Christian Nationalist Ex-Trump Admin Official Draws Plans For “Radical” Expansion Of Presidential Powers

The Washington Post reports:

A battle-tested D.C. bureaucrat and self-described Christian nationalist is drawing up detailed plans for a sweeping expansion of presidential power in a second Trump administration. Russ Vought, who served as the former president’s budget chief, calls his political strategy for razing long-standing guardrails “radical constitutionalism.”

He has helped craft proposals for Donald Trump to deploy the military to quash civil unrest, seize more control over the Justice Department and assert the power to withhold congressional appropriations — and that’s just on Trump’s first day back in office.

Vought, 48, is poised to steer this agenda from an influential perch in the White House, potentially as Trump’s chief of staff, according to some people involved in discussions about a second term who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.

Read the full article. Gift link here. At the onset of the COVID pandemic, Vought sought to slash the budget of the CDC.

Trump loyalist pushes ‘post-constitutional’ vision for second term ⁦@bethreinhard⁩ — “I am concerned that he is willing to embrace an ends-justify-the-means mentality” https://t.co/9yPHVnHY0I

— Noah Bierman (@Noahbierman) June 8, 2024