Russ Vought
Appearances
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2200 - What’s In The Trump BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL?
We intend to take the Doge agenda and the cuts and the momentum and the initiative and turn those into permanent savings. That's what we believe is our responsibility.
The Bulwark Podcast
Michael Weiss and Thomas Zimmer: Competent and Radical
Let's see how it plays out.
The Bulwark Podcast
Michael Weiss and Thomas Zimmer: Competent and Radical
80% of my time is working on the plans of what's necessary to take control of these bureaucracies. And we are working doggedly on that, whether it's
The Bulwark Podcast
Michael Weiss and Thomas Zimmer: Competent and Radical
George Floyd obviously was not about race. It was about destabilizing the Trump administration. We put out, for instance, a 50-page paper designed for lawyers to know that the president has... you know, the ability both along the border and elsewhere to maintain law and order with the military.
The Bulwark Podcast
Michael Weiss and Thomas Zimmer: Competent and Radical
And that's something that, you know, it's going to be important for him to remember and his lawyers to affirm. But we've given them the case for that.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Defunding Harvard + NPR + PBS ft. Russ Vought
Thanks for having me, Charlie. President Trump and the White House are sending up to Congress when they get back in two weeks a proposal to get cut a billion dollars for the Corporation of Public Broadcasting. That's predominantly NPR, PBS, which isn't just leftist indoctrination.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Defunding Harvard + NPR + PBS ft. Russ Vought
where you're not covering the Hunter Biden laptop or the fact that the Wuhan lab leaked the coronavirus, but you're actually on the forefront of the cultural revolution in this country and pushing programmatic coverage to children about drag queens, dividing us, doing documentaries about white privilege and reparations.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Defunding Harvard + NPR + PBS ft. Russ Vought
And then on the other hand, we have $8.3 billion in doge cuts to USAID, which is all the things that we've heard that shock the conscience of waste, fraud, and abuse there.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Defunding Harvard + NPR + PBS ft. Russ Vought
Everything from paying for Sesame Street in Iraq to voter ID in Haiti to just flat-out pushing of an LGBTQ movement in all of these countries, strengthening the resilience of these movements, programs like Being Gay in the Caribbean,
The Charlie Kirk Show
Defunding Harvard + NPR + PBS ft. Russ Vought
Over and over, when you scratch the surface of all of these programs, literally, development assistance, economic support, all of the programs at USAID, you found this funding of a leftist NGO operation that was pushing a very, very woke cultural agenda. We're sending that up to get rid of it, make these cuts permanent. They've been on hold.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Defunding Harvard + NPR + PBS ft. Russ Vought
We want to make them permanent, and we need Congress's vote in this particular set of funds to do so.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Defunding Harvard + NPR + PBS ft. Russ Vought
Sure, and this is just the first of a series of rescissions bills. As we get comfortable with what's the annual amount of permanent savings that can be done, and if it's multi-year money, we're going to go ahead and send those up, so long as Congress is actually going to be passing those. That's critical.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Defunding Harvard + NPR + PBS ft. Russ Vought
We have executive tools that we can use if Congress is not going to pass these bills, but they've been demanding them. The process is one of an exception –
The Charlie Kirk Show
Defunding Harvard + NPR + PBS ft. Russ Vought
or a a procedure in the impoundment control act and you and i know and are not big fans of the impoundment control act and how it has bound the president correct but there is a there is a process it's called a fast track procedure to give an up or down vote in both the house and the senate without concern with regard to the filibuster that will allow this to be voted on in the house and the senate leadership of both parties has said look we're going to get this thing passed
The Charlie Kirk Show
Defunding Harvard + NPR + PBS ft. Russ Vought
we're going to send that up when they get back formally. They need to be there to receive it, and then we'll start working with them to get the votes to get this thing through.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Defunding Harvard + NPR + PBS ft. Russ Vought
Well, I think the reality of these rescissions is that I think we all think that government is too big, and it has been for quite some time, decades. But when you see the fine print, when you see what the contracts are and you see what we're funding –
The Charlie Kirk Show
Defunding Harvard + NPR + PBS ft. Russ Vought
You come away with this aha moment, this realization, of course these countries think worse of us and dislike us because we're funding this kind of garbage in their countries. We would not accept or we shouldn't be accepting, and part of the Trump administration is to push back and make sure domestically we're not funding this as the Department of Education. Or USDA.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Defunding Harvard + NPR + PBS ft. Russ Vought
But then you add the fact this was our foreign policy. This is our foreign policy to fund, quote unquote, the resilience of the queer and trans sex movement in other countries. Like what on earth are we doing? And of course, that's going to have an implication as to whether these countries are listening to what our interests. And of course, it has led to great.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Defunding Harvard + NPR + PBS ft. Russ Vought
We would be concerned if we were their citizens with it. And so one after another, all we did, Charlie, is we took straight doge cuts, contracts, grants saved. We added them up and we sent this first tranche – we will be sending this first tranche over. So I think the debate is very simple on the Hill. Do you stand with us against these ridiculous items? The president would call them fraudulent.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Defunding Harvard + NPR + PBS ft. Russ Vought
And or not, or are you going to say that there's some issue with regard to these cuts that we should actually be in the business of this? And I think it's going to be a very important debate. It's the first in a series of rescissions packages that we will, in fact, send. And depending on how successful it goes, we'll send more.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Defunding Harvard + NPR + PBS ft. Russ Vought
Final thoughts is that obviously economic growth and tariffs, but spending reductions and spending restraint is an enormous part of what's necessary to balance the budget. That's in two components, right? That's the first part is going after the woke and weaponized and wasteful bureaucracy. That is what we're doing with these doge cuts. That's what we'll be doing with rescissions.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Defunding Harvard + NPR + PBS ft. Russ Vought
And that will be over a 10-year period, incredible amounts of money. And I think the most important, because that's the federal government that you and I interact with. That's the one that is kind of aimed at us, increasingly less so with President Trump. But we want to make sure that the bureaucracy... can't reconstitute itself later in future administrations.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Defunding Harvard + NPR + PBS ft. Russ Vought
Secondly, there are reforms to welfare and to we will call them mandatory programs that have made the social safety net a benefit hammock. And that is keeping people out of the workforce and leading to less growth. And that's the kind of thing that we will need to tackle within the construct of reconciliation.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Defunding Harvard + NPR + PBS ft. Russ Vought
So when we do the one big, beautiful bill, there'll be a conversation about extending the tax cuts and securing the president's new tax cut commitments from the campaign, also designed to get people to be able to work more and not be penalized for it. But we will also be pushing for
The Charlie Kirk Show
Defunding Harvard + NPR + PBS ft. Russ Vought
mandatory savings, reforms to these programs that generate a ton of money that I think will unlock the votes to be able to get to. And that's what really we're working on last week. We were pushing the House to pass the Senate budget resolution because we thought it was an opportunity to go big. And so we're looking forward to that beginning now once the members come back.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Defunding Harvard + NPR + PBS ft. Russ Vought
While America's roots are soaked in bloodshed, violence in the country today is mostly from right wing extremism. From Oklahoma City to Charlottesville to January 6th, there is simply no equivalent on the left.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Defunding Harvard + NPR + PBS ft. Russ Vought
Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Fox News in Complete Panic as Trump Screws Them
Well, look, Larry, the president has recognized that 200 years of presidents had the ability to impound funds. And as a result, we're able to do a far better job of being able to control costs. And what we see at the end of fiscal year is agencies have the normal bureaucracy approach to use it or lose it.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Fox News in Complete Panic as Trump Screws Them
what the impoundment control act does is come on and say look if you're trying to save money in the end of the fourth quarter and do things smartly oh my gosh that's that that's something that is a violation of the impoundment control act and what we see at the end of the fourth quarter is flat screen tvs and copy machines in the halls of every agency because they're just trying to push it out the door
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Fox News in Complete Panic as Trump Screws Them
The president is well aware of the authority that other presidents have had, and he has put forward on the campaign trail ideas on that front. We don't have anything to announce today, but this is certainly something he's well aware of the power that should exist with the executive branch.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Fox News in Complete Panic as Trump Screws Them
Well, it defies common sense. It defies the Constitution. But the reality is this has been a key pillar of the Democrats' administrative state. And one of their principles is that career individuals and not political appointees are the ones that they want to rely on making decisions and shielding those of us who are political appointees from the actual information that we need
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Fox News in Complete Panic as Trump Screws Them
to make decisions based on what the president would do if he was in our shoes. And you can't do that if you don't have access to the information and you don't have the tools at your disposal to make sure everything's going across your desk that you need to know to be a sound representative of the president.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
Check out all of our content at TuckerCarlson.com.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
But I also think there's an opportunity there because they will report on conflict. They will report on confrontation. And when they do that, you can get the word out as to what you're doing. At least you can get the word out on shows like this and in the new and developing ecosystem. Well, that's kind of it right there.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
It was really pioneered, honestly, by FDR. And then President Nixon also was really learning from FDR on how to use it to tame the bureaucracy. And we would have seen that- Did he create the office, Roosevelt? The office was formerly the Bureau of the Budget for the last 100 years, right?
