Maxim Lott, a Special Assistant to President Trump on the White House Domestic Policy Council, was captured on undercover camera admitting that key domestic policy decisions are often made without formal analysis and based on assumptions about what President Trump “would want.”
“In theory, everything should sort of come from the president…But it might come from the level below him [Trump] where they’re like, ‘I think I know the president well enough to say what he would say on this,’” Lott said.
Lott’s comments point to a deeper concern: that policy decisions are not driven by efforts to save American taxpayers money. He told the undercover journalist that proposals move forward because officials believe “the base supports it,” with no serious financial review: “There’s no cost-benefit analysis… no, like, ‘oh, well, this will cost $10 million, but save people $20.’”
“There’s nothing like that, it’s just like ‘this feels like a good idea’ or ‘the base supports this’, alright just sign!”
Lott has been working in the White House since February 2025 on high-level domestic policy. Maxim gave an example of his team pursuing action on spam phone calls based on the assumption that “Trump would wanna do that. That would be popular,” even though Trump was not aware of the effort.
Meanwhile, Benjamin Ellisten, a Budget analyst within the Executive Office was recorded expressing strong opposition to the President he serves.
“We’ve got to get rid of him [Trump],” Ellisten said. He called Trump “a madman, literally,” and stressed that his coworkers could not know his true views: “They can’t know.”
Ellisten, who oversees budget funding for White House projects including the Ballroom renovation (funded by private donors, which he viewed as problematic, also raised concerns about a $400 million jumbo jet gifted from Qatar and plans to spend over a billion taxpayer dollars retrofitting it, along with other allegations of insider trading tied to the war in Iran.
OMG’s undercover investigation raises serious questions about who is truly shaping policy inside the Trump administration and whether officials hostile to the President should hold positions of budgetary and policy authority.
When OMG contacted Ellisten for comment, he sounded flustered and claimed he had “no idea what we’re talking about” before abruptly hanging up the phone.
Lott responded to our request to comment by stating: “I went out with an individual l thought was a genuine person, but it goes to show how insidious politics and this city can be. Nothing I said was contradictory of this Administration and I remain fully committed in helping carry out its agenda.”
We also reached out to the White House for comment.
If you are on the inside of any government agency, federal, state, or local office and you see corruption — if you know the American people are being lied to — reach out to us. Email us at [email protected] or by phone 914-491-9395. An OMG journalist will get back to you.
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