Topline
A secretly-captured video of Project 2025 co-author Russell Vought published Thursday offers insight into one of the minds behind a far-right policy agenda from which Donald Trump has distanced himself in recent weeks, despite Vought claiming in private that the controversial blueprint is ready to be “plugged right in” if Trump wins in November.
Russell Vought at a House Budget Committee hearing on Feb. 12, 2020.
Key Facts
Two activists with the nonprofit Centre for Climate Reporting secretly recorded a meeting with Vought, then published a video including clips from the meeting Thursday, which reveal him talking openly about what the plan will mean for America, the behind-the-scenes work he did to prepare it and how supportive Trump was of its crafting.
Vought, whose name has been mentioned as a possible White House chief of staff under a second Trump presidency, said in the video that his group has been working tirelessly to draft a number of plans that would block funding for Planned Parenthood, cut down on government agencies’ autonomy and work to “rehabilitate Christian nationalism.”
Vought served as the director of the Office of Management and Budget under the Trump administration, and then founded the Center for Renewing America in 2021, becoming one of a number of groups that partnered with the Heritage Foundation to craft Project 2025, with Vought himself having been called a “key architect” in the plan.
Backlash against some of the more extreme pieces in the 922-page Project 2025 blueprint—including illegalizing pornography, rejecting any gender identity beyond biological sex and eliminating the U.S. Department of Education—has grown over the last month, leading Trump to denounce the plan and call any attempt to link him to Project 2025 “ pure disinformation.”
Vought, however, called himself someone who “has the president’s trust” and said while he expects Trump to continue to distance himself from the plan, the former president has visited and raised money for his organization, “blessed it” and been “very supportive of what we do.”
Vought said the plan is for Project 2025 to be handed to whoever handles the transition of power if Trump is elected and is designed to be “plugged right in.”
When reached for comment Thursday, Rachel Cauley, communications director for the Center for Renewing America, said, “It would have been easier to just do a google search to ‘uncover’ what is already on our website and said in countless national media interviews. But thank you for airing our perfect conversation emphasizing our policy work is totally separate from the Trump campaign, as we have been saying.”
Get Forbes Breaking News Text Alerts: We’re launching text message alerts so you’ll always know the biggest stories shaping the day’s headlines. Text “Alerts” to (201) 335-0739 or sign up here: joinsubtext.com/forbes.
Crucial Quote
“There is no think tank, no policy organization, no battle plan creator other than us for the world view that I think Donald Trump has and that JD (Vance) has,” Vought said in the video.
Tangent
The Centre for Climate Reporting, which describes itself as a “not-for-profit investigative journalism organization,” said it sent an undercover journalist and a paid actor into a meeting with Vought in Washington D.C. last month. The pair were posing as members of a wealthy family in New Mexico interested in being potential donors to Project 2025. Cameras were placed around the hotel suite in which the meeting took place and recorded a nearly two-hour conversation. The organization published a 2,800 word article on the discussion and said it was part of a months-long investigation into “powerful populist movements, in the US and Europe, that have set themselves against action to tackle climate change.”
Key Background
Project 2025 is a multi-pronged project that includes a number of hard-right proposals and calls to completely overhaul the executive branch of government. The massive plan touches on everything from federal agencies to climate change, abortion, taxes, foreign relations and student loans. Experts have said such a plan could be majorly impactful to the functioning of the federal government if implemented, and controversy about the policy proposals have been growing since July. That month, Trump said he has ” nothing to do with” the people behind the project, which include former members of his White House including Vought, Spencer Chretien, Troup Hemenway and Stephen Miller. The director of the Project 2025 program, Paul Dans, stepped down from the Heritage Foundation on July 30.
Further Reading
Further Viewing
Mary Roeloffs is a Forbes reporter who covers breaking news with a frequent focus on the entertainment industry, streaming, sports news, publishing, pop culture and climate change. She joined Forbes in 2023 and lives in Dallas. She’s covered Netflix’s hottest documentaries, a surge of assaults reported on social media, the most popular books of the year and how climate change stands to impact the way we eat. Roeloffs was included on Editor & Publisher Magazine’s “ 25 Under 30” list in 2023 and worked covering local news in the greater Boston area from 2017 to 2023. She graduated with a double major in political science and journalism from Northeastern University. Follow Roeloffs for continued coverage of streaming wars, pop culture news and trending topics.
“>