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
The whole ballgame has shifted, right? Like, I don't even know why you would do many of these interviews at all, because if you can't get... You know, you've got to be able to get your words out without just complete combativeness. And I think the best example is remember the Caitlin Collins interview with President Trump. I mean, it's just constant interrupting and fighting.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
misuse of lies, actually. And so that's the kind of thing that you're up against. But you can shape them. You can, particularly the print media. And I think it's important to at least attempt to do that. But You have to make the measure of the person that you're dealing with. And sometimes they're just, you know, they're complete activists themselves.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And then Nixon renames it Office of Management and Budget, and it becomes kind of more of a statutory thing, reporting directly to the president, no longer within Treasury. And so since then, you've had it – Still there, still really important, viewed by the country largely as a budget cutting exercise.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
I did, and I very rarely ever learned anything particularly interesting in the briefing. Is that true? Yeah. They didn't tell you who killed Kennedy, huh? They did not, right? And so, you know, I think I came away with the similar skepticism of these briefings and the information and the over-classification in the system. Yes.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
They classify everything, and you're reading this thing, and you're like, you realize that's all... just normal stuff that's out in a congressional research service. Yeah, it's on Twitter. I think that's a huge thing that we've got to fix, over classification and system. But I think they both create this environment where it's very exclusive.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
they are trying to bring you into their kind of priestly role so that, no, I saw the briefing. If you had seen the briefing, you would be okay with us not having a FISA warrant requirement. Exactly. You would be okay with us just another $100 billion for Ukraine. We can't have Ukraine fall. None of it is rigorous analysis. And honestly, I think that's the biggest thing that I was –
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
bemoaning is the extent to which rigorous analysis that I thought would be there wasn't there. What do you mean by rigorous analysis? I don't expect people to agree with me constantly. I want well-prepared memos that have a conviction to them and then support them. These are not like, I'm going to plant the flag, and then we can just say, okay, who's right, who's that, who has better support?
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
No, no. It's like, I'm going to give a blob an exercise to report on something, and the blob is going to kind of like... All it's not a Google spreadsheet, but it's going to all be, you know, an interactive Google spreadsheet to just spit out something that is a consensus document. And you're reading this thing.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
Right.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
At that point, the point is just to know what the intelligence community is writing on, because you're not going to learn anything from it.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
But it is it is the president's most important tool to dealing with the bureaucracy, administrative state. And, you know, the nice thing about President Trump is he knows that and he knows how to use it effectively.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
Have you noticed that? Oh, I haven't seen it. You know, I think part of the problem, and this is endemic of not just the IC, but...
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
our we don't read enough in general we don't have our own convictions we don't search for understanding ourselves and so you have people go in and they're like i'm kind i kind of need this career staff to tell me what to think i don't want to look stupid right and so that has killed us on our side of the aisle the conservative side to say we don't have people that are driving policy and bringing their own opinions and their own
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
history and so they they are susceptible to feeling like they and they still they still believe that these people have an authoritative stance on things and they don't have enough skepticism that in fact you know there's no the emperor has no clothes right and then that is the and you've got to bring that perspective they're weak inside is what you're saying a lot of these people
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
I do think that's I do think that's the case, you know, and, you know, from the standpoint of the I see the other thing that they would do is they they would keep you from being briefed. Right. The briefing we've already discussed of what the brief is and sometimes like what President Trump is saying, I'm not going to necessarily get the brief. Right.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
But I would find that I wasn't read into certain things until they needed my signature. Right. So once they needed some reason to get my signature, then all of a sudden I get this brief, right? And that's not the way it should be. If you're trying to provide oversight and accountability, you don't know what you don't know. And so you have to be able to have the whole entire –
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
uh landscape of things that you could oh that that's interesting that we we should do something that president trump wouldn't like that and i find that was very restrictive unless they needed me and so i basically said look you i'm not gonna you are not getting my signature unless you get me briefed up and i want i want to access to all of these things that i need to be able to provide oversight for the federal government and one of the things that we did tucker is that
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
Since the rise of OMB, that ability to turn funding on and off had always been done by a career individual, not a political appointee. And so we changed that. And it was like the world was going to end. They said, look, you're going to destroy the agency. You can't handle the bandwidth anymore. You can't handle the bandwidth. The chaos will be unmatched. And we changed it.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And next thing you know, everything's flowing across our desk. Oh, that's interesting. We're not doing that. You know, it was just amazing. And if you don't know and have that thesis that says this is what must be done, you could be the most incredible conservative in the world.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
No. You will be in a situation where you will have, at best, really awesome cabinet secretaries who are dealing on, sitting on top of massive bureaucracies that largely don't do what they tell them to do. And you have to have statutory tools at your disposal that force that bureaucracy from the White House to get in line.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
You could be the most policy consistent person with the president, but you don't know how to put your hand in the glove and use that agency for the president's behalf. The president's not going to be able to be well served at that agency.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
So OMB is the nerve center of the federal government, particularly the executive branch. So it has the ability to turn on and off any spending within the— Office of Management and Budget. Office of Management and Budget. It has the ability to turn off the spending that's going on at the agencies.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
You will certainly read on the papers like chaos. That's good. Fair. You know, as to what's what what just is normal, good government behind the scenes, managing, pushing, pushing through whatever. I think it can be done very quickly. wisely and done in a way that anyone who had a bird's eye view into that would be able to say, that's exactly what we put this administration into office.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
But yeah, you're going to have to kick over people's paradigms. You're going to have to kick over people's turfs. You're going to have to change people's understanding of things that they have invested their whole life into a view of the world. And none of this is – their views of the world aren't rooted in the Constitution and in some cases any version of the facts.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
But you're going to – that's going to cause a lot of turmoil within these bureaucracies and you've got to fight through it. And then they're going to overlay the aspect of, oh, my gosh, you guys are racist and you guys don't care about us as people. You're going to have to deal with that too, right? They are –
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
One of the arguments that they're using in the press against me right now, as they say, he he called for trauma within the bureaucracies. Yeah, I called for trauma within the bureaucracy. The bureaucracies hate the American people. They want to put a 70 year old and did a 70, 70 year old Navy veteran in jail for 18 months for building four ponds on his ranch to fight wildfires.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
That's not the Department of Justice. That's the EPA. You go to every agency, and it's not just big government. It's weaponized against the country. Of course. And so, yeah, we – I would want to provide trauma against that bureaucracy in a way that frees the American people from the people that have assumed – The type of power that the Constitution and no law, no public debate ever gave them.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
Does that mean we dislike everyone working at federal agencies and want them to have a bad life? No, of course. There's a lot of people there who have come to serve and do great public service. And we want to affirm that. And we want to turn over the bureaucracies that are traumatizing the American people. Yeah.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
They're going to be exhilarating if you have the right approach to them. But they're going to come at everything we've got, right? Or everything they've got with what they are able to put someone in the dock and And that individual is going to have to face the balance of wanting to defend everything that they have done in life and belief.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And that is really the main thing that OMB can accomplish in addition to what everyone would think of from a budget office, which is, yeah, you cut spending, you figure out how to deal with your fiscal finances and all of that.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And at the same time, the thing that's a little hard about it is you're no longer yourself, right? You are yourself, but you are also going to do a job for a person. So what I think about a particular issue doesn't mean as much as what the president thinks about something like that.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And so it is a different thing than coming on and doing an interview about what your viewpoints on a particular issue are.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
Right.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
So but I think, look, I have I've had experience, you know, Bernie Sanders went after me very, very hard in my first confirmation hearing as deputy OMB for essentially believing in John 316. And. Wait, he hit you, he attacked you on the basis of your religious beliefs?
