“The grassroots are on fire against ObamaTrade,” he declared in his Breitbart column. However, until recently, Ellis was an outspoken Democratic critic of the Tea Party movement.

“They fancy themselves the vanguard of a revolution, when in fact they are typical self-absorbed, privileged children used to having their way—now—and uninhibited about complaining loudly when they don’t,” Ellis wrote in a 2010 column for the Los Angeles Times criticizing the movement.

Ellis disavowed the column in an email.

“My ‘hot take’ in 2010 was wrong,” he wrote. “The Tea Party is alive, well and perhaps the most important movement in American politics today.”

Ellis has a documented history as a Democratic operative. The Times identified him as one, calling him and the column’s coauthor “Democratic political consultants.” On a since-deleted page on liberal blog Talking Points Memo, Ellis described himself as a progressive Democrat.