SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
russell vought
Leaked Videos Reveal Project 2025 Architect's Plan for Far-Right 'Shadow' Government
Russell Vought, who served as director of the Office of Management and Budget during Trump's first term, said he wants to inflict "trauma" on career civil servants and bulldoze opponents of the Republican nominee.
Oct 28, 2024
A former high-level Trump administration official who played a key role in crafting the far-right Project 2025 agenda said in closed-door speeches revealed Monday that he wants to traumatize career civil servants and lay the groundwork for Republican nominee Donald Trump to seize total, unfettered control of the federal government should he win the November 5 election.
In partnership with the watchdog organization Documented, ProPublica on Monday published several videos of two private speeches that Russell Vought—who served as director of the Office of Management and Budget during Trump's first term—delivered in 2023 and 2024.
During the previously unreported speeches, ProPublica and Documented observed, Vought "detailed plans to deploy the military in response to domestic unrest" and "defund the Environmental Protection Agency."
"The two speeches delivered by Vought, taken together, offer an unvarnished look at the animating ideology and political worldview of a key figure in the MAGA movement," the new reporting notes. "Echoing Trump's rhetoric, Vought implicitly endorsed the false claim of a stolen 2020 election and likened the media's debunkings of that claim to Chinese Communist propaganda."
Vought also laid out in unsettling terms his intention to leave federal employees "traumatically affected" as part of a sweeping effort to purge the government of scientists and other civil servants deemed disloyal to Trump.
"When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains," Vought said in a clip obtained by ProPublica and Documented. "We want their funding to be shut down so that the EPA can't do all of the rules against our energy industry because they have no bandwidth financially to do so."
While Trump has attempted to distance himself from Project 2025, claiming he knows nothing about it and has "no idea who is behind it," at least 140 members of his first administration—including Vought—were involved in assembling the sprawling far-right agenda, which outlines plans to gut climate regulations, further roll back abortion access, slash summer food assistance programs for children, and cut taxes for the wealthy.
Vought, who heads the Center for Renewing America think tank, has dismissed Trump's effort to disavow Project 2025, telling an undercover journalist earlier this year that the Republican nominee is "very supportive of what we do."
In the 2024 speech obtained by ProPublica and Documented, Vought said that he and other Project 2025 leaders have assembled "detailed agency plans" and are "writing the actual executive orders" for Trump to sign if he defeats Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in the November 5 election.
"We are writing the actual regulations now," said Vought, "and we are sorting out the legal authorities for all of what President Trump is running on."
Specifically, ProPublica and Documented reported, Vought "laid out how his think tank is crafting the legal rationale for invoking the Insurrection Act, a law that gives the president broad power to use the military for domestic law enforcement."
Lamenting that Trump was talked out of invoking the Insurrection Act to crush mass racial justice demonstrations sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, Vought said during the 2023 speech obtained by ProPublica and Documented that his preparations for a possible second Trump administration have included constructing a "shadow" Office of Legal Counsel, the body that advises presidents on their powers.
Vought, according to ProPublica and Documented, "made clear he wants the office to help Trump steamroll the kind of internal opposition he faced in his first term."
Jesse Eisinger, a senior editor at ProPublica, described Vought's assessment of the current state of the U.S. as "apocalyptic stuff," pointing to his stated view that the country is "in the late stages of a complete Marxist takeover... in which our adversaries already hold the weapons of the government apparatus, and they have aimed it at us."
Vought—who has previously said he hopes to "rehabilitate Christian nationalism"—cast Trump as a kind of savior in one of the newly revealed speeches, calling him "a man who is so uniquely positioned to serve this role."
"He has seen what it has done to him, and he has seen what they are trying to do to the country," Vought added. "That is nothing more than a gift of God."
Keep ReadingShow Less
In Undercover Video, Project 2025 Architect Says Trump Is 'Very Supportive of What We Do'
A watchdog group secretly recorded Russell Vought, a former Trump administration official, explaining his plan to get confidential Project 2025 plans into the Republican nominee's hands if he wins in November.
Aug 15, 2024
A key architect of Project 2025 believed he was speaking to relatives of a wealthy right-wing donor when he described his plan to share a flurry of secret executive orders, proposed regulations, and other documents directly with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his transition team if he wins another White House term in November.
In fact, Russell Vought—who served as director of the Office of Management and Budget during Trump's first term—unwittingly divulged his strategy to an undercover journalist and a paid actor working undercover for the Centre for Climate Reporting (CCR), an investigative organization based in the United Kingdom.
During the nearly two-hour conversation, which was secretly recorded by CCR's undercover team, Vought boasted of his close proximity to Trump and voiced confidence that he will be able to get Project 2025's confidential 180-day plan into the Republican nominee's hands following the November election, despite the former president's false claim that he knows "nothing about" the project.
"There are people like me that have his trust that will be able to get it to him in whatever position we're at," said Vought, who is expected to receive a high-ranking post in a potential second Trump administration. "The relationships will be there. The trust level will be there."
Vought, founder of the Center for Renewing America (CRA), went on to describe Project 2025's secret plan as a "very, very close hold," which CCR noted is a phrase used by the U.S. government for documents that aren't for public consumption.
Watch CCR's video of its conversation with Vought, who expressed his desire to "rehabilitate Christian nationalism," pursue "the largest deportation in history," and "block funding for Planned Parenthood":
NEW
We went undercover in Project 2025.
Our investigation uncovered details of the secretive second phase of Project 2025 being led by a Trump insider, with plans to feed hundreds of highly-confidential battle plans directly into the Trump transition team.