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
He said I was a bigot and I should not serve in the federal government because of my Christian faith and believing something that essentially comes down to what's articulated at sports games with John 3.16. And that was most clues. Who's the bigot? Who is the bigger, right? That's the perfect question that goes back.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
Most nominees will not go through what I went through, but I will tell them you will get through it.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
you will get to the other side and it will be the most freeing thing in the world you will come at through the end of a process like that and you will i find it to be at that point exhilarating because it prepares you to take on an enemy fire where are they going to what are you afraid i've been calling you bigot racist christian nationalist authoritarian if you if you are if you are not afraid of these attacks and you give them no credence no credibility
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
then you will be able to get through these things, you will be able to convince enough senators, and you'll be able to serve, and you'll be served more effectively. But the bright lights will be on in these confirmation hearings.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
I don't think most votes change at all. I think that, you know, you may have one or two anomaly senators that are trying to, you know, have you answered something to their satisfaction or they're trying to get a feel for you that they haven't otherwise. But I think increasingly in the partisan world that we live in, the Democrats are voting no.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And it's a matter of making sure you've convinced and you've brought in the- So you get no, I mean, what's interesting- I got no Democrat votes.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
You never see that on the other side. And they have an appreciation that they have to attack our people at every level. because they know that every level is a stepping stone for- The next level. Exactly, right? So they don't make it saying, oh, this is just like the undersecretary. Yeah, exactly. No, we're opposed to that.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
Well, certainly the first term, right? I become deputy and next thing you know, Mick goes to the chief of staff. And so I have an opportunity to serve as director. And so that is, they understand government and they understand the career path that is opening for people.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And they, when they sense, and it's not always the case, but when they sense that this is a committed conservative, it's a partisan line down the road.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
They're incredibly resistant. I mean, think about Ukraine and the president in that first term wanted to cut off funding for Ukraine. Why? Because it's a corrupt country and we didn't know how it was going to be spent. It's totally normal policy process to go through that the people lost their minds about. But the bureaucracy was literally just ignoring it.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
I have high hopes that people are seeing what Trump just accomplished and are going to be pulling the oars to get things done as soon as possible. And I think the jury is out, right? I think I want to see and I'm hoping to see people looking for ways to move these appointees through the process. And sounds like they're trying to do that. We'll see. But
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
You know, we we have to do things not based on how it has been done recently, like this whole notion of the recess appointments. Right. You have some people out there who are saying this is unconstitutional. It's not the way it was meant to be. It's totally wrong. Right.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
It it is a specific provision in the Constitution to be able to allow a president if he does, if he has to stand up an administration quickly and he's dealing with a Senate that won't move quickly enough to. to be able to install his people so that he can actually function as a government, right? That it's specifically mapped out, and yet you have— So in the Constitution. In the Constitution.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And quite frankly, his political appointees like John Bolton were ignoring him as well. And what we then did at OMB was I had been personally told, look, you know, I want the money cut off until we can figure out where it's going. And we cut the money off. And it was like all hell broke loose within the bureaucracy. We got impeached. Yeah. And so.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
So it's by definition not a constitutional fair. Fair. So yet you have Republicans, one of them in particular, like Ed Whelan right now, who's attacking Trump for even mentioning— Who's Ed Whelan? Uh, he, he writes one, he's one of the main kind of, uh, legal luminaries on the right and, and, uh, uh, ethics and public policy are one of those think tanks.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And he's out there opposing the whole notion of recess appointments, uh, for, for, for whatever reason, I don't know, other than he thinks that unseemly and not the way that the family. Okay.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
They only matter to the extent that people in the arena listen to them. Right. And that is increasingly they are not being listened to. And I think that's part of one of the reasons why they're so up in arms about it. Right. I mean, that's National Review itself is that's phenomenal.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
Right. And I think that's – but my point is the extent to which people have opposed Trump and the America First agenda I think ultimately is a loss of power because they didn't get to set the agenda. They don't get to be the traffic cop. They don't get to kind of say, oh, this offends my sensibility anymore. No. No.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
If you have a radical constitutionalism, and that's really what I've been calling for, given this crazy unconstitutional situation that we're finding ourselves in. If you have a radical constitutionalism, it's going to be destabilizing. You may find that you can use the – James Madison could have put a whole lot more recess appointments in than you would have ever imagined.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
But it's also exhilarating. And why, if you're trying to preserve the country, would you make arguments against that? Why wouldn't you be making arguments for it? So that's one of the reasons we just put out a five page paper. We'll put out a 40 page paper next as to this is the constitutional grounds for recess appointments of we haven't just President Trump hasn't decided to do it.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
But if he does, he will be in the same vein as our founders. It's a little weird.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
No.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
Again, I haven't spoken to Senator McConnell on it. My guess is that the Senate is going to want to know the argument. And they probably have been told and may have been told, and I'm going to just keep it as positive as possible, that this is inappropriate. You can't do it. And I want to show them and know, in fact, you can. It is entirely appropriate and to win the argument.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And then if you win the argument and then people are like, no, we don't want to do this, then it's a different matter, right? It's like it just kind of reveals that they're not actually on board with those particular nominees going into office. And that's a different issue. So I think that we don't know yet to whether Will the Senate have an issue?
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And so you have the ability at that point to bring them to come to heel and to do what the president has been telling them to do. And we can do that in foreign aid. We can do that all sorts of places.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
I mean, to some extent, the Senate knows it has an issue because they couldn't move these nominees fast enough in the first term because the Democrats were filibustering everyone. Right. And so and by the way, you know, a lot of these hearings and you read the history books and people got approved by the Senate in a day, you know, like.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
The system wasn't meant to be this slow, and it has been bogged down and slowed down. And we'll see, you know, Senator Thune, Majority Leader Thune, will have a chance to put his own imprint on the Senate, and I want to see how he does.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
Well, you know, I've always said the last four years I would never want to miss out on another chance to be at the president's side. I find in him to be someone who's so uniquely situated for the moment.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And you go back, and I've done some reading on this, you go back and read some of the Federalist Papers, and they actually designed the system for someone like him whose interest would align with the country's interest to such an extent to which
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
It actually works like separation of powers is meant to have strong, opinionated, convictional leadership that go as fast as they can and hard as they can in their direction. And for the system to then have true separation of powers. Right. An example of that is what he's proposing on recess appointments. If the Constitution allows you to do it, why wouldn't you do it if it's in your interest?
