Trump Backs CFTC Over Prediction Markets, Calls State Officials ‘Scum’

U.S. President Donald Trump pressed Tuesday for federal regulators to keep control over prediction markets, calling it a “critically important” issue as states move to treat the fast-growing sector as gambling under their own laws.

“We cannot have SCUM like Chris Christie, Letitia James, Tim Walz, and JB Pritzker setting the rules,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that the CFTC’s “exclusive authority” should be maintained as other countries pursue what he called a new form of financial market.

Prediction markets should “thrive” under federal “rules of the road,” Trump said, arguing that other countries are pursuing the market and tying the issue to his broader push to keep crypto activity in the U.S.

Trump’s stance on prediction markets has shifted over recent months. In April, the president stated he was “never much in favor” of prediction markets and said they had helped turn the world into “somewhat of a casino.” Asked days later whether his administration would change its position, he said “very smart” people backed the sector and that the U.S. could be “left out in the cold” if other countries moved first.

“A lot of other countries are doing it, and when the other countries do it, we get left out in the cold if we don’t,” Trump told Decrypt.

Prediction markets in the U.S.

Prediction markets let users wager on outcomes across crypto, traditional markets, sports, weather, politics, and culture. The sector has grown quickly over the past two years, and is projected to reach $1 trillion in market volume by 2030.

Federal regulators treat prediction markets as event contracts overseen by the CFTC, placing them under derivatives rules rather than gambling laws set by individual states. State officials have sought to apply gambling laws to prediction market contracts, including through cases against Kalshi in Arizona and Nevada. The Trump administration has responded with lawsuits asserting that state attempts to ban prediction markets illegally interfere with federal authority.

Trump’s statements on Wednesday tied the dispute to the CFTC’s current rulemaking work, praising Chairman Mike Selig as “doing a great job.”

Selig has called for a framework that would bring exchanges onshore, warning that failure to create clear U.S. rules could push activity overseas and lead to FTX-style “implosions,” adding that exchanges should register in the U.S. under rules for fair markets, investor and customer protections, and guardrails.

But those efforts have drawn pushback from lawmakers from both aisles, who questioned how federal oversight would handle insider trading, war and death markets, sports-style contracts, consumer risk, and offshore platforms that may still reach U.S. users.

“Prediction markets shouldn’t be a partisan issue,” Farokh Sarmad, co-founder and president of prediction market platform Myriad, told Decrypt. “We’ve already seen this happen with crypto, it set the industry back years and didn’t do lawmakers any favors either.”

He said the Trump administration, through CFTC Chair Mike Selig, is “doing great things to build a framework around prediction markets,” adding that, “The last thing we need is a war.”

Disclosure: Myriad is owned by Decrypt’s parent company Dastan.