Russell Vought, who served as director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the Trump Administration, isn't a huge name in the MAGA movement. But he is reportedly a major contender for White House chief of staff if Donald Trump defeats President Joe Biden in November.
MSNBC's Hayes Brown, in his June 11 column, warns that Vought's "extreme proposals" could play a highly influential role in a second Trump Administration.
Vought, a self-described "Christian nationalist," is the founder of the far-right Center for Renewing America (CRA). And his proposals are a major influence on Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation's lengthy blueprint for restructuring the federal government if Trump returns to the White House.
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"It's a testament to Vought's growing policy influence that the Heritage Foundation tapped him to write the chapter on the Executive Office of the President in 'Project 2025,' a massive blueprint for the next GOP president to follow," Brown explains. "He is also putting together the initiative’s 'playbook for the first 180 days' of a second Trump term, the (Washington) Post reported."
Brown continues, "Though the Trump campaign has tried to distance itself from Project 2025, there's little chance that an incoming administration wouldn't draw heavily on the work being done. It may be even more concerning that Vought has been tapped to be policy director for the GOP's 2024 platform committee."
Vought's proposals, if implemented, would "make the executive branch" of the federal government "more powerful than at any time since the Nixon Administration and more openly partisan."
"Given the extent of the plans he has made," Brown warns, "Vought would have a frightening level of understanding of how to execute his vision from the top down with the full weight of the presidency behind him as an unofficial prime minister. And, most worrying, it would most likely be a road map to authoritarianism for future candidates to follow even long after Trump's name is no longer on the ballot."
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Hayes Brown's full MSNBC column is available at this link.