During the height of his third campaign for the White House, President Donald Trump was reportedly obsessed with helping one of his recently divorced top advisors find a date, and frequently made objectionable comments about female members of his Mar-a-Lago club.
That's according to Zeteo journalist Asawin Suebsaeng, who recently reported that sources close to Trump said he went out of his way to offer "wingman" services to Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought. Zeteo editor-in-chief Mehdi Hasan wrote in his publication's recent newsletter that he felt he needed "to go take a shower" after reading about what Suebsaeng's sources confided.
"By mid-2024, Donald Trump and Project 2025 architect Russell Vought were talking on the phone fairly regularly. But it often wasn’t about policy," Suebsaeng reported. "Trump – when he had downtime from campaigning and plotting his fascist presidency – appeared preoccupied with getting the recently divorced Vought laid, two knowledgeable sources tell me."
"Trump spoke to Vought, a self-described Christian nationalist who’s now one of the president’s most hardline enforcers, about the 'gorgeous' and 'beautiful ladies' who roam Trump’s club, Mar-a-Lago, so often that it 'weirded out' some of his advisers, in one source’s words," he continued. "Trump offered to be Vought’s wingman. And Trump spoke crudely of all the 'p——' that Vought would surely get as the president’s favorite 'bachelor.'"
Vought is regarded not only as a key figure behind the far-right authoritarian Project 2025 playbook but as the brainchild behind the administration's wave of mass firings across federal agencies that defined the early months of his second term. He also proposed using the government shutdown as justification to implement permanent mass layoffs at various agencies, whereas most federal workers are merely furloughed until the government reopens.
The OMB director also made headlines earlier this month, after neighbors in his Virginia suburb spoke out publicly about their opposition to his policies. Many put signs on their lawns expressing solidarity with federal workers, and Mother Jones noted that Vought's neighborhood is full of sidewalk chalk messages trolling the Trump administration official like "ASK YOUR NEIGHBOR RUSS VOUGHT ABOUT PROJECT 2025."
"People have strong feelings about him," one of Vought's neighbors told Mother Jones. "Everyone knows someone who lost their jobs."
Click here to read Suebsaeng's report in Zeteo's newsletter.