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And then let's see what Congress does in response to that. But that's real separation of powers. It's not like this kind of fake fallacy. fourth branch administrative state where none of it works and it's all kind of cartel behind the scene where all you get is kind of different parts of each of the branch coming together almost as a blob.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And I think he's so unique in terms of being a historical transformative person that we can actually save the country. And that's really what it comes down to. The hour's late. It's 1159 It's not too late, but it's really late. And this isn't an election where you can just have seesaws. We'll be up and you'll be down.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
No, if we don't win and he's won an electoral mandate, now it's time to actually execute. If we... don't execute, we may never have this chance again. And so you have the president who's ready to go. Now you need know-how people who can do that and do it with the attacks that are coming and they will come, right? They will come hardest at the people that they believe are the greatest threats.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And but but that's what the president needs. The president needs those types of people where he's not going to be successful and the country won't be saved. And I just I think that it's incumbent on those of us who have that skill set, who have have had the experiences we've had. You know, we're put here for a reason.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
We're here because God has given us a particular purpose for a particular time, and it's incumbent on us to be responsible with those moments that we're given. So I don't know what the future holds. I don't know if I serve or if I continue at my center to be championing the ideas that he's working on.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
I'm happy with both of those scenarios, but it's incumbent on us to give everything we can to be successful in this moment because I don't think we will get another moment like this.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
It's incredibly insidious. And then add to the fact that he can't put two sentences together and he's largely not in control of his own government. And so you have almost an unelected president with individuals behind the scenes that are doing this. It doesn't surprise me, though. I mean, these are the same people that have weaponized the Department of Justice, have the lawfare.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
I have a colleague of mine, Jeff Clark, who's, you know, they're trying to disbar him because of the care that he had on behalf of the president to deal with voter integrity and election fraud after 2020. And so the system has thrown everything at the warriors that are on the field. You're seeing that with Tulsi. You're seeing that with Matt Gaetz. I mean...
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
why why is all of this stuff being thrown at him slanderously can i just say i thought i'm sorry to digress but since you mentioned gates we don't accuse look
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
No, and this is really, the left has innovated over 100 years to create this fourth branch of an administrative state. You and I might call it the regime, this administrative state that is totally unaccountable to the president that lets it move in the direction that it has been going.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
I read in my Bible this morning that you don't believe something unless two or three people are witnesses and say, and there is none of that. Let's mosaic law right there. And in fact, the weaponized Department of Justice said we don't have the proof to pursue these allegations. I know. And so then you read in the story.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
They accuse it. They make the case. The reporter I read it this morning. And then they say it should be known that Matt Gaetz denies that these allegations has occurred. Of course he denies it because they're not true in the Department of Justice. There's no accounting of the fact that these things have been proven not to be true.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And yet people – and there's a tendency on our side, and this is very troubling. It's not just the left, which is kind of state regime propaganda. there's a tendency on our side to believe that if there's smoke, there must be fire. Why do we do that?
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
Why do we, why does our side, why does Republican congressmen, Republican senators believe that where there must be smoke, there must be fire only because this person has been a confrontational, courageous, convictional leader, uh, And in a true generational talent, I might add.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
I think that is fundamentally, it's twofold. I think the left is made up of revolutionaries. For sure. Right. And they're Marxist. If you've read Witness, everyone knows that, right? Like that's not a new phenomena. It's become militarized over and over.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
So now what that looks like is not someone who's a behind-the-scenes spy. Now that looks like, you know, some of their members of Congress, right? Like an AOC. Their Marxist revolutionaries are voting in Congress. So that's their side. And our side doesn't really grapple with that. We don't make every decision realizing like that's what they think and that's what they're doing.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
So I'm not going to listen to what they just kind of chit chat conversation. I'm going to to govern and make decisions based on what I know they are pursuing. Know your enemy. Secondly, we do have trust in kind of. The media and the institutions like Tony Fauci can't be lying, right? He can't really – he must not have been doing gain-of-function research if he said he wasn't.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
He's Tony Fauci, right? Like that's what we were up against. It's totally true. And that is the wrong – you've got to have a skepticism to all of these people and their institutions and their bureaucracies.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
I believe that there's a lot of policy issues downstream, the border, inflation, wars across the world. All of them are downstream of one reality, and that is we don't, the American people currently are not in control of their government, and the president hasn't been either.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
We have to solve that. We have to solve the woke and the weaponized bureaucracy and have the president take control of the executive branch. So my belief for anyone who wants to listen is that you have to, the president has to move executively as fast and as aggressively as possible with a radical constitutional perspective to be able to dismantle that bureaucracy in their power centers.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
It has all the regulations coming through it to assess whether it's good or bad or too expensive or could be done a different way or what does the president think. and then all of government execution. So anytime you have cabinet executive branches conflicting with each other or working together on something, for instance, you know, the wall, the president wanted to fund the wall.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And I think there are a couple of ways to do it. Number one is going after the whole notion of independence. There are no independent agencies. Congress may have viewed them as such, SEC or the FCC, CFPB, the whole alphabet soup. But that is not something that the Constitution understands. So there may be different strategies with each one of them about how you dismantle them. But
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
As an administration, the whole notion of an independent agency should be thrown out, particularly with the Department of Justice, in which there's literally no law. All it is is precedent from the Watergate era that the attorney general and those lawyers don't work for the president. And who do they work for? They think that they work for themselves. They think that they are.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
I mean, they believe that they have the power for for all of the the prosecutions and that the president doesn't get a say in any of that. And we have to go at that as hard as we possibly can, whether that's the military. We have a whole military industrial complex of generals. And Tommy Tuberville kind of exposed this this last year with a fight about life.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
But it really became a fight about whether we have a essentially – a military that is not subject to civilian leadership. So you can apply the concept of destroying independence at every agency. I even saw it in aspects of OMB with regard to who gets to make the decisions on statistics, right? Like there are little pockets of independence that have to be just, we got to remove those, right?
