Project 2025’s Mastermind Russell Vought Is Running the Country—And Black America Is Paying the Price

By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

ProPublica’s in-depth investigation reveals that Russell Vought, Donald Trump’s former budget director, is the real power inside this White House. Vought is the principal author of Project 2025, a racist and authoritarian blueprint that reshapes government around a single goal: to make America a white Christian nation. While Trump holds the title of president, it is Vought who drives policy, using the machinery of government to wage war on equality and democracy. ProPublica’s reporting shows that Vought has consolidated power through the Office of Management and Budget, controlling federal spending, freezing funds, and shutting down entire agencies. He has used his position to block aid for the poor, cancel education programs, and dismantle health and environmental protections that serve Black and brown communities. Inside Washington, even senior officials describe the government as one where Vought, not Trump, is calling the shots.

Vought calls himself a Christian nationalist and says America was “meant to be a Christian nation.” In speeches and documents, he has vowed to “traumatize” civil servants who he sees as part of a liberal “regime.” His chapter in Project 2025 outlines a plan to let the president control agencies that have traditionally been independent, including the Justice Department. The League of Conservation Voters notes that Vought’s section of the plan pushes mass firings of federal employees and the suspension of funds Congress has already approved. When Trump asked Vought during his first term to “find a way to counter Black Lives Matter,” he delivered. As OMB director, he ordered the cancellation of federal contracts that mentioned white privilege or systemic racism. He replaced diversity and equity training with a new ideology that celebrates racial hierarchy. That order became one of the first building blocks of Project 2025. ProPublica’s reporting shows that Vought now uses his control over the budget to punish opponents and reward those who fall in line. He has paused or canceled more than $400 billion in funding for programs that support education, public housing, and medical research. Many of these programs are lifelines for low-income families and for Black Americans who have fought for decades to gain access to them.

The League of Conservation Voters calls Vought’s agenda a direct attack on democracy. “Vought has promised to traumatize civil servants and shut down agency funding to carry out his dangerous Project 2025 agenda,” said Matthew Davis, the organization’s vice president of federal policy. “We will fight him at every step and stand with these public servants who protect our communities.” What Vought describes as restoring order is instead the construction of a new Jim Crow system. It strips rights, silences dissent, and rewards loyalty to an ideology that centers white Christian power. ProPublica’s reporting makes clear that Vought is not a bureaucrat carrying out policy but the architect of a plan to reverse more than half a century of civil rights progress. Vought is the man behind the curtain, a figure who uses faith as cover for cruelty and government as a weapon against the vulnerable. As long as he directs this regime, Black America and every community that depends on fairness in government will remain in his crosshairs.