How Russell Vought Broke the U.S. Government

"The Washington Roundtable discusses how this week's government shutdown can be best understood by looking at the background and influence of Russell Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. Vought is a Christian nationalist who served in the first Trump Administration. He was a chief architect of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, and has written that the country is in a "post constitutional moment.""

"He was a chief architect of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, and has written that the country is in a "post constitutional moment." Amid the shutdown, Vought has threatened to lay off federal workers en masse and to withhold funds from Democratic-leaning states. The panel considers whether these moves are not just an expansion of Presidential power but a fiscal "partitioning" of America."

Russell Vought serves as director of the White House Office of Management and Budget and is identified as a Christian nationalist who served in the first Trump administration. He helped architect the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 and has written that the country is in a "post constitutional moment." During the government shutdown, Vought threatened mass layoffs of federal workers and to withhold federal funds from Democratic-leaning states. Those actions employ budgetary leverage to exert political pressure and expand executive influence over federal personnel and state funding. The measures raise questions about fiscal partitioning of America and an expansion of presidential power.

Read at The New Yorker