Trump defends betting on "Maduro's arrest," some allies support pardoning him

BlockBeats News, April 26 — According to CNN, the U.S. Department of Justice has indicted U.S. military special forces soldier Gannon Ken Van Dyke, accusing him of using classified intelligence to place bets on the prediction market platform Polymarket, illegally profiting over $400k from the U.S. raid on Venezuela. The charges have raised concerns about government officials using insider information to participate in prediction market trading.

However, Trump appears to have changed his attitude towards this matter. After learning that the soldier bet on Maduro’s downfall, Trump compared the incident to baseball legend Pete Rose betting on his own team to win, responding in a nonchalant manner and saying, “It’s like Rose betting on his team to win. If he bet on himself losing, that would be bad, but he bet on himself winning, and I will look into it.” Additionally, given Trump’s support for Rose, at least some of Trump’s allies have already stated that Trump should pardon the soldier.

Previously, Trump stated that the current global situation “feels a bit like a casino” when discussing betting behaviors related to war events, implying that some market transactions may have deviated from normal investment logic and instead relied on asymmetric information or even insider tips. He also emphasized that “I’ve never been a strong supporter of these prediction platforms.”