WASHINGTON – Russell Vought, one of the main architects of the controversial Project 2025 planHe speaks like a general mustering troops to tame a “woke and armed” federal government.
Vought said political opposition is “enemy fire that hits home” and urged allies to be “fearless at the point of attack.” He described his policy proposals as “battle plans.”
If former President Donald Trump wins a second term in November, Vought, his former White House budget chief, may have the opportunity to go on the offensive; He is expected to be named to a senior position in a second Trump administration.
Here are some things you should know about Vought and its plans if Trump returns to power.
Vought did not respond to an interview request or questions first emailed in February to Center for Renewing Americathe pro-Trump think tank he created after leaving government.
The center joined a coalition of conservative organizations, led by the Heritage Foundation, to release the 920-page Project 2025, a detailed plan for governing in the next Republican administration. The public document of the project, “Mandate for Leadership,” examined nearly every corner of the federal government and called for reforms large and small to rein in a “giant” bureaucracy.
As part of its work on Project 2025, Vought is working drafting a hitherto secret “180-Day Transition Manual” to accelerate implementation of the plan to avoid a repeat of the chaotic start that dogged Trump’s first term.
Project 2025 calls for the closure of the US Department of Education and the dismantling of the Department of Homeland Security, with its various parts absorbed into other federal offices. Diversity, inclusion and equity programs would be destroyed. Promotions in the U.S. military to general or admiral would be put under a microscope to ensure candidates did not prioritize issues such as climate change or critical race theory.
In his public comments and in a chapter he wrote on Project 2025, Vought said that no executive branch department or agency, including the Justice Department, should operate outside the president’s authority.
“The whole notion of independent agencies is anathema from the standpoint of the Constitution,” Vought said during a recent appearance on the Fox Business Network.
Critics warn this could leave the Justice Department and other investigative agencies vulnerable to a president who might pressure them to punish or investigate a political enemy. Trump, who faced four separate lawsuits, threatened retaliation against Biden and other alleged enemies.
Democrats have used Project 2025 as a political weapon, linking it to Trump and arguing to voters that the plan is extreme.
Trump sought to distance himself from the project. He posted on social media last month that he has not seen the plan and “has no idea who is in charge of it and, contrary to our very well-received Republican Platform, had nothing to do with it.”
On Tuesday, he rejected and criticized the plan, with his presidential campaign saying he has his own agenda to govern and that the “end of Project 2025 would be very welcome”. That same day, the project’s executive director resigned from his position.
The effort to deny ties to Project 2025 is complicated by the connections Trump has with many of his contributors. Vought and more than two dozen other authors served on his administration.
Vought is part of a small group of former officials who have a rote understanding of how Washington operates.
He has honed his credentials as a fiscal hawk on Capitol Hill. When Trump was elected in 2016, Vought became deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget. Combative and loyal to Trump, Vought would later take on the role of OMB’s top official.
A typically calm office, OMB prepares the president’s budget and reviews proposed regulations. With Vought at the helm, OMB has been at the center of clashes between Trump and Congress over federal spending and the legal limits on presidential power.
After lawmakers refused to give Trump more money for his southern border wall, the budget office diverted billions of dollars from the Pentagon and Treasury Department budgets to pay for it. Under Vought, OMB also withheld military aid to Ukraine as Trump pressured President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate President Joe Biden and your son.
Vought’s selection to be policy director of the Republican Party’s 2024 platform writing committee highlighted his closeness to Trump. If Vought returned to the White House as director of OMB, he does not intend to be a paper-pushing, number-crunching bureaucrat. He has also been mentioned as a potential White House chief of staff, one of the most powerful positions in all of Washington.
