Discussion · Open Science

The Man Behind #Trump’s Push for an All-Powerful Presidency

Russell T. Vought spent years drawing up plans to expand presidential #power & shrink federal bureaucracy. Now he is moving closer to making that vision a reality, threatening to erode #ChecksAndBalances.

#RussVought #Project2025 #law #democracy #authoritarianism #autocracy #dictatorship #fascism #tyranny
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/us/politics/russell-vought-trump-budget.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

https://www.nytimes.com

The Man Behind Trump’s Push for an All-Powerful Presidency

Nonilex

@Nonilex@masto.ai replied · 2 days ago

#RussVought, the #WhiteHouse budget [#OMB] director, was preparing the #Trump admin’s 2026 budget proposal this spring when his staff got some surprising news: #ElonMusk’s cost-cutting team was unilaterally axing items that Vought had intended to keep.

Vought, a numbers wonk who rarely raises his voice, could barely contain his frustration, telling colleagues that he felt sidelined & undermined by the haphazard chaos of the #Musk-led #DOGE, acc/to 6 people w/knowledge of his comments….

#law

Nonilex

@Nonilex@masto.ai replied · 2 days ago

“We’re going to let #DOGE break things, & we’ll pick up the pieces later,” #RussVought told his staff during one flash of irritation, according to 3 of those people. Vought’s spokeswoman, Rachel Cauley, denied that he made those comments, & that he felt frustrated by #Musk.

This had not been Vought’s plan.

#Project2025 #law #democracy #authoritarianism #autocracy #dictatorship #fascism #tyranny

Nonilex

@Nonilex@masto.ai replied · 2 days ago

#RussVought, who also directed the White House #OMB in Trump’s first term, had spent 4 years in exile from power. He worked through Joe #Biden’s presidency from an old rowhouse near the Capitol, where he complained of pigeons infesting his ceiling & coordinated with other #Trump loyalists to draw up sweeping, detailed plans for a comeback.

#Project2025 #law #democracy #authoritarianism #autocracy #dictatorship #fascism #tyranny

Nonilex

@Nonilex@masto.ai replied · 2 days ago

#RussVought had carefully analyzed mistakes from the first term. And he had laid out steps to achieve the long-sought conservative goal of a president with dramatically expanded #authority over the #ExecutiveBranch, including the #power to cut off #spending, #fire employees, control #independent #FederalAgencies & #deregulate the #economy.

#Musk, who spent >$250M to help elect #Trump, had celebrity, access to the president & political capital that the budget director could never hope for.

Nonilex

@Nonilex@masto.ai replied · 2 days ago

But #RussVought had something #Musk did not: He had done his homework.
In the months since Musk fell out with #Trump, Vought has at last begun to put his plans into action—remaking the presidency, block by block, by restoring powers weakened after the #Nixon admin. His efforts are helping Trump exert #authority more aggressively than any modern president, & are threatening an erosion of the longstanding #ChecksAndBalances in America’s constitutional system.

#Project2025 #law #democracy #fascism

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