Two White House insiders were just caught on undercover video by James O'Keefe's O'Keefe Media Group doing the one thing every swamp creature eventually does — running their mouths to the wrong person. One of them, Benjamin Ellisten, a Budget Analyst Manager in the Executive Office of the President, was recorded saying "We have to get rid of Trump" and "He's f*ing it up for everybody… We've got to get rid of him." He also reportedly called the President of the United States "a madman."
Bold strategy for a guy whose boss signs his paychecks.
The video, released on Tuesday, May 12, by O'Keefe Media Group, also features Maxim Lott, a Special Assistant to President Trump on the White House Domestic Policy Council. Lott was recorded offering a revealing glimpse into how things actually work — or don't work — inside the building. "In theory, everything should sort of come from the president," Lott said. "But it might come from the level below him where they're like, 'I think I know the president well enough to say what he would say on this.'"
Let that sink in. A White House staffer openly admitting that unelected bureaucrats substitute their own judgment for the President's. On camera. To someone they thought was a date.
Lott also described a process with zero accountability: "There's no cost-benefit analysis… it's just like, 'this feels like a good idea' alright, just sign." That's your tax dollars at work, folks — policy by vibes.
The fallout was immediate. According to Daily Caller reporter Rebecka Zeljko, Ellisten has been placed on administrative leave and is under investigation. When O'Keefe Media Group reached out for comment, Ellisten claimed he had "no idea what we're talking about" before hanging up the phone. Classic. The guy who said "we've got to get rid of him" on video suddenly has amnesia when a reporter calls.
Lott, to his credit, at least acknowledged reality. He told OMG: "I went out with an individual I thought was a genuine person, but it goes to show how insidious politics and this city can be." Fair enough, Maxim — but maybe don't spill operational details about how the White House actually runs to strangers over cocktails.
You can watch Ellisten and Lott makes these statements to an undercover reporter here:
This is the part that never gets old. We spent four years during Trump's first term hearing about the "resistance" inside the federal government — anonymous op-eds in the New York Times, whispered leaks to CNN, the whole heroic "adults in the room" mythology. And what did we learn? That these people aren't principled dissidents. They're gossips. They're ego-driven middle managers who can't resist telling an attractive stranger how important and subversive they are.
The swamp doesn't get drained because the creatures in it are too comfortable. They've been protected for so long by a system that rewards disloyalty to Republican presidents that they forgot the most basic rule of self-preservation — don't say the quiet part out loud when someone might be recording.
James O'Keefe has made an entire career out of exploiting that one fatal flaw. And every single time, people act shocked. "How could they be so stupid?" Easy. They've never faced consequences before. They watched Lois Lerner plead the Fifth and collect a pension. They watched Peter Strzok text about "insurance policies" and land a book deal. They watched every deep-state operator from the last decade walk away clean.
Until now. Ellisten is on leave. An investigation is underway. And every federal employee who's been texting their friends about how they're "resisting from within" just felt their stomach drop.
Good. Maybe next time they'll remember who they work for.
