WH Places Senior Official on Leave After Undercover Video Criticizing Trump

The White House has placed a senior administration official on administrative leave after undercover footage released by conservative investigative journalist James O'Keefe captured the staffer harshly criticizing President Donald Trump and describing parts of the administration as chaotic.

The official at the center of the controversy, Benjamin Ellisten, served as a senior budget analyst and funding manager within the administration.

In secretly recorded conversations published Monday, Ellisten allegedly referred to President Trump as a “madman” and accused the administration of “f*cking it up for everybody.”

A White House official confirmed to The Daily Caller that Ellisten had been placed on administrative leave shortly after the footage became public.

“He has no direct access to the President or Senior Staff, and does not work on the White House campus,” the official said.

“Such views expressed by the individual are not reflective of patriots who admirably serve in the Administration,” the official added.

The recordings were obtained through an undercover operation conducted by journalists affiliated with O’Keefe, whose investigative projects have frequently targeted government officials, media organizations, and political operatives over the last decade.

In the footage released online, Ellisten allegedly voiced intense frustration with both President Trump personally and the broader direction of the administration.

“He’s a madman,” Ellisten said in the undercover recording. “Literally. He’s invincible. Nothing can stop him, and that’s dangerous.”

Ellisten also reportedly described President Trump as “erratic” and “scary,” while questioning the President’s decision-making style.

“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.”

The comments quickly spread across conservative media and social media platforms, where many Trump allies argued the footage exposed continuing hostility toward the President from individuals working inside the federal bureaucracy.

The controversy intensified after Ellisten allegedly speculated about President Trump’s policies involving Iran and global oil markets.

“One of the things that looks like it’s going on, and going on a lot, is insider trading,” Ellisten said in the recording while discussing energy markets and Middle East tensions.

No evidence was presented in the footage to support those claims.

The video also included comments from another administration official, Maxim Lott, who currently serves as a special assistant focused on domestic policy matters.

Lott described parts of the administration’s internal operations as “chaotic” and suggested lower-level officials occasionally make decisions based on assumptions about what President Trump’s political base would support.

“The government right now is a little bit uncontrolled,” Lott said in the recording.

He also claimed some policy decisions are made more through instinct and political calculations than through detailed economic analysis.

“There’s no like, ‘Oh well, this will cost $10 million but save people $20 million,’” Lott said. “There’s like nothing like that, it’s just, ‘this feels like a good idea’ or ‘the base supports this.’”

Unlike Ellisten, however, Lott publicly defended himself after the footage surfaced and argued his comments had been misrepresented.

“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 after being contacted by O’Keefe’s team.

“Nothing I said was contradictory of this Administration, and I remain fully committed to carrying out its agenda.”

As of Monday evening, there was no indication that Lott had been suspended or formally disciplined.

The incident marks the latest undercover operation targeting officials inside President Trump’s second administration.

O’Keefe and allied investigative groups have increasingly focused on exposing internal dissent among federal employees, particularly career bureaucrats and political appointees viewed by conservatives as insufficiently loyal to President Trump’s agenda.

President Trump and many of his allies have long argued that internal resistance from entrenched bureaucrats, intelligence officials, and politically hostile appointees undermined major portions of his first administration.

Since returning to office, the administration has aggressively moved to identify and remove officials believed to be obstructing the President’s policies from within the federal government.