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
They're unconstitutional. Number two- So I am not a huge fan of the Fed. I can't I can't look at the Constitution and the massive decades long decisions that they have made totally undemocratic and and see that that is a place where there deserves to be an exception for.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
Totally unconstitutional. And if you would have seen Woodrow Wilson bemoan our constitutional system, he would have wanted constitutional amendments. The left stopped talking about constitutional amendments because they innovated to this new fourth branch, which is totally different than anything the founders would have ever understood.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
No, because they're wrong, and they've been wrong for decades, right? Right. Let's go to zero interest rates for 11 years, see what happens. And see what happens. So President Trump hasn't run on that, and so I'm not going to speak.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
No, and to give you an example, if you go on TV, if you were watching news, you're going to have seen in the last two years Ads saying oppose the Fed's regulations on capital, bank capital. Right. Well, who are they supposed to call? They're not calling a congressman. Congressman has no power. The issue is like the call to action is against the Fed. Right. Well, sorry, you're kind of out of luck.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
There is no lever, right? And so they have existed with this notion that they have this priestly ability to make decisions. And in fact, I don't actually think they're that good at it. I think people like President Trump are, in fact, better at it. And there's no reason that they should be exempt from the normal democratic process.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And if Congress wants to come along and pass rules, it says, you know, this is how we want the money supply to go. All of that is in their purview. But I think, you know, this is not some exception to the rule. Doesn't mean in any way that, you know, President Trump has any interest in doing anything in this area.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
But I don't think it's the exception that proves the rule on independence being something that is important. downstream to the CDC, the NIH. I think everything that people like Bobby Kennedy have been running on and others is about, no, you're not some priestly role. You are politicians yourself. You just don't have to face voters, right? So independence is, I think, first and foremost.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
Number two, bring back the notion of impoundment. And this is something that- Of what? Of impoundment, the ability to not spend money. For 200 years, presidents had the ability to not spend a congressional appropriation. That has always been the constitutional system. It had been brought, it had been a paradigm that had been brought from the UK and how we understood
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
The constitutional principle is certainly power of the purse means that Congress gets to set the ceiling. You can't spend without a congressional appropriation, but you weren't ever meant to be forced to spend it, and it has become a floor. So 200 years, presidents are using impoundment. They get money for something.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
The president says, I don't think it's a good idea, or I certainly can do it better, or I have events that are happening overseas that cause me not to want to spend on the All manner of executive decision-making that would be a part of that.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
In the 1970s, at the lowest moment of the presidency, Congress steps in, and to some extent the courts, and they pass the Impoundment Control Act, which was really the Impoundment Elimination Act. And from that moment, they had destroyed separation of powers. on spending and on fiscal issues. But it was beyond that. It wasn't just about dollars and cents. It was about control of the bureaucracy.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
The notion of independent agencies that think of and Congress has designed them to be divorced from the president. But even the notion of like, we're supposed to be technocrats and experts, and we don't have to listen to what you say. We work for, and I caught this, Tucker. People would say, well, we work for the office of the president. Huh? What? What is that?
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And I believe, as a budget guy, that was the original sin on why we can't do anything fiscally from that moment on. It's also why we get omnibus bills. Because if I only need you to get your signature and I lose all of my ability to, throughout the rest of the fiscal year, to push and pull and not spend and make different decisions, I just got to get your one signature.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
So I'm going to put everything... In that one bill, thousands of pages, and I'm going to push it through at the most – the hardest time for you politically. You might have some diplomatic visit that you're going on.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And so impoundment is vitally important not just to save the country fiscally. It is vitally important to be able to wrest control of the bureaucracy because when you combine – Congress giving the agencies vast authority to interpret the laws that they passed, overly broad, make law essentially. Make law essentially that has no repercussions on the people who voted it, right?
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
They don't have to vote on what the right blend is for ethanol. And then you say that your funding is going for Congress and the president has no ability. Sorry, Mr. President, you don't have to – that's illegal. You can't turn off my funding. Right. Now, imperial Congress still exists, just a lot more subtle. So that's number two, bringing back impoundment.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
Number three is dramatically going at restoring at-will employment as far as you can. A lot of ideas on the agenda, but...
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
You only want it from the standpoint of control if you want to be able to say, you're going to spend what I tell you you're going to spend. It is nothing more than an institutional desire to, to force the president to spend an X amount of money. But again, it's never just about that. It's always about where they have tried to innovate it from really the progressive era.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
It's a way- And where does it get its authority? They get their authority. They have essentially taken authority. They have no legitimate authority. They have no legitimate authority in the Constitution. But they are part of this fourth branch that I still believe reports in large measure to congressional leadership. and in the K Street interest, right?
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
Like they wanted congressional government. That was the title of Woodrow Wilson's book. He wanted a system where essentially the agencies... largely worked out of the Congress or associated with Congress, not unlike what you would see in the House of Commons, right, where their cabinet lives in their House of Parliament.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And it's largely, you know, the monarch, the executive over time becomes toothless. That's essentially what they have wanted and have pursued at every turn here. And you saw that on steroids with them using the events of Watergate to promulgate new paradigms and ways of binding the constitutional system from working.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
So everything post-Watergate is largely, you can just make an assumption, it's not the way it was meant to work. And so you have our guys defending post-Watergate paradigms instead of trying to think through, okay, let's go back. Let's go back to what the founders would have actually envisioned.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
laws that have been passed, perhaps not challenged, laws that have been passed that give them bargaining power, that give them certain processes that have to be followed before they can be dismissed. But I think in that, and it certainly made it very, very hard to hire and fire, the current system
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
needs to be changed but it also can be used to deal with these same kind of actors if you're willing to do it and i don't want to get into all of the tools that are available right but they exist you know one of them is the you know the reduction force i mean you you can and vivek has talked about this i mean you can proceed on the basis of what is good for the efficiency and the effectiveness of the agency
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
to be able to dramatically lower at a macro level the size of the workforce. And that will give you certain legal abilities to begin to move people off of the payroll. So, there's a lot of things that are being creatively discussed in this space, but it has to be front and center. Schedule F, as President Trump has already run on, that seems to be like a day one thing.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
He has already instituted in his first term. We just didn't get to get it across the finish line. Every agency has to go and categorize how many of his employees are policy employees. and therefore subject to at-will employment.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
I put 90% of OMB in that category because I wanted, A, it was true, and B, I wanted to set a high bar for the rest of my colleagues at agency heads that this should be viewed maximally.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And it's always not just about firing, although there's certainly going to be mass layoffs and firing, particularly across some of the agencies that we don't even think should exist. But what I found was that you get better staff work when people are now in their mind realizing, okay, I'm not immune from all accountability.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
You have very powerful interests that direct them to keep going in the direction that they want them to go. It's why these bills are written in such a way that they are anything, you could read anything into them, right? When Nancy Pelosi says, we're gonna find out what the bill says, She wasn't actually being inaccurate. That's their strategy.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And I would tell people, you know, you have to have these conference calls. We're in the middle of COVID. Explain, you know, what we're trying to do. And a lot of a lot of people were very upset. Sounds like, guys, we're Republicans.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
We don't believe in these in these, you know, these laws that give you these protections that we think make you less good at your job of serving a particular president.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And it doesn't mean that you can't tell your boss what you think. Like, that's the most crazy thing in the world. Like, we what?
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
Yeah, and there's no other way to run any business, any government.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
Yeah.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
You're telling the truth. I know. That's why you've got to have a massive effort to dramatically reduce this so that the good ones rise to the top and everyone else is finding other work. Okay, sorry to get so wound up. No.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And then the last thing is dismantling all of the specific things like over-classification, the FBI background checks, all of the things that deny information to the political class that...
