In a post on Truth Social, Trump declared it “critically important” that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal derivatives regulator, retain sole oversight of platforms like Kalshi and Crypto.com, and that those companies “will thrive.”
The president’s broadside targeted four officials by name: former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. “Under my leadership, we are setting ‘rules of the road’ that are the Gold Standard for the States,” Trump wrote. “We cannot have SCUM like Chris Christie, Letitia James, Tim Walz, and JB Pritzker setting the rules!” He added that other countries are competing for the business and that the United States must “remain at the top.”
The intervention underscores the rising political stakes around prediction markets, which allow users to place wagers on events ranging from the outcome of midterm elections and Major League Baseball games to future weather patterns. The platforms have surged in popularity over the past year and a half, drawing millions of users but also unsettling lawmakers in both parties who argue they operate as unlicensed gambling operations.
State officials have led the charge against the industry. In New York, Attorney General James sued the crypto exchanges Coinbase and Gemini earlier this year over their prediction market offerings, arguing that “gambling by another name is still gambling, and it is not exempt from regulation under our state laws.” In Illinois, regulators sent cease and desist letters to prediction market operators. And earlier this month, Governor Walz signed the first state law explicitly banning prediction markets in Minnesota.
The prediction market companies have pushed back, arguing that they fall exclusively under the jurisdiction of the CFTC, a small but powerful financial watchdog. The agency, led by Chair Michael Selig, a Trump appointee, has sided firmly with the industry, filing lawsuits against New York, Illinois and Minnesota to block their crackdown efforts. The legal disputes have created a widening rift between federal and state authorities over who gets to set the rules for the nascent sector.
Illinois Governor Pritzker responded sharply to Trump’s post, accusing the president of seeking to protect his own financial interests. “Illinois took action to prevent and ban insider trading with online prediction markets in our state,” Pritzker wrote on X. “The most corrupt President in our nation’s history wants to make sure states like ours can’t regulate prediction markets so his family and administration can keep profiting.” A spokesperson for Attorney General James pointed back to her statement announcing the charges against Coinbase and Gemini.
The clash represents a defining test for the prediction market industry, which has grown too large for regulators to ignore but remains legally unsettled. With Trump now publicly backing the CFTC’s authority and attacking state officials by name, the fight is poised to escalate further, drawing in Congress and the courts as both sides dig in over whether the platforms are a form of financial innovation or simply gambling under a different name.
