A White House senior budget analyst named Benjamin Ellisten just learned the hard way that when you trash the President of the United States on a hidden camera, your career in the executive branch tends to end rather abruptly. Ellisten was placed on administrative leave after undercover footage captured him ripping into President Trump with language we can't fully print here.
But sure, tell us again how there's no Deep State.
According to Just The News and Real America's Voice, the footage was captured by one of James O'Keefe's undercover operatives — because apparently the only way to find out what federal employees actually think about the president they serve is to let them talk when they think nobody important is listening. And boy, did Ellisten talk.
The quote, for those who enjoy watching government employees end their own careers in real time: "Trump is a mess who is f*ing it up for everybody, and the White House needs to get rid of him." That's a senior budget analyst and funding manager inside the White House — not some random Twitter troll, not a retired bureaucrat doing the cable news circuit. A guy who walks into the building every day, handles federal funding, and apparently spends his downtime fantasizing about regime change from his cubicle.
Let that sink in. This man had a taxpayer-funded salary, a badge that got him into the White House, and access to budget decisions — and his private opinion of the president he works for is that Trump "needs to go." We're supposed to believe the federal workforce is a neutral, professional body of "faithful career public servants" who just want to serve the American people. Right.
The good news? The consequences were swift. Ellisten was placed on leave after the footage surfaced on Wednesday, which is roughly the speed of accountability we've been asking for since 2016. No six-month investigation. No internal review board. No paid vacation disguised as a "reassignment." Just the door.
This is exactly what James O'Keefe has been doing for years — letting government employees say the quiet part loud, on camera, with their own mouths. And every single time, the response from the left is the same: "That's not who we are." Except it literally is who you are, because we have the tape.
The broader point here isn't just one disgruntled analyst. It's the reminder that for every Benjamin Ellisten who gets caught, there are dozens more who are smart enough to save their hot takes for the group chat. The federal bureaucracy is riddled with people who see their job not as serving the elected president but as slow-walking his agenda from the inside.
President Trump has been cleaning house since Day One of the second term. DOGE has been cutting waste. Agencies have been restructured. And still — still — we've got guys like Ellisten sitting in budget meetings, cashing checks, and privately rooting for the other team.
At least this one had the decency to say it on camera so we could all watch.
You can watch Ellisten and another White House employee, Maxim Lott, an advisor to President Trump on domestic policy, get caught on a undercover camera talking trash about the Trump administration and the President. <div class="bob-embed bob-embed-youtube" style="position:relative;width:100%;max-width:100%;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fhDlS-91_KM" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;" frameborder="0" loading="lazy" allow="accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>