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
You're so judicious. I love it. Tucker, the reality, and I think this is I would encourage everyone to think this way, there is no place in America where you're going to be protected from the walls closing in on you and your family. Right.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And the only extent to which that may not be true yet is which Kevin Bacon's degrees of separation, you don't have someone that's immediately in proximity to the FBI raiding their house or being the victim of lawfare. I mean, I know two people very, very closely who have been in jail. I know four people that have multimillion dollar lawsuits. And so they're coming.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
They pass bills and then they let the experts fill them in. But over the phone, they put massive pressure on them to go along with their directions and their ends. lo and behold, you get conservatives, Republicans that take office, and then you find that it's incredibly difficult to wield power to get them to deal with all of that muscle memory to get them to do what you want.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And the only way to stop that from happening for people that are in this community trying to rebuild from a storm or run their coffee shop, the only way to keep it from happening is for those of us in the political arena to stand tall and unabashedly and to lean forward no matter the costs. And that's the moment that we live in. And so it's not meant to be provocative.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
It's just meant to know that if you are So not loud and proud. That's the wrong way to think about it. But if it is aggressive and public and articulate in how you go about it, it will make it so that more and more people can come along beside you and make it so that the president has enough people that are willing to take on the system.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And I believe that he has a growing number of people that are like that, and it will make it very difficult for them to move against individual actors. The nice thing about being out of office is you get to read and kind of understand what happened and to have new perspective. And I'm just blown away by the number of people that they went after individually, like wounded individuals individually.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And we never heard about him. I didn't hear about him until after the administration. It's true. Adam Lovinger, Mark Moyer. These are individuals that blew the whistle on corruption and their agencies conspired with their political appointees to make them go away. And I don't think they'll be able to get away with that this time around. And in some cases really hurt them.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
They wasted three or four years. You know, they're dealing with stuff in their families. Life happens and you're dealing with the intel agencies, multiple working behind the scenes together, never giving you due process. And I think that is we know their playbook. And we know not only what to look for, but how to be prepared to ensure that that cannot happen again.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
I don't know why you would use a computer. First of all, you can't respond to anything without it being FOIAed, right? And so we have to have a totally different view about going into government.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
Well, I think you need to have people that are there who are fearless and obviously Tulsi and RFK and not Intel. But there are certainly health aspects of national security, Matt being at DOJ. Those are the types of people that you need to get under the hood and to push as much as you possible. You've got to shut their funding off until they can prove to your satisfaction that things are.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
But wait, we're not even allowed to know what their funding is.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
We don't even know, like... When you're within government, you can know those answers.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And so you got to have statutory authority that a president kind of steps in and says, I am fully aware of where I sit in the Constitution. I am fully aware of the tools at my disposal, and I'm going to use them on behalf of the American people because I just won a massive agenda-setting election, and I'm going to go do what I said I would do. That's democracy, correct? That is democracy.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
Yeah. Yeah. So why do we have black budgets? Yeah. It's a great question, Tucker. I mean, there's dramatically more transparency needed, and I would say it's one of those areas where, not unlike the over-classification, there are things we need to know a lot more about.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And I can't tell you, well, what's the optimal level of transparency on that front, but the extent to which you can't have, as a citizen— an understanding of what the size of your IC community is, that's kind of a problem.
The Tucker Carlson Show
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And the size of these buildings. Like, you go around and you realize, oh, wow, that alphabet has an enormous... institutional presence that the country's never even heard about.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
We need to know a lot more and we need to demand that we know more. Like how is Congress and yeah, they can go into a SCIF and they can be given a brief information. Debates are supposed to happen on the House and Senate floor, and you can't – you're providing no ability to be able to share with your voters and us as voters whether – do we ever vote for this?
The Tucker Carlson Show
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Did we ever vote for this military-industrial complex, this intel community, the extent to which it sprawled all over the country? Who got a say in that? It doesn't seem like the intel— I would say it's rather undemocratic.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
I don't want to, I would just say this. Devin Nunez was kind of a unique character in his ability to provide leadership in that. And they came after him with everything they got. I know. And he survived. And I think he's a model not unlike that. When you say they, you mean the intel agencies? The intel agencies. The forces that are, you know, some out of government, non-government organizations.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
Oh, yeah. And working with the intelligence.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And so what... Why don't we have more Devin Nunes? That would be the question that I would ask is what what fear factor is there that and I'm not I'm not making an accusation of anyone. I'm just saying that with with all Congress and with all non-government organizations, even our there's there's this point where you're like.
The Tucker Carlson Show
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If I go after these individuals, this issue set or this area of corruption or this policy set, and I saw it right after Mar-a-Lago was raided and we came out really quickly and said, you know, the FBI should be radically reformed. I think I thought it should be, you know, exploded into a thousand pieces, right? Yeah. Why do we have such fear that that is such a provocative position?
The Tucker Carlson Show
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Because you don't own the government. Right. And so that's what we've got to go after. And I think it's a systemic issue that we've got to tackle with everything we've got.
The Tucker Carlson Show
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That is not oligarchy. And when they say we're going to preserve democracy, we know that they have been meaning all they want to do is preserve their kind of amorphous oligarchy administrative deep state.
The Tucker Carlson Show
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Well, I think they're bringing an exhilarating rush to the system of creativity, outside-the-box thinking, comfortability with risk and leverage.
The Tucker Carlson Show
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It is amazing. And the reason I love it is, I mean, you... In some respects, this does feel like an intractable problem that we're up against. Yes, yes, exactly. And I don't think it is, but I think it feels that way. And we're bringing people that, you know, are trying to get to Mars.
The Tucker Carlson Show
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So I'm pretty sure they can handle, you know, the ability for us to balance our books and run a government that's much more efficient. So I think that the things that I've heard them say are things like really going after or from a deregulatory perspective, all of the recent court cases that have said and chopped at the feet of this administrative state.
The Tucker Carlson Show
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You know, you don't have the ability to just come up with new major questions, you know, rank agency, rank and file agency. You've got to have actual specific language from Congress. Right. You don't have the ability to get the deference for every position that you've taken just because you're a federal agency. These have been big axe cuts at the administrative branches.
The Tucker Carlson Show
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And so I think what they want to do is to use those as the basis for a massive deregulatory agenda and game on. I also think they want to look for as much that you can do to start cutting costs without Congress or with Congress, but to be really aggressive in some of the areas that I've mentioned. Empowerment would be a huge part of that, the ability to just not spend the money.
The Tucker Carlson Show
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And so, and then of course, you know, being as radical or aggressive as you can in eliminating and reducing employees, you know, full-time employees, individuals, and going after contracts that may not make sense. So I think that that's where they're headed. And I think it'll be an enormous boon to the country.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
Well, I think that you, you know, they will be working with the agencies that do this. I think they'll be working with OMB, whoever's in that role. They'll be working with Treasury, who's ever in that role. And they will be rallying the theory of the case. I mean, I think ultimately that's what's most needed, Tucker, is a specific theory of the case about what can be done. That's right.
The Tucker Carlson Show
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And then you give it to the people, and hopefully that's been a two-way conversation, but you give it to the people that are on the president's executive team and his administration and they run with it. And then you've got Doge out there providing a political support for what must be done.
The Tucker Carlson Show
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I mean, we haven't had any spending reductions in like 20 years, right? But we're bankrupt, right? But we're bankrupt. And there's just this notion that nothing can be done about it. We still pass $100 billion Ukraine checks. Even if you thought it was a good idea. You can't afford it. Like you never have the affordability conversation at all. Is that true? That's totally true.
The Tucker Carlson Show
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Like literally no one ever talks about affordability, what we can do.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
They just assume the gravy train is going to keep on going. I dealt with the most within the military, right? But like – What's that like?
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Mm-hmm.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
Well, I want to understand these things. I want to understand these systems and these institutions, why people say what they do. And there's just – there's no – understanding. There's no fiscal conscience at all with regard to the individuals. It's like, nope, we've got to perform a particular function in the world. I read that somewhere in my educational system. I now believe it.
The Tucker Carlson Show
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It doesn't matter whether that was never voted on. It doesn't matter if that's kind of anathema to where our founding fathers would have envisioned. And so we are going to maintain our presence everywhere in the country. I,
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
the military get to define my requirements about what's necessary to win that military objective you civilian don't get to ever question my requirements those requirements now automatically cost x amount of money and we wonder why we can't ever have exactly any cuts to defense and we wonder why then defense spending becomes the praetorian guard for the non-defense spending Right.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
They ignore the president. And officials ignore the president. And I think one of the things you'll see in this next Trump term is policy officials, his political appointees, that are not looking to get out of what he has clearly told them to do. So let's assume that issue is solved.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
So for, for what we have been unwilling to cut any non-defense spending, the bureaucracy, which is the quote discretionary spending members have a vote on it every single year. They don't have a vote on entitlements. Those are on autopilot. They have a vote on the bureaucracy. So everything they hate about government, their members are voting on.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
We haven't been able to have cuts to non-defense, not because Republicans are unwilling, although many of them are unwilling as well, but because there has been a view that those two things have to be constantly considered together. And the Democrats insist and Republican hawks insist that defense has to be growing at X percent to deal with the threats in the world.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And that requires you to then bring additional non-defense spending to be able to be for that political coalition. And ultimately, if you get your average Republican member, they ultimately care a lot more about the defense stuff than they do about the bureaucracy.
