2. Executive Office of the President of the United States

Project 2025 link: 2. EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 

WHO WROTE THIS CHAPTER?: An introduction to the author and a small history lesson – This section was written by Russ Vought, former Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under Trump; founder and current president of Christian nationalist think tank Center for Renewing America. The article had input from almost 30 other conservatives.

Christian nationalist Digression Ahead! Russ and many other hard-right conservatives believe that America was founded as a Christian nation, which would really piss off our country’s ACTUAL founding fathers, as the United States was established 150 years after the Puritans landed. The colonists were an extremist and authoritarian people who remained loyal British subjects. They believed in the divine right of kings and hating democratic governance as a violation of the fifth commandment. They also had no issues against establishing the same kind of repressive religious regime that drove them away from their homeland. Calvinist minister Roger Williams, a witness to the Protestant/Catholic violence in Europe, and a veteran of a dangerous sea journey to safely practice his own faith, pointed out the obvious – that mixing religion and politics never ended well for either of them, for which he was banished from the settlement. He later created Providence as a secular town, making the revolutionary claim “I infer that the sovereign, original, and foundation of civil power lies in the people.” The governments they establish, he wrote, “have no more power, nor for no longer time, than the civil power or people consenting and agreeing shall betrust them with.”

His political philosophy influenced men such as John Milton and John Locke — the latter’s work was closely studied by our actual founders, Jefferson, James Madison and other architects of the U.S. Constitution. The second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence is remarkably similar to Williams’ declaration – “…governments are instituted among men, deriving their just power from the consent of the governed.” Even 150 years out the Puritans’ unsanctioned immigration to our shores, “Our founding fathers understood well the extraordinary danger of mixing religion and politics; we forget that lesson at our great peril.”

Our constitution does not establish Christianity as an official religion, it does not contain the word “God” and it starts with “We the people.” Our founding documents include the clear statements: “(N)o religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” (Article VI) and that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” (First Amendment).

The Roger Williams dilemma remains, despite the best efforts of well-funded authoritarians in fancy think tanks (Russ, we’re looking at you!) – You cannot privilege theocracy, Christian or otherwise, AND be a democracy that states that people of all beliefs, including non-belief, are created equal, at the same time. Jewish women fighting against Christian abortion bans is just the beginning.

We like this TLDR synopsis of Chapter 2 from Stop the Coup 2025

“Vought is focused on weaponizing the OMB to assure the president’s supporters control the budget and purse strings of government in key sectors, while removing career officials who might object. He anticipates inter-governmental battles over the legality of the next presidential actions by stressing the need for a bold, legally “creative” White House Counsel. That includes efforts to reverse climate change progress under Biden. By eliminating the Gender Policy Council, Vought would end all discussion and government protection related to gender and LGBTQ+ identity, with a special focus on blocking care for transgender individuals, and access to reproductive health services, including abortion.“

  • Flex the untapped statutory powers of the OMB to control funding of offices
  • Put OMB Program Associate Directors who are conservative loyalists in charge of vast Resource Management Offices, and replace career officials with new deputy PADs.
  • Make the National Security Council a part of the White House, unaccountable to other offices
  • Seek to completely reverse Biden administration climate change policies
  • Eliminate the Gender Policy Council and end all federal discussion or support for gender and LGBTQ+ identity, transgender care, and reproductive health, including abortion

Our own page-by-page deep dive

  • (Pg. 43) Russ is a big fan of the unitary theory of presidential power. “The President must set and enforce a plan for the executive branch…a President today assumes office to find a sprawling federal bureaucracy that all too often is carrying out its own policy plans and preferences—or, worse yet, the policy plans and preferences of a radical, supposedly “woke” faction of the country…The great challenge confronting a conservative President is the existential need for aggressive use of the vast powers of the executive branch to return power— including power currently held by the executive branch—to the American people. [this requires the] boldness to bend or break the bureaucracy to the presidential will and self-denial to use the bureaucratic machine to send power away from Washington and back to America’s families, faith communities, local governments, and states.”
  • (Pg. 44) We probably don’t have to worry about making public comments on proposed regulations anymore. “the Executive Office of the President (EOP) [has] the levers necessary to reverse this trend and impose a sound direction for the nation on the federal bureaucracy. The effectiveness of those EOP levers depends on the fundamental premise that it is the President’s agenda that should matter to the departments and agencies that operate under his constitutional authority.”
    • Translation: Firings of merit-based civil servants will commence immediately. See Chapter 3.
  • (Pg. 45) “Nice little project/department/service you got there. It would be a shame if anything happened to it.” The MOB, oops, we mean OMB (Office of Management and Budget), will be the ultimate “keeper of “commander’s intent,” i.e., the levers to impose Trump’s, and his Heritage Foundation advisors, on all budgetary, regulatory and management decisions.”
    • Everything is Political: Surveillance on the macular level will be provided by new politically-appointed Program Associate Directors (PADs), replacing merit-based civil servants and actual experts.
    • Translation: Firings of merit-based civil servants will commence immediately. See Chapter 3.
  • (Pg. 46) Repeat – the General Counsel is so screwed. (Discussed in Chapter 1) The OMB director “must ensure the appointment of a General Counsel who is respected yet creative and fearless in his or her ability to challenge legal precedents that serve to protect the status quo.” (Full List of Donald Trump Lawyers Who Have Pleaded Guilty to Crimes)
  • (Pg. 46) OMG, how did that debt get here? In his last term,when Russ was the OMB Director, debt rose to historic highs, mostly due to Trump’s 2017 Tax Scam. So, the OMB is planning to reintroduce of administrative pay-as-you-go, or PAYGO. Rest assured that this power WILL NOT be used to combat plans cutting taxes for the wealthy that add to the federal deficit and debt, but rather to explain why important social programs will be cut or removed.

