US President Donald Trump said it was “critically important” that the CFTC retain “exclusive authority” over prediction markets, echoing CFTC Chairman Michael Selig in a post on Truth Social, his social media platform, late Tuesday afternoon.
“Under my leadership, we are establishing ‘rules of the road,’ which are the gold standard for the states,” he wrote. “We can’t have SCUM like Chris Christie, Letitia James, Tim Walz and JB Pritzker making the rules!”
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has on various occasions defended states’ authority to regulate gambling products, which he likened to prediction markets.
New York Attorney General Letitia James similarly filed lawsuits alleging that some prediction markets violate state gambling laws; Illinois, led by Governor JB Pritzker, sent a cease-and-desist order; and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz last week signed a law enforcing criminal penalties for operating prediction markets.
The CFTC, led by Selig as the sole commissioner of the agency, has filed lawsuits and amicus briefs against various states, including those linked to the officials Trump names, defending their jurisdiction over prediction markets.
At the heart of the legal dispute is the question of whether prediction market contracts linked to sports and entertainment are really just gambling products disguised as a new financial instrument. The CFTC has taken the position that all prediction market contracts offered by regulated designated contract markets (DCMs) fall under its jurisdiction and that states do not have the right to violate this.
States, meanwhile, have taken the position that these contracts are in fact gambling and therefore should be monitored by state gaming regulators or banned entirely in states that do not allow such products.
Litigation has gone up to the federal appeals court level, and the issue is likely to appear before the U.S. Supreme Court at some point.
In addition to states
“Other countries are after this new kind of financial market, and we want to stay at the top,” Trump’s post continued.
A number of countries have recently banned prediction markets from operating within their borders, including Indonesia, Spain and India in the past week.
The US government is also investigating the prediction markets, and a House of Representatives investigation was confirmed last week.
Over the weekend, The New York Times reported that the CFTC, under former Acting Chair Caroline Pham, sidelined officials at the agency who raised concerns about approving crypto and other companies — specifically with ties to Trump family businesses — that had applied for DCM approvals.
Neither the CFTC nor a spokesman for Moonpay, Pham’s current company, immediately returned a request for comment on the article.
Trump’s family has ties to various prediction market providers, with Donald Trump Jr., one of the president’s sons, serving as an adviser to both Polymarket and Kalshi. Gemini, the crypto exchange launched by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, both public Trump supporters, also launched a prediction market platform and filed to self-certify parlay-type contracts late last week.
Trump also referred to his promise on the campaign trail to make the United States the “crypto capital” in his remarks on Wednesday.
“Similarly, and more importantly, where we are currently the Crypto (Bitcoin, etc.) Capital of the World, other countries are diligently trying to replace us in that capacity, but we will not let that happen,” he wrote.
UPDATE (26 May 2026, 21:56 UTC): Adding links everywhere.
