The Trump White House has placed a senior administration official on leave after he was secretly recorded unloading on President Donald Trump in an undercover sting operation orchestrated by conservative activist James O’Keefe.
Benjamin Ellisten, a senior budget analyst and funding manager working within the administration, was caught on hidden camera calling Trump a “madman” who is “f*cking it up for everybody” during a conversation with an undercover journalist tied to O’Keefe’s operation.
The footage, which quickly exploded across conservative media and social platforms, appears to show Ellisten venting frustration over Trump’s leadership style, foreign policy decisions, and the administration’s internal operations — comments that ultimately cost him his White House role.
A White House official confirmed to The Daily Caller that Ellisten has since been placed on administrative leave.
“He has no direct access to the President or Senior Staff, and does not work on the White House campus,” the official told the outlet. “Such views expressed by the individual are not reflective of patriots who admirably serve in the Administration.”
According to O’Keefe’s reporting, Ellisten had been employed by the White House since 2024.
During the undercover conversation, Ellisten repeatedly blasted the president in strikingly personal terms.
“He’s a madman,” Ellisten said. “Literally. He’s invincible. Nothing can stop him, and that’s dangerous.”
At another point, he reportedly suggested Trump needed to be removed from office altogether.
“He’s a mess,” Ellisten told the undercover journalist. “They gotta get rid of him.”
Ellisten also took aim at Trump’s decision-making process, portraying the president as impulsive and reckless despite acknowledging that Trump does not drink alcohol.
“The way his decisions are so erratic, you would think he drinks,” Ellisten said. “He doesn’t drink. And that’s what makes it so dangerous, that someone could be of sound mind and body, totally coherent, could just be so reckless in their decision-making. That’s scary.”
The secretly recorded remarks are likely to further inflame concerns inside the administration about loyalty leaks and internal resistance from career staffers and lower-level political appointees — an issue Trump has railed against since his first term, when anonymous officials and bureaucratic infighting routinely made headlines.
Ellisten also appeared to accuse the administration of profiting off geopolitical turmoil, floating speculation about insider trading tied to tensions in the Middle East and rising oil prices.
“The president knows that he affects how people react to the stock market,” Ellisten said. “So one of the things that looks like it’s going on, and going on a lot, is insider trading. Like, for instance, with the war going on in Iran, the price of oil is expensive.”
No evidence was presented to support the allegation.
The sting operation also snagged comments from Maxim Lott, a White House special assistant focused on domestic policy, who described the administration’s internal operations as “chaotic” and “uncontrolled.”
“The decision-making processes are a little bit chaotic,” Lott said in the footage.
“I think it’s just the overall tone that, like, you know, the government right now is a little bit uncontrolled,” he added. “It’s not gonna fix itself.”
Lott, who previously worked as a producer for libertarian journalist John Stossel, also claimed lower-level staffers sometimes make policy calls based on what they believe Trump would support politically.
“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.’”
He continued: “There’s no like, ‘Oh well, this will cost $10 million but save people $20 million.’ There’s like nothing like that, it’s just, ‘this feels like a good idea’ or ‘the base supports this,’ alright, just sign.”
Unlike Ellisten, however, Lott defended himself after being contacted by O’Keefe’s team and insisted his comments were not meant as criticism of Trump or the administration.
“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,” Lott said in a statement. “Nothing I said was contradictory of this Administration, and I remain fully committed to carrying out its agenda.”
The undercover recordings come as Trump’s White House has aggressively prioritized loyalty throughout the federal government, with administration officials repeatedly warning staffers that public attacks on the president or leaks to the media would not be tolerated.
For Trump allies, the footage is likely to reinforce long-standing concerns about anti-Trump sentiment simmering beneath the surface inside Washington’s sprawling bureaucracy — even among officials serving within the administration itself.
