Even before Donald Trump tapped Project 2025 architect Russell Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for a second time, Vought’s think tank had begun lobbying for recess deals in recent weeks—a means by which Trump could try to circumvent the law. US Senate confirmation process.
Vought, who served as director of the OMB during Trump’s first term and of the think tank he launched in 2021, advocates the archaic method of installing Trump’s nominees, including Vought himself and some of Trump’s most criticized picks.
Many of Trump’s Cabinet picks, including Pete Hegseth, Robert F Kennedy Jr and Tulsi Gabbard, could test Trump’s hold on Republicans in Congress, some of whom have expressed skepticism about the nominees. Matt Gaetz, Trump’s nominee to head the Justice Department, removed himself from consideration Thursday amid an effort to release the findings of a House of Representatives investigation into alleged sexual misconduct.
But Trump and some of his allies are pushing for the Senate to go into voluntary recess to begin the nomination process for high-level appointments.
“Every Republican Senator seeking the coveted LEADERSHIP position in the United States Senate must agree to Recess Appointments,” Trump wrote in a post on X on November 10, adding: “We have positions IMMEDIATELY fulfilled need!”
In a 2,274-word policy brief, staffers at Vought’s think tank, Center for Renewing America, argue that the Constitution’s appointments clause is “broad and extremely powerful” and that Trump has the right to use it. Vought has also personally advocated for recess appointments, in a Nov. 18 interview with Tucker Carlson.
“We need to do things that are not based on how things have been done lately, like this whole idea of recess appointments,” Vought told Carlson. “He needs to establish a government quickly, and he is dealing with a government that is not moving quickly to install his people.”
Vought rejected the argument that such a move would violate the spirit of the Constitution, citing Ed Whelan, a fellow at the conservative Public Policy Center, who called the proposal “cockamamie” and urged congressional leaders to pass it to reject.
“Conservative think tanks, with few exceptions, are not conservative — they are tools of the left,” Vought said.
Later in the interview, Vought described his vision for wiping out parts of federal administrators, an idea Trump campaigned on.
“The president must act as quickly and aggressively as possible from a radical constitutional perspective to dismantle the bureaucracy at their centers of power,” Vought said. “Number one goes after the whole idea of independence. There are no independent bodies.”
During Trump’s first term, when Vought was head of the OMB, he pushed culture war issues and tried to stop agencies from providing diversity and inclusion training, claiming in a memo that they constituted “anti-American propaganda.”
With four years to figure out the ways Trump could gain executive power to quickly implement his agenda if re-elected, Vought founded a think tank and preached his vision to Trump allies who would play a role in a second term can play.
At events hosted by the Center for Renewing America over the past two years, Vought has embraced authoritarian ideas and plans for Trump’s administration. In videos obtained by ProPublica, Vought describes how he invoked the Insurrection Act to force the military to crack down on protests and deliberately demoralized federal employees to force them from their positions. Vought has openly promoted giving Christianity a higher position in government, complaining in speeches about “secularism” and “Marxism” in America.
Vought also played a role in crafting Project 2025, a sweeping policy agenda to reform the federal government and dramatically consolidate the president’s power. In Vought’s chapter of the more than 900-page document, he prescribes “aggressive use of the executive branch’s vast powers” and describes the Office of Management and Budget as playing a key role in this effort. According to Vought, the office he will lead if confirmed must be “closely involved in all aspects of the White House policy process.”
