In a stunning admission captured in an undercover conversation, a National Institutes of Health (NIH) employee has confessed to deliberately ripping down and discarding official portraits of President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Joseph Olmert, a Life Support Specialist contractor in the Research Animal Management Branch at NIH, described the act as a fit of frustration against the administration, even acknowledging it involved destroying federal property, a potential federal offense.
Olmert, who oversees water quality and filtration systems for research animals like fish and amphibians, detailed the incident in a recorded discussion. “In our building, when you walk into the main lobby, they have these four, like, gaudy photos of Trump, JD Vance, RFK, the head director of NIH that they appointed,” he said. “And they’re, like, it’s all white and gold and massive. And it’s just, it’s, like, it’s gaudy. I’m just, like, ‘It’s gross.’”
Fueled by irritation, Olmert took action: “One day, I was just kind of, like, in a mood. I was, like, frustrated. I, like, and I was just, like, ‘Man, fuck these guys.’ Okay, I just decided to just rip them off the wall. Because they were, like, bolted in. And I just peeled them off. And I put them in the trash by the front door.”
The act didn’t go unnoticed. Olmert recounted how a coworker and close friend approached him excitedly: “Dude, you’ll never believe it. Someone had the balls to fucking take the photos off the wall. I didn’t think anyone had the balls in this place to do that.” When Olmert revealed he was the culprit of the alleged act, the pair burst into laughter.
Adding to the intrigue, another anonymous individual reportedly retrieved the portraits from the trash, turned them face-down to hide the images, and placed them back in – suggesting shared anti-administration sentiment among staff.
Olmert was careful to avoid detection, stating, “I made sure there were no cameras watching me.” Yet he openly recognized the legal risks: “If you damage anything that the federal government owns, you’re destroying federal property. And federal property is not to be fucked with.” When pressed on whether the act was illegal, he sarcastically denied it before admitting,
“Not too difficult, I threw those motherfuckers away.”
This confession aligns with text messages obtained from a Tinder conversation dated October 19, 2025, where Olmert bragged about the “naughty” deed. In the exchange, he wrote: “I did something naughty at work earlier this week actually lol. In all of our lobbies we have 4 pictures placed in them, and it’s of Trump, JD Vance, RFK, and the new appointed NIH director from Trump’s admin and I took them all down and placed them in the trash.” The messages corroborate that the alleged vandalism occurred during the week of October 13, 2025, shortly after the portraits were installed.
Olmert’s role at NIH involves critical back-end support for medical research, ensuring the quality of life for aquatic research subjects. He noted that while day-to-day operations haven’t changed under the new administration, “there’s, like, a lot of political tension because everyone that works there hates the administration.” This revelation raises serious questions about politicization and potential sabotage within federal agencies, especially at NIH, which oversees billions in taxpayer-funded health research.
Destroying or defacing federal property can carry severe penalties under U.S. law, including fines and imprisonment. O’Keefe Media Group has reached out to NIH and the Department of Health and Human Services for comment regarding this incident and any internal investigations along with the footage we obtained. NIH did not confirm any activity but they did confirm that HHS federal police are reviewing the footage that we sent it.
If you work inside any government agency, federal, state, or local, and you are witnessing corruption or efforts to undermine the will of the American people, we want to hear from you. Contact us securely at [email protected] or text 914-491-9395. An OMG journalist will respond.
Stay tuned to O’Keefe Media Group for more undercover exposés holding the powerful accountable.
