To Defeat Trump, Defeat His Alfred Pennyworth.

Batman is a rich and powerful man who is nearly impossible to defeat. Thank God he chooses to fight crime. But Batman doesn’t work alone. His capabilities are largely credited to his butler, Alfred Pennyworth. Alfred handles the logistics, the strategy, and the infrastructure that make everything Batman does possible. Alfred operates entirely in the shadows. His power isn’t from public recognition but from his extreme competence and loyalty.

Russell T. Vought is President Trump’s Alfred Pennyworth. Hadn’t heard of him? That’s because he doesn’t want to be known. Mr. Vought is not like Elon Musk; he doesn’t need to be in the spotlight and take credit for everything he does. And that’s why he’s more dangerous than Musk. Most people think Musk and his DOGE team were responsible for dismantling the Federal Government, and they’re right for the most part. But what Musk planned and accomplished in an impulsive and sloppy manner, Vought had planned out for years and is much more competent at completing his task.

Russell T. Vought is President Trump’s budget director. For years, he has been creating a detailed plan to give the President much more power while shrinking the U.S. government. And his plan has already been set in motion.

His main belief is that the federal government is too big, too powerful, and full of unelected employees (what he calls the “bureaucracy” or others might call the “deep state”) who get in the way of the President’s agenda.

His goal is to achieve two main things:

Dramatically expand the President’s power, especially over how government money is spent.

Shrink or dismantle federal agencies he dislikes (like the Department of Education, Environmental Protection Agency, etc.) by cutting off their funding and firing their employees.

Vought is trying to accomplish this through the “Power of the Purse.” For those who don’t know, the U.S. government works like this:

Congress controls the country’s wallet. They pass laws that say how much money each part of the government gets to spend. This is called the “power of the purse.”

The President and his administration then must spend that money as Congress directed.

Vought is trying to flip this system on its head. He’s making a legally bold argument that even if Congress approves money for a program, the President should have the power to simply refuse to spend it.

Imagine a family where the parents (Congress) agree on a monthly budget: $500 for groceries, $100 for school supplies, and $200 for the electric bill. Vought’s plan would allow one parent (the President) to say, “I don’t like what the school is teaching, so I’m just not going to spend that $100 on supplies, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

He is intentionally setting up legal fights, hoping the Supreme Court will eventually side with the President and give him this new power permanently.

Our democracy is built on the idea of checks and balances so that no single branch (President, Congress, or Courts) can become too powerful.

Congress’s “power of the purse” is its biggest check on the President. Suppose a President can ignore Congress’s spending decisions; that check is gone. This would fundamentally alter the balance of power in America, making the President far more powerful than intended by the Constitution. It would allow a President to effectively shut down parts of the government he personally dislikes, regardless of what the law or Congress says.

If you felt like America has been becoming an authoritative state lately, well, it’s because that’s the end goal.

Vought has used his position as a budget director to force major changes, such as getting Congress to cancel approved spending. He successfully pressured Congress to take back $9 billion it had already approved for foreign aid and public broadcasting. This led to the elimination of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He made a deal that helped pass a law to slash spending on Medicaid and food stamps.

His current move is to cancel another $4.9 billion in spending, this time without Congress’s approval, daring them and the courts to stop him.

Vought’s power comes from his meticulous preparation. While Elon Musk’s approach was chaotic, Vought’s was strategic because he had spent years doing his homework. He spent the four years between presidential terms analyzing what went wrong the first time so he could be more effective in a second term. He created a massive 104-page alternative budget that laid out exactly which programs he wanted to cut and why. It was a complete, ready-to-go plan.

He and his team drafted the legal documents and executive orders needed to make these changes before Trump even returned to office, allowing them to move very quickly.

Vought is like a real-life villain. Someone that James Bond would stop to save democracy, that is, if James Bond were American. 

While everyone knows Alfred’s relationship to Batman, Vought is mainly unknown. He’s not in Trump’s close social network. He doesn’t desire any acknowledgement for his efforts or to be seen next to Trump, like many Republicans.