Watch here. pic.twitter.com/je9qHpjAns
— Centre for Climate Reporting (@ClimateReport_) August 15, 2024
Much of the media attention on Project 2025—a sweeping far-right agenda crafted by more than 100 conservative groups and many former Trump administration officials—has centered on the initiative's 922-page "Mandate for Leadership," a document that outlines plans to abolish the Education Department, further privatize Medicare, roll back climate regulations and abortion protections, and centralize power in the executive branch.
Such plans are deeply unpopular with the U.S. public, according to recent polling.
But in recent weeks, Democratic lawmakers and watchdogs have attempted to shine light on what Project 2025 has called the "Fourth Pillar" of its agenda, which is briefly described on the project's website as a "180-day transition playbook" that contains "a comprehensive, concrete transition plan for each federal agency."
Micah Meadowcroft, who worked in the Environmental Protection Agency during Trump's first term, told CCR's undercover reporter that Vought has "supervised" the handling of Project 2025's secretive "second phase," which aims to "break down actual policy packets and executive orders and agenda items and things like that."
"He's the team lead behind the scenes, just putting all that together," said Meadowcroft, who helped set up the meeting between Vought and CCR's undercover team. "I have colleagues who officially work for CRA, but like 35 out of their 40-hour work week is Project 2025 stuff."
Meadowcroft went on to describe Project 2025's secret plan as "a big, fat stack of papers that will be distributed during the transition period, but not as part of the transition."
"Because obviously, you want as little of it to be FOIA-able... as possible," he added, referring to the ability of members of the press and the public to request documents under the Freedom of Information Act.
Vought told CCR that he is "overseeing a large team that is developing 350 different transition documents, consisting of draft executive orders, secretarial memos, and regulations," the outlet noted in its detailed story on the investigation.
"His priority, he said, is to provide detailed plans for enacting policies he already knows Trump wants to carry out, based on the former president's campaign speeches," CCR continued. "He is confident that these plans won't end up in a White House shredder, despite the Trump campaign's insistence that they have nothing to do with Project 2025. He suggested that Trump's disavowal of Project 2025 is a pre-election political ploy rather than anything substantive."
As Vought himself put it: "He's running against the brand. He is not running against any people; he is not running against any institutions."
"He's very supportive of what we do," Vought said of Trump's stance on the Center for Renewing America, which CCR noted is "responsible for promulgating some of the most radical Project 2025 policy ideas."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Christian Nationalist Insiders Are Prepping for Trump's 'Dystopian' Return
"Nationwide abortion bans, attacks on same-sex marriage, and restrictions on contraception—this is the horrifying reality being openly discussed by Team Trump and the likely architects of his second term agenda."
Feb 20, 2024
Although former President Donald Trump is not personally religious, his close ties to Christian nationalists—whom he has relied on to gather support for his presidential campaigns—could place the United States on a path to embracing numerous far-right policies, according to documents penned by a leading right-wing think tank.
Politico, which obtained the documents, reported that staffers at the Center for Renewing America (CRA) included "Christian nationalism"—the promotion of the belief that the U.S. was founded as a Christian country and should emphasize "Christian values" in its policies—on a list of priorities for a second Trump term.
CRA's president is Russell Vought, the former director of the Office of Management and Budget under Trump, who Politico reported believes his continued close ties to the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee "will elevate Christian nationalism as a focal point in a second Trump term." The two speak at least once a month, the outlet reported.
Vought has been frequently named as a potential White House chief of staff should Trump win a second term, which could position him to carry out other proposals in the CRA document, including:
- Invoking the Insurrection Act as soon as Trump takes office, allowing him to deploy the military to stop protests;
- Impounding federal funds, or refusing to spend money appropriated by Congress, as former President Richard Nixon did to block agencies from taking on projects he opposed before Congress banned the practice; and
- Creating other new ways to expand Trump's presidential power.
Politico reported on the plans to "elevate Christian nationalism" as Trump prepares to address the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) Association in Nashville on Thursday—the world's largest association of Christian broadcasters.
Along with Vought, Politico reported that former Trump administration official William Wolfe is likely to significantly influence the White House should Trump win the election. A close associate of Vought's, Wolfe served as deputy assistant secretary of defense and director of legislative affairs at the State Department under Trump.
As recently as December, Wolfe called for a Christian nationalist government in which sex education in schools would be abolished and gestational surrogacy and no-fault divorce would be banned.
Vought is also an adviser to Project 2025, led by the right-wing think tank Heritage Foundation. The group aims to reshape the government by ousting federal employees who stand in the way of Trump's agenda—deploying "a wrecking ball for the administrative state," said Vought toldThe Associated Press last year.
The project goes hand-in-hand with the CRA's Christian nationalist agenda, Politico reported, with plans to repeal policies that "support LGBTQ+ rights, subsidize 'single-motherhood,' and penalize marriage... because subjective notions of 'gender identity' threaten 'Americans' fundamental liberties.'"
Supporters of Project 2025 also aim to increase surveillance of abortion and maternal mortality reporting, require the Food and Drug Administration to revoke approval of drugs used for medication abortions, and protect employers who refuse to include contraceptive coverage in insurance plans.
Former New York state Sen. Anna Kaplan, a Democrat, said the proposals of Project 2025 and the CRA show that "reproductive rights in all 50 states are on the ballot in 2024."
The Biden campaign said the new reporting laid bare "the dystopian reality if Trump is reelected: an America governed by religious extremism where Americans have fewer rights."
The proposals of Trump's allies are "straight out of The Handmaid's Tale," said Lauren Hitt, senior spokesperson for President Joe Biden's reelection campaign. "Nationwide abortion bans, attacks on same-sex marriage, and restrictions on contraception—this is the horrifying reality being openly discussed by Team Trump and the likely architects of his second term agenda."
"Every day Donald Trump openly supports an agenda of restricting Americans' freedoms, dividing our country, and attacking our rights," said Hitt. "That's what he will do as president. It's not who we are as Americans."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular