal, and Tammy Duckworth has called on Hegseth to provide testimony to explain what happened and to "understand where there may be deficiencies in the department's current practices and policies to prevent conflicts of interest.