Russell
Vought

Claims to fame: Project 2025 co-author, OMB director during Trump’s first term, and founded a new pro-Trump think tank, the Center for Renewing America.

You should know: Russell Vought is a key author of the ultra-right wing Project 2025 plan, which Trump sought to distance himself from during the election. He has advocated for the firings of career civil servants and an extreme approach to cutting government funding.

His take on democracy: “We have to solve the woke and the weaponized bureaucracy.” (Interview with Tucker Carlson)

The fine print: Russell Vought played a key role in shaping the priorities of the extremist right-wing policy agenda Project 2025. His section of the nearly 900 page document outlines his plan for consolidating government power within the executive branch, giving the president a dangerous amount of power. He has been a proponent of massive firings of career civil servants, using extreme measures to claw back federal funding including monies Congress has appropriated, and halting many critical regulations.

As OMB director under the first Trump administration, he published a memo directing OMB to cancel any contracts that included training on what he called “anti-American propaganda,” including critical race theory and white privilege. Vought is a Christian nationalist who has made controversial statements about religion, including that all non-Christians are “condemned.”

Our take: “In case there was any doubt, Trump’s selection of a key co-author of Project 2025 makes crystal clear once again that he wasn’t serious about distancing himself from it. Vought has promised to traumatize civil servants and to ‘shut down’ agency funding to carry out his dangerous Project 2025 agenda, but we will fight him at every step and stand with these public servants who are dedicated to protecting our health, safety, environment, and the communities these agencies serve.” – LCV Vice President of Federal Policy and former EPA scientist Matthew Davis, Nov. 22