Trump Publicly Backs CFTC’s Exclusive Authority Over Prediction Markets, Names State Officials “SCUM”

President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social late Tuesday afternoon that it is “critically important that the CFTC’s exclusive authority over Prediction Markets is maintained,” publicly endorsing his appointed CFTC Chair Michael Selig’s push to defend federal jurisdiction over event contracts against state-level legal challenges.

The post named four state-level officials in unusually personal terms: “Under my leadership, we are setting ‘rules of the road’ that are the Gold Standard for the States. We cannot have SCUM like Chris Christie, Letitia James, Tim Walz, and JB Pritzker setting the rules!”

This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.

Christie is the former New Jersey governor who has publicly defended states’ authority to regulate gambling products. Letitia James is the New York attorney general who has filed lawsuits alleging that Kalshi and Polymarket violate state gambling laws. Tim Walz is the Minnesota governor who signed the nation’s first explicit ban on prediction markets last week. JB Pritzker is the Illinois governor whose state has issued cease-and-desist orders against prediction market platforms.

Trump tied prediction markets to the broader U.S. crypto position: “Where we are currently the Crypto (Bitcoin, etc.) Capital of the World, other Countries are trying diligently to replace us in that capacity, but we won’t let that happen.”

The CFTC, currently led by Michael Selig as the sole commissioner, has filed suits or amicus briefs against six states: Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, New York, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. The agency’s legal position is that prediction market contracts offered by designated contract markets (DCMs) registered with the CFTC fall under exclusive federal jurisdiction, and that states cannot infringe on that authority. State regulators argue that contracts tied to sports, elections, and entertainment function as gambling products and fall under state gaming laws.

The political endorsement lands amid pressure on the CFTC itself. A New York Times investigation published over the weekend reported that career CFTC officials who raised concerns about Polymarket, Crypto.com, and other firms with business ties to the Trump family were pushed out of the agency. After that report, Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) wrote on X that the agency has become “a craven tool of prediction markets and shady crypto firms, ignoring national security risks while bullying state regulators and retaliating against staff attempting to enforce the law.” Donald Trump Jr. is an investor in Polymarket through 1789 Capital and a strategic advisor to Kalshi.