The Organ Grinder & His Monkey

Pop Quiz: Who is Russell Vought?

You get one point in this Pop Quiz if you know that Russell Vought is the current Director of the Office of Management & Budget, two points if you know that he’s a self-identified Christian Nationalist, and all the points if you know that he is one of the primary authors of “Project 2025,” the right-wing, conservative playbook that calls for the destruction of the Federal government and for concentrating power over its smoking remains by an all-powerful executive.1 Does this ring any bells?

You lose all of your hard-earned points if you think that the willful destruction of federal government institutions that is taking place on a daily basis was cooked up by POTUS 47 all by himself. He is the dancing monkey who draws the comic attention with his grandiose misstatements and blustering threats, while the organ grinder who calls the tune is laughing in the background. Russell Vought is very much the organ grinder in this scenario.

Vought was frustrated by his experience in the 45 administration because not enough progress was made toward conservative goals, so he returned to The Heritage Foundation, where he engineered the production of Project 2025. The 900-page manifesto laid out a plan for the then-hoped-for 47 administration for rapid deployment of executive orders to accomplish its political and social goals. During the 2024 election, Candidate Orange denied any knowledge of Project 2025, but in the same breath he stated that “some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal.” Despite those denials, following the election Vought was quickly installed as OMB Director and got to work.

Vought’s first dancing monkey was Elon Musk, who drew fire for the first 130 days of the 47 administration as the head of DOGE. Musk actually danced for the cameras at the inauguration and drew further attention with his faux-Nazi salute and subsequent chain-saw wielding photo ops, while Vought went about quietly getting stuff done.

With Musk gone, the focus is back on Orange POTUS, who blusters and barks and every day looks and acts more like he is in sundowning mode. And every day, Vought grinds away, cranking out one executive order after another for signature.

This is the first in a series of posts in which we will focus on specific goals announced in Project 2025, and how they are being implemented, largely at the direction of Vought. We’ll also spend some time on what might be expected next, given the goals set out in that document. Our first topic will be to explain how the firing of Federal employees during the shutdown is straight out of the Project 2025 playbook.