In recent weeks, Russell Vought’s think tank had begun lobbying for recess appointments, which would allow Trump to try to get around the US Senate’s confirmation process, even before he appointed Project 2025 architect Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for a second time. Vought supports the antiquated process of installing Trump’s candidates, including himself, and some of his most highly criticized choices. Vought was the head of the OMB during Trump’s first term and of the think tank he founded in 2021. Trump’s hold on congressional Republicans, some of whom have voiced doubts about the nominations, may be tested by a number of his cabinet choices, such as Pete Hegseth, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Tulsi Gabbard. Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Justice, Matt Gaetz, already withdrew from consideration Thursday under pressure to make public the results of a House investigation into alleged sexual misconduct.
The nominee’s role in shaping project 2025
To start the recess appointment process for high-level government positions, however, Trump and some of his supporters advocated for the Senate to voluntarily enter a session. On November 10, Trump posted on X, saying,
“We need positions filled IMMEDIATELY!”
He also stated that any Republican senator vying for the coveted LEADERSHIP position in the US Senate must consent to recess appointments. Staffers at Vought’s think group, the Center for Renewing America, contend in a 2,274-word policy brief that Trump is entitled to exercise the Constitution’s “broad and extremely powerful” recess appointments provision. Additionally, Vought personally supported recess appointments in an interview with Tucker Carlson on November 18. Vought informed Carlson that “we have to do things not based on how it has been done recently, like this whole notion of recess appointments.” “He needs to put an administration in place quickly, and he’s dealing with one that isn’t going to move fast to install his people.” The conservative Public Policy Center fellow Ed Whelan, who referred to the proposal as “cockamamie” and encouraged congressional leaders to reject it, was singled out by Vought, who rejected the idea that such a move would violate the spirit of the Constitution.
“With a few notable exceptions, conservative think tanks are not conservative; they are left-wing instruments,”
Vought stated.
Proposed strategies to limit Senate oversight
Vought went on to discuss his plan to fire large numbers of federal bureaucrats later in the conversation; Trump ran on this platform.
“To be able to dismantle that bureaucracy in their power centers, the president needs to act as quickly and forcefully as possible while maintaining a radical constitutional perspective,”
Vought stated.
The first is attacking the concept of independence as a whole. No independent agencies exist. Vought pushed on culture war themes during Trump’s first term as OMB chairman and attempted to stop agencies from holding diversity and inclusion trainings, calling them “anti-American propaganda” in a memo. Vought established a think tank and shared his concept with Trump supporters who would be interested in a second term since he had four years to plan how Trump might get executive authority to swiftly implement his program if reelected.
Implications for Congressional authority
Vought has advocated authoritarian policies and concepts for Trump’s government at events organized by the Center for Renewing America during the past two years. Vought explains using the Insurrection Act to force the military to suppress protesters and purposefully discouraging career government employees from removing them from their jobs in tapes that ProPublica was able to get. In speeches criticizing “secularism” and “Marxism” in America, Vought has publicly advocated for the elevation of Christianity in politics. Additionally, Vought contributed to the creation of Project 2025, a comprehensive set of policies aimed at drastically enhancing the president’s authority and reshaping the federal government. Vought recommends the “aggressive use of the vast powers of the executive branch” in his chapter of the almost 900-page paper, and he characterizes the OMB as being crucial in this endeavor. The office he would lead if confirmed has to be “intimately involved in all aspects of the White House policy process,” according to Vought.
Reactions from political leaders and analysts
President-elect Donald Trump has appointed one of the main writers of the conservative blueprint to head a crucial position in his government, despite his repeated denials of involvement with Project 2025 during the campaign. On social media, Trump declared that he was appointing Russell Vought, who was the director of the Office of Management and Budget during his first term, to lead the agency once more. Trump hailed him as someone who “knows exactly how to dismantle the Deep State and end Weaponized Government” and called him “an aggressive cost cutter and deregulator who will help us implement our America First Agenda across all Agencies” in a post on his social media platform.
