Staff Reports
James O’Keefe’s O’Keefe Media Group dropped a raw, undercover video on May 12, 2026 that claims to show White House staffers openly trashing President Trump and admitting they shape policy from below. The footage, circulated by conservative outlets and O’Keefe himself, lifts the curtain on people who are supposed to be loyal aides but instead talk like partisan insiders with agendas of their own. Hardworking Americans deserve to know whether unelected staffers are steering the ship away from the people who put the President in office.
The video identifies two figures by name: Maxim Lott, billed as a Special Assistant on the White House Domestic Policy Council, and Benjamin Ellisten, described as a budget analyst manager in the Executive Office of the President. Lott is captured admitting that proposals sometimes move forward because they “feel like a good idea” or because “the base supports it,” a casual confession that undercuts the whole pretense of responsible governance. If true, that’s not sloppy staffing; it’s a breakdown of the chain of command voters expect.
Ellisten’s comments in the clips are even uglier, with him reportedly calling the President dangerous and suggesting that Trump must be gotten rid of, language that goes well past private frustration into active disloyalty. Those words, allegedly spoken by someone within the executive apparatus, read like a deliberate act of sabotage — the kind of internal rot conservatives warned about when we talked about the administrative swamp. This is why transparency matters: people who work for the American people should not be plotting against the Commander in Chief.
The White House has reportedly placed Ellisten on administrative leave and clarified that he had no direct access to the President or senior staff, a necessary first step but hardly the end of the story. Lott issued a statement saying he thought he had been meeting a genuine person and insisted he remains committed to the administration’s agenda, which is a weak defense at best for someone caught on covert tape. The American people should insist on a full accounting: who else in the bubble thinks it is their job to override the voters by fiat?
This episode validates every warning about a managerial class inside Washington that places its own preferences above the will of voters. Conservatives have long argued that personnel is policy; if aides are quietly undermining leadership, then the problem is not the President — it is the swamp. The remedy is clear: root out disloyal actors, enforce accountability, and restore a culture where civil servants execute, not undermine, the agenda the American people voted for.
Patriots should applaud independent journalism that brings truth to light and demand swift, public consequences for anyone caught conspiring against elected authority. Team Trump and the American people owe it to the republic to clean house, shore up loyalty in the executive branch, and make sure that unelected staff cannot sabotage the mandate delivered at the ballot box.
