Originally at https://democrats.org
In response to Project 2025 architect Russell Vought drafting a new secret MAGA playbook for Donald Trump, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement:
“If it wasn’t clear enough that Project 2025 is ‘undeniably a Trump-driven operation’ that’s here to stay, chief architect Russell Vought is already drafting another extreme MAGA playbook for the Trump-Vance ticket. Vought’s ties to Trump run deep — the former top Trump official is now in the running to be Trump’s chief of staff and help enact the dangerous and unpopular Project 2025 agenda to ban abortion nationwide, undermine our democracy, and give tax handouts to billionaires. While Trump and Vance try to hide that they’re marching in lockstep with Project 2025, Americans aren’t buying their weak denials, and know that electing Vice President Harris is the only way to stop these horrifying blueprints from ever seeing the light of day.”
“A chief architect of Project 2025 — the controversial conservative blueprint to remake the federal government — Vought is likely to be appointed to a high-ranking post in a second Trump administration. And he’s been drafting a so-far secret “180-Day Transition Playbook” to speed the plan’s implementation to avoid a repeat of the chaotic start that dogged Trump’s first term.
“Vought has advised influential conservative lawmakers on Capitol Hill, held a top post in the Trump White House and later established his own pro-Trump think tank. Now, he’s being mentioned as a candidate to be Trump’s White House chief of staff, one of the most powerful positions in government.
“Trump’s attempts to reject the [Project 2025] blueprint are complicated by the connections he has with many of its contributors. More than two dozen authors served in his administration, including Vought, who was director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget.
“Vought’s [think tank, the Center for Renewing America] was part of a coalition of conservative organizations, organized by the Heritage Foundation, that launched Project 2025 and crafted a detailed plan for governing in the next Republican administration.”
Vought represents the worst of Trumpism and the Republican Party – he wants to cut off all access to abortion and enact state surveillance of women.
New York Times: “Russell T. Vought, a former senior Trump administration official who ran the Office of Management and Budget, is celebrated by the anti-abortion movement for successfully blocking funds for Planned Parenthood during the Trump administration. He now runs a think tank with close ties to the former president that has backed arguments in a Supreme Court case attempting to undo the 2000 approval of mifepristone, a widely used abortion medication.”
Politico: “[Project 2025] also proposes increasing surveillance of abortion and maternal mortality reporting in the states, compelling the Food and Drug Administration to revoke approval of ‘chemical abortion drugs’ and protecting ‘religious and moral’ objections for employers who decline contraception coverage for employees.”
CBS News: “In recommendations for the Department of Health and Human Services, [Project 2025] calls for the Food and Drug Administration to reverse its 24-year-old approval of the widely used abortion pill mifepristone.”
Washington Post: “The [Project 2025] document, compiled with multiple people and groups who worked in and with the Trump administration, calls for erasing terms including ‘abortion,’ ‘reproductive health,’ ‘gender’ and ‘gender equality’ from ‘every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists.’”
Vought wants to decimate Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act, leaving the programs unable to adequately care for our populations in need.
Washington Post: “[Vought’s] plan includes $2 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, the health program for the poor; more than $600 billion in cuts to the Affordable Care Act; more than $400 billion in cuts to food stamps; hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to educational subsidies; and a halving of the State Department and the Labor Department, among other federal agencies.”
Washington Examiner: “[Vought] also said that the goal of balancing the budget would not come just from what budget experts call ‘discretionary spending,’ meaning the funding for agencies appropriated by Congress each year, but instead from a ‘substantial amount’ of reforms to ‘mandatory spending,’ or spending that is disbursed automatically, such as through Social Security programs and Medicare.”
Newsweek: “After replacing the civil service, [Project 2025] then proposes the implementation of other conservative policies, such as eliminating the Department of Education, reducing the scope of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, and rolling back renewable-energy programs to create a regulatory environment that favors the fossil fuel industry.”
Vought and his fellow religious extremists want to fuse church and state, ban same-sex marriage, and gut access to contraceptives.
Politico: “Trump allies prepare to infuse ‘Christian nationalism’ in second administration”
“Spearheading the effort is Russell Vought, who served as Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget during his first term and has remained close to him. Vought, who is frequently cited as a potential chief of staff in a second Trump White House, is president of The Center for Renewing America think tank, a leading group in a conservative consortium preparing for a second Trump term.”
“Vought has a close affiliation with Christian nationalist William Wolfe, a former Trump administration official who has advocated for overturning same-sex marriage, ending abortion and reducing access to contraceptives.”
“‘Russell Vought did a fabulous job in my administration, and I have no doubt he will do a great job in continuing our quest to make America great again,’ reads a Trump quote prominently placed on CRA’s website.”
“Vought’s beliefs over time have been informed by his relationship with Wolfe. The two spent time together at Heritage Action, a conservative policy advocacy group. And Vought has praised their yearslong partnership. ‘I’m proud to work with @William_E_Wolfe on scoping out a sound Christian Nationalism,’ he posted on X, then Twitter, in January 2023.”
Washington Post: “Project 2025 suggests closing the Gender Policy Council that Biden established in 2021 to advance gender equity and equality in areas including health, gender-based violence and education. The mandate also calls for Trump to reinstate the ban he established on transgender people in the military, which was overturned by Biden. And it calls for the next administration to ‘rescind regulations prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, transgender status, and sex characteristics.’”
CBS News: “In a section titled ‘The Family Agenda,’ [Project 2025] recommends the Health and Human Services chief ‘proudly state that men and women are biological realities,’ and that ‘married men and women are the ideal, natural family structure because all children have a right to be raised by the men and women who conceived them.’”
Newsweek: “There are other signs that access to contraception may be restricted under a new Trump administration. Project 2025, a plan prepared by right-leaning groups that aims to ‘pave the way for an effective conservative administration,’ includes plans to ‘Restore Trump religious and moral exemptions to the contraceptive mandate’ and ‘eliminate’ access to the week-after-pill, Ella, from it.”
Axios: “This is undeniably a Trump-driven operation. The biggest tell: Johnny McEntee — one of Trump’s closest White House aides, and his most fervent internal loyalty enforcer — is a senior adviser to Project 2025. One of the most powerful architects is Stephen Miller, a top West Wing adviser for the Trump administration.”
Politico: “Many of the authors of the blueprint are former Trump officials, and the Heritage Foundation has spent the past year-plus recruiting people to implement the plans within the administration, Scott said.
“‘So they don’t just have a long, sprawling policy document,’ he said, ‘they also have a growing list of staff who are being tested to see if they are loyal to Trump and if they are willing to administer this in his potential administration.’
“While groups like Heritage have put forward conservative policy proposals in the past, Scott said Project 2025 is distinct in that it’s so comprehensive and far-reaching.
“‘It has so many groups contributing to it. It’s the whole conservative policy movement gathered together,’ he said.”
The Week: “Many of Trump’s indicated plans for a second term fall in line with the Project 2025 outline.”
New York Times: “Roberts told me that he views Heritage’s role today as ‘institutionalizing Trumpism.’ This includes leading Project 2025, a transition blueprint that outlines a plan to consolidate power in the executive branch, dismantle federal agencies and recruit and vet government employees to free the next Republican president from a system that Roberts views as stacked against conservative power. The lesson of Trump’s first year in office, Roberts told me, is that ‘the Trump administration … simply got a slow start. And Heritage and our allies in Project 2025 believe that must never be repeated.’”
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