INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM TALK
The Shadow President: Investigation into Russell Vought
A conversation about ProPublica's yearlong investigation into Russell Vought, the Project 2025 architect and Trump budget guru.
From the wholesale gutting of federal agencies to the ongoing government shutdown, Russ Vought has drawn the road map for Trump's second term. Vought has consolidated power to an extent that insiders say they feel like "he is the commander in chief."
SPEAKERS: Andy Kroll, ProPublica reporter and Nick Varchaver, ProPublica senior editor
Nov 5, 2025 at 1 PM - 2 PM PT (4 PM - 5 PM ET)
RSVP to speaker talk: https://events.propublica.org/the-shadow-president
WATCH Short Doc w/ Andy Kroll, ProPublica: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1LuV82l0vs
Follow ProPublica on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/propublica.org
Russell Vought is perhaps the most important figure in the Trump administration that you may not have heard of -- at least, not until the recent government shutdown elevated his profile. As the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Vought has waged a quiet war to change the shape of the U.S. government.
Relying on an expansive theory of presidential power and a willingness to test the rule of law, he has frozen vast sums of federal spending, terminated tens of thousands of federal workers and, in a few cases, brought entire agencies to a grinding halt. Most recently, Vought has used the federal government shutdown as a pretext to fire thousands more workers and pause or cancel billions in funding for blue states.
A portrait of Vought as the shadow president of Donald Trump's second term emerges in Andy Kroll's profile, which is based on scores of interviews with government officials and people who know Vought, as well as thousands of pages of emails obtained through records requests and dozens of hours of videos and recordings of private briefings given by Vought, most of which have not been previously reported.
Beyond Trump, Vought is a driving force in the MAGA-infused Republican Party. He combines an acknowledged Christian nationalist perspective with a belief in an executive branch with sweeping powers.
Kroll's reporting shows that Vought, who declined to be interviewed, believes the U.S. has descended into a "post-constitutional" order and that it will take a group of "radical constitutionalists" to destroy the deep state and return power to the presidency and, ultimately, the people. The ultimate radical constitutionalist, in Vought's view, is Trump himself, "a man who is so uniquely positioned to serve this role, a man whose own interests perfectly align with the interests of the country."
During this editor-reporter conversation, we'll walk attendees through what we found, why it matters and how we reported it.