Source: U.S. Treasury (Lena V. Groeger/ProPublica)

  • Guess where the cuts will come from?
  • (Pg. 48) Nothing to see here, move along.
    • The Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP): they are the guys who’ll be awarding federal contracts and grants and will use government contracts to push back against woke policies in corporate America.
    • The Office of Performance and Personnel Management (OPPM) sets “sensible policies and practices for the federal workforce.” Like those for Supreme Court justices.
    • The Office of Federal Financial Management (OFFM): helps the Director to root out waste, fraud, and abuse in federal programs. (Sorry, in a Trump administration, this is all hilarious.)
      • Loyalty first: (aclu) In his first term, Trump went after Inspector Generals (IGs) would didn’t declare fealty to him, which “sparked reminders from leaders across the political spectrum about the crucial role of inspectors general in countering waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government.”
      • Just words…(Cato) “Budget cutters like to target waste because it means savings without sacrifice. Waste has no lobby or constituency, so you lose nothing and offend no one in hunting it. But true savings, even the efficiency sort where you do the same missions for less cost, don’t come for nothing. Efficiency savings include closing bases, combining or shuttering combatant commands, cutting a nuclear‐​weapons delivery system, lowering personnel costs and the like. All require political fights.” 
    • The Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer (OFCIO): – modernize, strengthen, and set technology-adoption policy for the executive branch.
    • The Made in America Office (MIAO): Added by the Biden Administration, but they are taking credit for it.
    • (Pg. 49) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA): ” “OMB’s OIRA plays an enormous and vital role in reining in the regulatory state and ensuring that regulations achieve important benefits while imposing minimal burdens on Americans.” Their purview would be extended to the U.S. Dept. of the Treasury and other “historically ‘independent’ agencies.”
      • Translation: Corporations will be pleased. Last term, “The Trump Administration Rolled Back More Than 100 Environmental Rules. Here’s the Full List.“
      • Note: “The Obscure—But Crucial—Rules the Trump Administration Has Sought to Corrupt“
      • Example: “THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S WAR ON REGULATIONS” “Senior Labor officials at the Wage and Hour Division were uncomfortable with a cost-benefit analysis by department staff that showed workers could lose billions of dollars [of tip income] that would instead be controlled by restaurant owners. As reported on Feb. 1 by Bloomberg BNA, the political appointees “ordered staff to revise the data methodology to lessen the expected impact,” according to inside sources. The White House then approved the Dec. 5 publication of a proposal that omitted the quantitative data showing where the tip money would go.” Yeah. Perfect. Four more years of this, please.
      • Remember this? “EPA abruptly reverses a rule addressing hazardous air pollution following a single request from the [Environment and Public Works] committee chairman,” shouted a January press release from Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., attacking both EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt [political appointee]and the chairman of the panel on which he is ranking member. “While citing no analysis of the public health impacts of this decision, Administrator Pruitt’s EPA has proactively allowed polluters to increase output of toxic air pollution.”
  • (Pg. 50) NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL (NSC)
    • “No one has ever seen” …such a dysfunctional National Security Council: Russ wants the National Security Council (NSC) to be part of the White House, unaccountable to other offices. The NSC in Trump’s last term had record turnover and inexplicable staff cuts, that many assumed, as they came during Trump’s impeachment, that Trump was “trying to weed out whistleblowers.“
    • Loyalty to Trump over all other considerations: “NSA should return all nonessential detailees to their home agencies on their first day in office so that the new Administration can proceed efficiently without the personnel land mines left by the previous stewards and as soon as possible should replace all essential detailees with staff aligned to the new President’s priorities.” “Loyalty Above All: The “Shallow State” of the Trump Administration“
    • We’re guessing LGBTQ soldiers should start looking for other opportunities: The NSC must “review all general and flag officer promotions to prioritize the core roles and responsibilities of the military over social engineering and non-defense matters, including climate change, critical race theory, manufactured extremism, and other polarizing policies that weaken our armed forces and discourage our nation’s finest men and women from enlisting to serve in defense of our liberty.“
    • What could go wrong? Trump closeted with a bunch of political hacks dedicated of Trump-izing the National Security Strategy, the National Defense Strategy, the Nuclear Posture Review, the Missile Defense Strategy, etc? (NBC) According to Chief of Staff John Kelly, Trump wanted to nuke North Korea in his first term and “blame someone else for it to absolve itself of responsibility.“
