The man behind the plan is Russell Vought, Trump’s ultraconservative choice for the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). In his chapter, Vought writes that the climate report reduces the “legally-proper options in presidential decision-making” and “can frustrate successful litigation defense.” In essence, the NCA doesn’t just provide climate data for lawmakers — it has been used as evidence in lawsuits against the first Trump administration. The scale of Vought’s ambitions fit his background: Vought is a Christian nationalist who believes that the American people are at war with a “weaponized bureaucracy” that “makes every decision on the basis of climate change extremism and … woke militancy.” But it is disturbing that the man who once helped Trump illegally withhold aid from Ukraine is now being given power over the nation’s top scientific agencies.
Author: Arielle Samuelson
Published at: 2025-01-08 22:49:24
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