The Deep State isn't hiding anymore.
Now James O'Keefe has it all on tape.
A White House budget analyst called Trump a madman and had no idea every word was being recorded.
The Setup That Caught a Deep State Operative Cold
Benjamin Ellisten has been sitting inside the Executive Office of the President since 2024, controlling budget approvals for White House proposals, and telling absolutely nobody what he actually thinks about Donald Trump.
That calculation failed him Tuesday night.
O'Keefe Media Group released undercover footage showing Ellisten – identified as a Senior Budget Analyst and Funding Manager – completely unguarded on what he believed was a romantic date.
"He's a mess," Ellisten told the woman sitting across from him. "He's f***ing it up for everybody. Everybody! We've gotta get rid of him, honestly."
He wasn't done.
"With him at the top, it's next to impossible to do anything. He's a madman, literally. He's invincible. Nothing can stop him. And that's dangerous."
https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/2054249414634438894?s=20
Then Ellisten took a shot at Trump's sobriety – apparently one of the most damning things he could think to say.
"The way his decisions are so erratic, you would think he drinks. He doesn't drink. And that's what makes him 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 man approving budget funding for White House initiatives thinks the President is a sober lunatic who needs to be removed.
When the undercover journalist asked whether his coworkers knew how he felt, Ellisten laughed.
"No, they can't know."
He was right about that. What he got wrong was thinking the woman across the table was just a date.
The White House Moved Fast and the Story Gets Worse
Within hours of the video dropping, the Daily Caller confirmed Ellisten had been placed on administrative leave and is now under investigation.
The White House statement was precise: "He has no direct access to the President or Senior Staff, and does not work on the White House campus. Such views expressed by the individual are not reflective of patriots who admirably serve in the Administration."
https://twitter.com/JamesOKeefeIII/status/2054254964793622833?s=20
When O'Keefe's team called Ellisten for comment, he claimed he had "no idea what we're talking about" – then hung up the phone.
That's not the behavior of an innocent man.
That's the behavior of someone who got caught.
The video also featured a second White House insider: Maxim Lott, Special Assistant to President Trump on the White House Domestic Policy Council.
Lott didn't express personal hatred for Trump, but what he described about White House operations should alarm every Trump voter who believes the President is actually running his own government.
"In theory, everything should sort of come from the president," Lott said on camera. "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.'"
And on how policy decisions actually get made?
"There's no cost-benefit analysis… no, like, 'oh, well, this will cost $10 million, but save people $20 million.' There's nothing like that. It's just like, 'This feels like a good idea' or 'The base supports this' – all right, just sign!"
Lott later issued a statement: "Nothing I said was contradictory of this administration and I remain fully committed in helping carry out its agenda."
Ellisten had no statement.
He just hung up.
O'Keefe Has Now Caught Three Deep State Operatives Inside Trump's Own Building
O'Keefe's "Dating the Deep State" series earlier in 2026 caught a DHS employee on tape calling Kristi Noem "not a smart person" and explaining how cabinet secretaries don't actually direct what career employees do.
That man was fired.
Now he's suing the government for his job back.
In 2018, Project Veritas caught a State Department employee, a Government Accountability Office auditor, and a former HHS chief of staff all admitting on hidden camera that they were using government time for socialist organizing activities – and bragging that federal employees are impossible to fire.
The pattern is real. It has always been real.
The resistance isn't just protesters in the streets.
It's budget analysts sitting inside the Executive Office of the President, controlling the flow of money, smiling in meetings, and telling dates they need to get rid of the guy 77 million Americans elected.
In government, access to the budget isn't a support function – it's a lever. Ellisten had his hand on it for two years.
The question Trump's supporters should be asking right now isn't whether the Deep State exists. O'Keefe answered that one.
The question is how many more Ellistens are still smiling in meetings, saying all the right things, and waiting for their moment.
Sources:
- James O'Keefe, "WHITE HOUSE CONFESSIONS," O'Keefe Media Group/X, May 12, 2026.
- Rebeka Zeljko, "Top White House Official Placed On Leave After Trashing Trump In Sting Operation," The Daily Caller, May 12, 2026.
- Joe Kovacs, "We've got to get rid of him: High-ranking White House officials caught on hidden camera plotting against Trump," WorldNetDaily, May 12, 2026.
- WLT Report, "James O'Keefe Catches Two White House Insiders on Hidden Camera Trashing President Trump," May 12, 2026.
- R. Cort Kirkwood, "Agencies Probe Deep State Subversives After Video Stings," The New American, September 22, 2018.
