The Faces of Fascism

Author of Project 2025

Russell Vought is a self proclaimed Christian Nationalist who believes he is fighting a “holy war” against the current “woke government.” His goal is to turn America into a Christo-fascist state while destabilizing any part of the government responsible for oversight.

Russell Vought’s Background and Roles

• Served as President Trump’s Deputy Director (2017) and Acting Director (2019) of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) before being appointed as OMB Director in 2020
• Previously worked as a Senate aide and executive director of the conservative Republican Study Committee
• Founded the conservative nonprofit Center for Renewing America in 2021 after leaving the Trump Administration
• Played a key advisory role in the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025,” preparing policy plans for a potential second Trump presidency
• Oversees the OMB, the largest office in the Executive Branch. He is tasked with crafting the President’s budget and overseeing the implementation of the federal budget passed by Congress
• In Project 2025, Vought envisions the OMB Director as “the best approximation of the president’s mind,” with power to coordinate and control policy across agencies

Center for Renewing America

• Established by Vought, it is an organization that opposes DEI and CRT while advocating for the idea of America as a “nation under God”
  • Note that DEI and CRT is used to attack any marginalized community for existing
• Advocated aggressive immigration policies, urging officials to characterize illegal immigration as an “invasion” with a focus on dehumanization
• Opposes critical race theory and has promoted executive orders aligned with Trump’s policy goals
• Seeks to end asylum and overhaul America’s immigration policies

Involvement in Project 2025

• Vought wrote the chapter focusing on the Executive Office of the President and OMB’s role in coordinating the administration’s agenda.
• Emphasizes using executive power to enact a broad conservative agenda and direct all agencies to stay aligned with presidential policies
• Is for a federal abortion ban
• Advocates for significant budget reductions targeting social programs and federal agencies, including:
  • Major cuts to Medicaid (around $1.1 trillion) and Medicare (around $766 billion) over ten years.
  • $25.8 billion cut from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
  • Substantial cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency.
  • Expanding the Department of Defense budget while reducing social spending.
• Believes in the president’s power to withhold (or “impound”) congressionally approved spending, arguing the 1974 Impoundment Control Act is unconstitutional.
  • This aligns with Elon’s efforts in DOGE
• Led efforts to reclassify certain federal civil servants, making it easier for a future president to fire them.
• Views “Schedule F” as a way to ensure loyalty in policymaking roles and reduce the influence of career bureaucrats.
• Wrote Is There Anything Actually Wrong With ‘Christian Nationalism?. An op ed for Newsweek defending the stance

“We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. 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 … We want to put them in trauma.”

-Russell Vought