The Tucker Carlson Show
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Ultimately, you have your average Republican member cares more about the military industrial complex than they do about the woke and weaponized bureaucracy that is oppressing.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
Well, I think it goes to the unhealthiness of the Republican coalition for like 50 years, but particularly in since 1989. Tell me what that means. So your kind of National Review Coalition, your fusionist Republican coalition was anti-communist. Yes. It was social conservatives, traditional conservatives. Yes. And it was kind of fiscal libertarians, right? That was your coalition. Absolutely.
The Tucker Carlson Show
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And it worked until, you know, a certain level when we had the Soviet Union. But when we don't have the Soviet Union, it kind of takes on a life of its own, and now you have to keep us everywhere in the world to be able to justify all of the institutional buildup and the complex that has been built up, all of these defense industrial companies and things like that.
The Tucker Carlson Show
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And Pat Buchanan actually talks about this in his book where he says, look, this was a specific strategy hatched out of the Department of Defense by some of the neocons at the time to be able to continue to justify the largest, from a defense standpoint, that we continue to be tied down to. That, I also think, you know, is...
The Tucker Carlson Show
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And you don't actually then think through, okay, what does that mean? Does that mean I have to then be for every war that's been hatched? Right. Do I not to be for making— a defense that we can actually afford? Does that mean that I think that from an economic standpoint that we're not actually citizens before we're consumers? Like there's just a lot of unhealth in all of those. Yes.
The Tucker Carlson Show
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so for instance my staff uh is was part of what we call the policy process right where you would go and you defend the and you would articulate what you're trying to accomplish and we had put the hold on the the ukraine funding and my guy goes to the the all of these meetings and he's like literally the only one in the room that wants to do what the president has asked him to do everyone's kind of just ganging up on him
The Tucker Carlson Show
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Why are Christian conservatives naturally defense hawks? That's what I'm saying. Not just defense hawks, war hawks. What happened in that?
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
Well, I do believe this is why we we we need to be less doctrinaire on the right. Gosh. And to think actually think, you know, and read those books you were mentioning earlier. Read and to be thinking through and ask the questions and trying to learn more and realize like, you know, a history book may have been written at a time to just to to with a particular political benefit and meaning to it.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And so maybe we don't take everything. Right. You know, I don't know. Maybe some skills we learned in school. Right. And just common sense, intuition. This is something that I think is something seems off. It's off.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
We at OMB gave him a plan to be able to go and fund the wall through money that was at the Department of Defense and to use that because Congress wouldn't give him the ordinary money at the Department of Homeland Security. So it really is, presidents use OMB to tame the bureaucracy, the administrative state.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And you see it in some of the attacks on RFK. They say, well, this hasn't been proven. There are gaps in our understanding, our scientific understanding. That's like their bureaucratic way of saying – Yeah, your intuition's right.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
I think it is. I think that the systems do it. People get into these and that's where they kind of get to the paradigm level. I'm not going to do anything that would hurt national security. I came to D.C., I'm not going to do anything that hurts the national security. I think that's how we lose people when they go into the skiffs, just to go back to our earlier conversation.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And you've got to have courage to say, look, what happens if your time in office, you missed a big issue? Like, Maha is a new issue to me. I admit it. I'm trying to read. I'm trying to read the Means book. I listened to your podcast. You know, it's a new issue. But, like, if I didn't get my head wrapped around it—
The Tucker Carlson Show
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Future generations will have to indict me for me being irresponsible on an existential issue facing our country. So I don't think most people think like that. But in general, I think our Republican coalition is unhealthy and has been for a long time because we have, and if we are, the country will be too secular, too imperialistic and global, and too economic. Right.
The Tucker Carlson Show
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And I come out of the free market economist lane, right? That's where I got my start. But we're not consumers. Like, the notion that the end of all economic good is consumption, and so consumers get to veto on everything, it's not actually what a citizen in a country and a nation are.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
To economics. So you're not a socialist. I know you're not. No, I'm a free market conservative, right? Of course you are. But I don't believe that just because... Facebook is a corporation, that means that they get to not have to answer questions about how big they are, what they use, what the impact is on our country. Whether they're wrecking my kids' brains.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
Amazon giving me, you know, same day service on a book or a, you know, a product is awesome. I love it. But that doesn't mean that everything that Amazon does is something that we shouldn't be thinking through and that our, our, our, Our normal disposition of free market economics may make us bad at assessing companies once they get too big.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And think of that often for all of our political appointees. They are surrounded by people that have no idea about what the reasons and the agenda that the president has been put in office. And they're just bombarded with reasons of how can you do this? What are you thinking? Did you know that you can't do this? Most of the time, that's not true. And so you have to cut through all of that
The Tucker Carlson Show
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Did you know what I'm talking about? Yeah. I mean, they do in the foreign policy. You're a useful idiot for Russia. Wait, they call you a useful idiot for Russia? Well, they're saying that about Tulsi. They say that about Tulsi, right? Yeah. I've lived that, yes. You've seen that? I have, yeah.
The Tucker Carlson Show
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In every one of these things, when they don't want to have the conversation, they shut it down with a slur. Of course.
The Tucker Carlson Show
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And that's where if the coalition was working, you'd have a lot more interesting conversations. You'd have your Christian conservatives being upset with that, having debates with the free market coalition to say, where's a place that we can land in ways that previously the conversation wasn't? Because in this to say, okay, that's something that would come out of the mouths of our adversaries.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And we need more of that, I think. And you're going to see it in trade, right? Like, yeah, trades like the one big domino that president, I think, finally has now toppled with his election.
The Tucker Carlson Show
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But there will be a sizable number of Republicans that are very grudgingly going along or opposed to what he wants to do with what I think is a no brainer policy with regard to, you know, universal tariffs and higher tariffs for China. And I want the money to be able to balance the books. But I also want this country to be a manufacturing producing hub.
The Tucker Carlson Show
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And what I found, Tucker, is that even I can win arguments with those who are free traders because they themselves have ceded the ground of independence. You know, if you're comfortable with other countries making your stuff, that may or may not be important from a national security standpoint or just period because we don't want to have to wait for six months to have a, you know, a refrigerator.
The Tucker Carlson Show
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You know, if you want independence, you got to make it here. if you don't want to have to rely on China and have Xi shut down his whole economy because he's dealing with the COVID, then the answer is independence. And how do you get to making things more here?
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And like, there is a balance in every community. We're not all going to be carpenters or plumbers or electricians, right? Like, you're not going to be independent as a person or a community across the board. But you would kind of hate it if we didn't have any carpenters in your community, right? You'd hate it if you didn't have any plumbers in your community.
The Tucker Carlson Show
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And we've gotten to the point as a country where we don't make this stuff anymore. And that's a real problem. And I think it's just kind of an intuition way of getting at something that has been suppressed for decades.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
and to have the courage of your convictions, and quite frankly, Tucker, the know-how to know, to have read the law, to get in the granular details yourselves, to not be staffed by the people working for you. This notion that you can just come in and preside is not true.
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Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
50?
