“Put Them in #Trauma”: Inside a Key #MAGA Leader’s Plans for a New #Trump Agenda
Private videos reveal Trump adviser #RussVought’s “shadow” plans for using the #military on #protesters, defunding the #EPA & villainizing #CivilServants.
#Project2025 #HeritageFoundation
#law #democracy #Election2024 #VoteBlue #HarrisWalz2024
https://www.propublica.org/article/video-donald-trump-russ-vought-center-renewing-america-maga
A key ally to #Trump detailed plans to deploy the #military in response to #domestic #unrest, defund the #EPA & put career #CivilServants “in #trauma” in a series of previously unreported speeches that provide a sweeping vision for a 2nd Trump term.
In private speeches delivered in 2023 & 2024, #RussellVought, who served as Trump’s OMB dir, described his work crafting #legal justifications so that military leaders or govt lawyers would not stop Trump’s executive actions.
He said the plans are a response to a “Marxist takeover” of the country; likened the moment to 1776 & 1860, when the country was at war or on the brink of it; & said the timing of #Trump’s candidacy was a “gift of God.”
ProPublica & Documented obtained videos of the 2 speeches #RussVought delivered during events for the #CenterForRenewingAmerica, a pro-Trump think tank led by Vought.
The think tank’s employees or fellows include #JeffreyClark, the fmr snr #DOJ *lawyer* who aided Trump’s attempts to overturn the #2020election result; #KenCuccinelli, a fmr acting deputy secretary in the #DHS under #Trump; & #MarkPaoletta, a fmr snr budget ofcl in the Trump admin. Other Trump allies such as fmr WH adviser #SteveBannon & US #House Reps #ChipRoy & #ScottPerry either spoke at the conferences or appeared on promotional materials for the events.
#RussVought does not hide his agenda or shy away from using #extreme rhetoric in public. But the apocalyptic tone & hard-line #policy prescriptions in the two private speeches go further than his earlier pronouncements. As #OMB dir, Vought sought to use #Trump’s 2020 “#ScheduleF” executive order to strip away job protections for nonpartisan #government workers. But he has never spoken in such pointed terms about #demoralizing federal #workers to the point that they don’t want to do their jobs.
#RussVought has spoken in broad terms about undercutting #independent agencies but never spelled out sweeping plans to defund the #EPA & other #FederalAgencies.
Vought’s plans track closely w/ #Trump’s campaign rhetoric about using the military against domestic protesters or what Trump has called the “#EnemyWithin.” Trump’s desire to use the #military on US soil recently prompted his longest-serving chief of staff, ret Marine Gen #JohnKelly, to speak out….
Other #policies mentioned by #RussVought dovetail w/ #Trump’s plans, such as embracing a #wartime footing on the southern #border & rolling back #TransgenderRights. #Agenda47, the campaign’s #policy blueprint, calls for revoking President #Biden’s order expanding #GenderAffirming care for #transgender people; Vought uses even more extreme language, decrying the “transgender sewage that’s being pumped into our schools & institutions” & referring to gender-affirming care as “chemical castration.”
Since leaving govt, #RussVought has reportedly remained a close ally of #Trump. Speaking in July to undercover #journalists posing as relatives of a potential donor, Vought said Trump had “blessed” the #CenterForRenewingAmerica & was “very supportive of what we do,” CNN reported.…
In addition to running his think tank, #RussVought was the #policy director of the #Republican National Cmte’s ofcl platform cmte ahead of the nominating convention. He’s also an architect of #Project2025, the controversial coalition effort mapping out how a 2nd Trump admin can quickly eliminate obstacles to rolling out a #FarRight policy agenda.
#RussVought is widely expected to take a high-level government role if #Trump wins a 2nd term. His name has even been mentioned as a potential White House chief of staff. The videos obtained by ProPublica & Documented offer an unfiltered look at Vought’s worldview, his plans for a Trump admin & his fusing of #MAGA ideology & #ChristianNationalism.
#Project2025 #HeritageFoundation
#law #democracy #Election2024 #VoteBlue #HarrisWalz2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhrhyBwgFFE
In his 2024 speech, #RussVought said he was spending the majority of his time helping lead #Project2025 & drafting an agenda for a future #Trump presidency. “We have detailed agency plans,” he said. “We are writing the actual executive orders. We are writing the actual regulations now, & we are sorting out the legal authorities for all of what President Trump is running on.”
#Project2025 #HeritageFoundation
#law #democracy #Election2024 #VoteBlue #HarrisWalz2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8W5IgQchXo
#RussVought laid out how his think tank is crafting the #legal rationale for invoking the #InsurrectionAct, a #law that gives the president broad power to use the #military for #domestic law enforcement. The Washington Post previously reported the issue was at the top of the Center for Renewing America’s priorities.
#Trump #Project2025 #HeritageFoundation #extremism #fascism #authoritarianism #tyranny #autocracy
“We want to be able to shut down the *riots* & not have the legal community or the #defense community come in & say, ‘That’s an inappropriate use of what you’re trying to do,’” he said. #RussVought held up the summer 2020 unrest following #GeorgeFloyd’s murder as an example of when #Trump ought to have had the ability to deploy the #ArmedForces but was stymied.
#Project2025 #extremism #fascism #authoritarianism #tyranny #autocracy
#RussVought’s preparations for a future #Trump admin involve building a “shadow” Office of #Legal Counsel, he told the gathered supporters in May 2023. That office, part of the #DOJ, advises the president on the scope of their powers. Vought made clear he wants the office to help Trump steamroll the kind of internal opposition he faced in his first term.
#Project2025 #extremism #fascism #authoritarianism #tyranny #autocracy
Another priority, acc/to #RussVought, was to “defund” certain independent #FederalAgencies & demonize career #CivilServants, which include #scientists & subject matter #experts. #Project2025’s plan to revive #ScheduleF, an attempt to make it easier to fire a large swath of government workers who currently have civil service protections, aligns w/Vought’s vision.
#Trump #extremism #fascism #authoritarianism #tyranny #autocracy
“We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected,” #RussVought said. “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. 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.
“We want to put them in trauma.”
In this private speech delivered in 2023, #RussVought described his goal of defunding & debasing #FederalAgencies under a potential second #Trump admin.
#Project2025 #HeritageFoundation #extremism #fascism #authoritarianism #tyranny #autocracy
#law #democracy #Election2024 #VoteBlue #HarrisWalz2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBH9TmeJN_M
Vought also revealed the extent of the #CenterForRenewingAmerica’s role in whipping up #RightWing #panic ahead of the 2022 midterms over an increase in #asylum-seekers crossing at the #border.
In Feb 2022, #Arizona AG Mark Brnovich released a legal opinion claiming the state was under “invasion” by violent cartels & could invoke #war powers to deploy #NationalGuard troops to its southern border. The legally dubious “invasion” theory became a potent #Republican talking point.
#RussVought said in the 2023 speech that he & Cuccinelli, the fmr top #DHS ofcl for #Trump, personally lobbied Brnovich on the effort. “We said, ‘Look, you can write your own opinion, but here’s a draft opinion of what this should look like,’” Vought said.
The nonpartisan watchdog group American Oversight later obtained an email in which Vought pitched the “invasion” framework to Brnovich.
…In the event #Trump loses, #RussVought called for #Republican leaders of states such as Florida & Texas to “create red-state sanctuaries” by “kicking out all the feds as much as they possibly can.”
The 2 speeches delivered by Vought, taken together, offer an unvarnished look at the animating ideology & political worldview of a key figure in the #MAGA movement.
#Project2025 #extremism #fascism #authoritarianism #tyranny #autocracy