  • (Defense One) The Biden administration is “reinvigorating an interagency process some argue had largely halted under the Trump administration.” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated “Teamwork means a new spirit within this building,” he said. “It’s time to get back to professionalism and normal order and good process.”
  • (Pg. 53) NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL (NEC)
    • Loyal first: Russ will root out all the “civil servants (some of whom were political appointees in prior liberal Administrations) who often resist a conservative Administration’s policies.”
    • The oligarchs will be pleased. “Fosters economic growth through tax reform and the elimination of regulatory and procedural barriers.”
    • His first term was a nightmare: (Newsweek) In Trump’s first term: “The irony here is that Trump’s erratic, chaotic approach to the economy is probably the most significant economic risk factor in the world right now. [The Administration] response is just to show even more erratic behavior. It’s economic narcissism. It’s economic policy by whim, pride, ego and tantrum.” Oh, and he was peeved he couldn’t buy Greenland.
  • (Pg. 55) OFFICE OF THE U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE (USTR) – Smack China and install loyalists
    • “At the Office of the US Trade Representative, Vought focuses on an empowered USTA that can battle China and globalization to assure US trade policies reflect conservative goals. Elsewhere, Vought calls for an Executive Order to reshape the US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) and related climate change research, as well as sweeping changes to reduce the “litigation risk.” States Vought: “…the Biden Administration’s climate fanaticism will need a whole-of-government unwinding.”
  • (Pg. 56) COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS (CEA) – Clean house of “senior economists who were never fully vetted for their alignment with White House policy objectives or who were holdovers from a recently departed Administration.”
  • (Pg. 57) NATIONAL SPACE COUNCIL (NSPC) – “The National Space Council is responsible for providing advice and recommendations to the President on the formulation and implementation of space policy and strategy. It is charged with conducting a whole-of-government approach to the nation’s space interests: civil, military, intelligence, commercial, or diplomatic.” The Vice President, if not hanged in some insurrection activity, is usually in charge of this.
  • (Pg. 59) OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY (OSTP): 
    • Belief the science can be manipulated to suit: “If science is being manipulated at the agencies to support separate political and institutional agendas, the President should increase the prominence of the OSTP’s Director either formally or informally.”
    •  (Pg. 59-60) Separate risk assessment (suppressible) from management (politicized) The President should …reshape the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) and related climate change research programs…As a general matter, the new Administration should separate the scientific risk assessment function from the risk management function, which is the exclusive domain of elected policymakers and the public.”  
    • (Pg. 60) Unwind science and science-backed policies to match our goals.“the next Administration will face a significant challenge in unwinding policies and procedures that are used to advance radical gender, racial, and equity initiatives under the banner of science. Similarly, the Biden Administration’s climate fanaticism will need a whole-of-government unwinding. As with other federal departments and agencies, the Biden Administration’s leveraging of the federal government’s resources to further the woke agenda should be reversed and scrubbed from all policy manuals, guidance documents, and agendas, and scientific excellence and innovation should be restored as the OSTP’s top priority.” 
  • (Pg. 60) COUNCIL ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY (CEQ) Climate change denial made official again The President should instruct the CEQ to rewrite its regulations implementing NEPA along the lines of the historic 2020 effort and restoring its key provisions such as banning the use of cumulative impact analysis. 
  • (Pg. 61) OFFICE OF NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL POLICY (ONDCP) Transfer the Drug-Free Communities Support Program and the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Program to the Department of Justice and Department of Health and Human Services, respectively. What would this mean?
  • (Pg. 62) GENDER POLICY COUNCIL (GPC) – to be abolished
    • Delete LGBTQ issues and other WOKE things: “Abolishing the Gender Policy Council would eliminate central promotion of abortion (“health services”); comprehensive sexuality education (“education”); and the new woke gender ideology, which has as a principal tenet “gender affirming care” and “sex-change” surgeries on minors.” He suggested naming a Special Assistant to the President to lead promotion of domestic policy on life and family in line with conservative values, working with the Domestic Policy Council. This sounds more like a morality babysitter for our ex-president, who is currently on trial for election fraud in connections to payments to a sex worker he screwed after his third wife had just given birth.