Kalshi Severs Its Relationship With Donald Trump Jr.

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe country’s largest prediction market says it ended its contract with the president’s eldest son after his investment firm took a larger stake in its prime competitor.Donald Trump Jr.’s investment firm, 1789, has heavily invested in Polymarket, Kalshi’s biggest competitor.Credit...Shelby Tauber for The New York TimesNov. 12, 2026, 4:38 p.m. ETKalshi, the nation’s leading prediction market, announced on Thursday that Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, would no longer serve as an adviser.The firm’s officials said in a statement that they and Donald Trump Jr. had agreed to part ways because his investment firm, 1789, had heavily invested in Polymarket, Kalshi’s biggest competitor. A spokesman for Donald Trump Jr. confirmed that the decision was mutual.It was not immediately clear whether the president’s oldest son would keep the shares in Kalshi given to him as part of his compensation package when it hired him in January 2025. Those assets are now estimated to be worth millions.Kalshi said it reached out to Donald Trump Jr. this fall to discuss ending his contract after 1789, in August, added about $300 million to its investments in Polymarket on top of its earlier contributions of about $200 million.“Both parties understood that advising two competitors in a growing sector was complicating things,” the company said in a statement. Kalshi’s decision was reported earlier Thursday by Reuters.The Trump administration has been a huge booster of prediction markets. After sweeping the midterm elections, Democrats in Congress have promised to investigate allegations of self-dealing by the administration. Some critics have pointed to federal regulatory approvals given to Kalshi as a prime example of the administration’s conflicts of interest.Most recently, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates prediction markets, authorized Kalshi to offer a type of trading on stocks, cryptocurrencies and other assets without owning them, which had not been allowed before in the United States. Those decisions, starting in May, prompted highly unusual lawsuits from major trading clearinghouses, claiming that the C.F.T.C. was violating federal laws designed to protect investors and financial markets.The administration has also taken on both red and blue states that claim Kalshi and other prediction markets are subject to state regulations and laws governing sports betting. The C.F.T.C. has taken the opposite view, backing Kalshi in a slew of lawsuits with the states. Donald Trump Jr. echoed the C.F.T.C.’s stance in a closed-door meeting with Republican state attorneys general in March.Through his spokesman, the president’s son has previously said he was involved only in helping Kalshi market itself, not in negotiating with the federal government.Sharon LaFraniere is an investigative reporter focusing on the Trump administration.Related ContentAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT