The Washington Roundtable discusses how this week’s government shutdown can be best understood by looking at the background and influence of Russell Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. Vought is a Christian nationalist who served in the first Trump Administration. He was a chief architect of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, and has written that the country is in a “post constitutional moment.” Amid the shutdown, Vought has threatened to lay off federal workers en masse and to withhold funds from Democratic-leaning states. The panel considers whether these moves are not just an expansion of Presidential power but a fiscal “partitioning” of America.

This week’s reading:

“Donald Trump’s Shutdown Power Play,” by Susan B. Glasser
“Can the Democrats Take Free Speech Back from the Right?,” by Jay Caspian Kang
“Why Democrats Shut Down the Government,” by Jon Allsop
“Is Donald Trump’s Sweeping Gaza Peace Plan Really Viable?,” by Robin Wright
“Eric Adams Slips Out the Side Door,” by Eric Lach
“The Politics of Faith After Charlie Kirk,” by Michael Luo
“Grace and Disgrace,” by David Remnick

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How Russell Vought Broke the U.S. Government

The Political Scene | The New Yorker