Russell 2025 Vought is Trump's puppet master, his adviser and much more. Vought is the architect of Trump’s broader plan to fire civil servants, freeze government programs and dismantle agencies.
He is the real reason the second Trump administration has been more effective at accomplishing its goals than the first.
Vought went from working in the mail room to becoming the chief antagonist of the GOP and the MAGA Republicsn party.
A native of Trumbull, Connecticut, and the son of an electrician father and a mother who spent decades in public education before helping to launch a Christian school, Vought got his first job in D.C. politics working in the mail room for Republican Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas, a fierce budget hawk known for criticizing members of his own party for breaking what he viewed as core conservative principles.
As Vought rose through the GOP ranks, eventually going on to advise then-Rep. Mike Pence, he grew disillusioned with members of his party who claimed to care about balanced budgets and spending cuts yet voted to approve bills loaded with pork-barrel spending and corporate giveaways.
In 2010, he quit Congress and helped launch an offshoot of the Heritage Foundation think tank called Heritage Action for America, which was tasked with strong-arming congressional Republicans to act more conservatively.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy4HA3vUv2c&list=RDDy4HA3vUv2c&start_radio=1
Woke and weaponized are Vought words.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/HVEUzweFLc4
Trump sees everything as a fight; so his team want wealthy allies to buy control of the American arm of TikTok from its Chinese parent. These alarming skirmishes are part of a war against the American media.
Yet he has hardly enjoyed a resounding success. Mr Kimmel is back on air; a federal judge laughed the lawsuit out of court; and who knows how obedient those multibillionaire tycoons will be.