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Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
How old are you, Russ?
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
That's right. You know, get that 50 on. Look, I think this is what is needed is new institutions. That's why we created the Center for Renewing America, because we wanted to make sure there was a home to give elites, both in D.C. and in the grassroots, this is actually how you do what's necessary to be done.
The Tucker Carlson Show
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So, like, if President Trump gives a speech in the first term or you from your show are articulating something that must be done, we felt there needed to be an institution to actually take that and turn it into the regulations, translating into actually public policy. And that has to be new. Some exceptions exist.
The Tucker Carlson Show
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I mean, Kevin is doing a great job at Heritage, but that's the exception rather than the rule. My view is that you've got to create new institutions that are scrappy, are hungry, It doesn't take them two weeks to write a paper. It takes them one day to write a paper. You get it out there. And if that paper is not read, you go and you like get it in front of people so that they understand it.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And then when they have read it and you figure out why haven't you acted on it? What's you know, like you have to work it hard. And that's going to come from from not sitting around a board table at a prestigious organization. That's going to come from. people who are hardened, battle-tested, and really awesome in their mind as to what they think and what they know.
The Tucker Carlson Show
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Look, there's a lot of awesome conservative donors. There are? Yeah. You would know. And many of them are coming to our banner over time. I think the issue is, you know, do they know about your organization, the impact? And there's a lot of grift on the, and that's the problem is like, you've got to kind of show yourself. There's so much grift. It's unbelievable.
The Tucker Carlson Show
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You have to be in the weeds and to drive these agencies to be able to fix where we have the undergrowth and the muscle memory that we've had for decades.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
So you kind of have to acknowledge, yeah, there's a lot of grift out here. But at the same time, do everything you can to just get up in the morning and do your job and do it effectively. And then people come. Where I feel like the issue is, is that... With everyone, you're educating them on the same journey that I think you have.
The Tucker Carlson Show
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I think you've talked about it, and I know I have, of this trying to—like, what has been off about conservatism for a while and been, I think, the reason why we have lost and been on the edge of tyranny? And sometimes there are folks that still have viewpoints on that. Like, when we took Ukraine, we were the first organization out to oppose Ukraine funding. Right. That was risky, right?
The Tucker Carlson Show
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Because Putin had just invaded and gone over them. We didn't want that, but we knew where this was headed. And that was a long time for us to educate all stakeholders.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
I do believe Ukraine should be a litmus test for the national security team, for sure. Well, it hasn't been, unfortunately. Well, it's certainly in terms of getting a read on where someone is, and then you can have whatever conversations you want to have with them.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And it has. And so over time, that coalition, that conversation we're having about what conservatives need, what does conservatism need to be to save the country? Not protecting your little niche within that, but to save the country. You were given resources to do nothing else but to save the country. And that's what your donors are giving.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
That conversation on the ideas is why when you come to one of our events with our donors. I hand out books. I don't want you to just necessarily read our policy paper. I'm sure you're going to do that anyways. I want you reading Whitaker Chambers. I want you reading Rusty Reno, Return of the Strong Gods. I want you reading this stuff. We're giving out Pat Buchanan books.
The Tucker Carlson Show
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I want the whole conservative movement to be going deep in these books so that you're both enlightened, encouraged, and you come out of fighting force, whether you are the practitioner here in D.C., the funder on the outside. And that's a long-term project, honestly. But I think it's one that's absolutely vital. Yeah.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
Yeah, and this has been an undercurrent that has been popped up at times, but is largely suppressed by the Republican establishment and their intellectual praetorian guard, National Review and others. And Pat Buchanan was a major... opportunity for it to punch through. And then Donald Trump really punched through. And now it's ascendant.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And it's about us going back and trying to think through, like, what are some of these viewpoints mean? Like, where were they right? We're wrong. What does it look like in health? What does it look like with AI? What does it look like in all of these different areas? But I think it's primarily remembering that we're individuals. We're with souls. We're a nation. We're not just an economy.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
These are the kinds of kind of first building blocks that if you get in place, then you can have a much more coherent, convincing and satisfying public policy life. But ultimately, you know, I think it's like Whitaker Chambers married to Pat Buchanan, married to someone like a Donald Trump. I think that that
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
movement over time is something that trying to find how to give it flourish in life and institutions and will ultimately be successful in saving the country.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
You've got to know how to fire them. And there are tools to do that. And the president was innovating in that space himself with what's called Schedule F of essentially saying, if you work for me in your policy, a career official, think your attorneys who are writing regulations, then we're going to create a new classification for you.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And you are going to be what most of the country is, which is at-will employee. That's where we're headed.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
It should be. And this is one of the mountains of the administrative state. You know, this is how they have built their institution by essentially having it be incredibly difficult to hire and fire employees. And so I'll get another example. When the president decided to take money from defense to build the wall... We had clear legal grounds to do it that Congress had given us.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
It's called transfer authority. And I told this to the Hill, and obviously this was controversial. It shouldn't have been controversial. Congress had given us very clear transfer authority. I must have had at least three times someone relitigate that decision from the career staff who work at OMB. Are you sure? Are you sure? I think we should oppose. I think this, because guys,
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
The decision has been made. Execute the decision. And you see that everywhere, right? And if you don't drive it, you're going to get better. You're not going to be able to accomplish what the president needs you to accomplish.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
You can do that increasingly when you move towards a Schedule F system. And there are other tools in the toolbox. But under the current system, what would happen if you tried that?
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
Look, you've got a lot of tools on the table. It's just so infuriating. Look, it is one of the most infuriating things that you could possibly imagine. But I think that the good news and this is, I think, the good news, not just in hiring, firing. The good news at large is that. Most of the time, they have been able to get as far as they can because of just it is the way it is.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
It's precedent and laws that are not drafted precisely but purposely vague. And as a result, we can then do it in reverse. You can have a president who steps in and says, you know what, there's no constitutional amendment for me to take control of the administrative state. I'm going to do in reverse everything that you have done. And I think that is the great hope.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
What you need is people who are able to absorb political heat. They don't have a fear of conflict. They can execute under withering enemy fire. They are up to speed and they are no nonsense in their own ability to know what must be done. And they are unbelievably committed to the president and his agenda and truly believe in their bones that They're not there for their own agenda.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
They're there for what President Trump was elected to do. And so his commander's intent matters a great deal. And that's the view that I always had, Tucker, is how do I get in the minds of the president to think through what is he trying to accomplish? And then I'm going to go figure out how to do it.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
Well, I think, number one, they are always framing narratives and messages that both are lies and are also designed to destabilize the Republicans in control who want to be for however that narrative is being framed. You used one already with democracy, right? If you're not aware that when they say democracy, they mean oligarchy, you're like, I don't want to be anti-democratic.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And, you know, if you have a plan to deal with the administrative state and then they frame it as authoritarian, you don't want a cast of your own allies saying, I don't want to be anti-authoritarian. We saw this in COVID, right, where – We if they decide if they define something as anti-science or anti-public health, it causes our political appointees to just completely wilt. Right.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
And so that's I think the beauty of President Trump is he's kind of immune to these these media generated narratives that conflict with common sense reality. That I think is the main one, because that is controlling the skies from a military standpoint, right? Like that is their ability to shape the conversation in such a way that it makes it very hard.
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson and Russ Vought Break Down DOGE and All of Trump’s Cabinet Picks So Far
Number two, they're obviously working in conjunction with leakers and individuals with know-how to know when a hold has been put on Ukraine to be able to send that and have it explode in the public arena. And so you have to prevent leaks. You have to govern well from the get-go to be able to manage all of that as best you possibly can.