Trump Lickspittle Russ Vought Really Enjoying Kicking America In Its Dick

The man has a weird definition of fun.

We are not a psychologist or a psychiatrist or any sort of mental health specialist. So take this opinion for what it’s worth, because it is in no way any sort of clinical diagnosis. Still, we offer it in all seriousness: Donald Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, is a goddamn sociopath.

Really, how else do you describe someone who calls his job slashing federal spending to the bone “fun,” when those cuts include research to find treatment for cancers and other diseases, or programs to feed starving people? What kind of a scallop-brained asshole finds that fun? Even Elon Musk didn’t want people to think he and DOGE were cutting cancer research, even though they absolutely were.

Yet this is what Vought told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast on Thursday. According to HuffPost, he specifically cited the National Institutes of Health, which is the “premier biomedical institution in the world,” but has nonetheless lost 1,400 employees and seen its budget slashed by 40% since Trump returned to the White House because this entire administration is run by people who don’t have the brains or empathy that God gave a turnip.

Vought, as director of the OMB, played a role in those cuts, and he is not done yet. He made it clear at the breakfast that he is very excited to keep clear-cutting the federal government like a mining company taking a scythe to the Amazon. Asked by someone at the breakfast what he meant by having fun, Vought answered, “What’s not fun?”

Ha ha ha, thousands upon thousands of people have lost or will lose their jobs, lives have been upended, millions will lose access to affordable healthcare, promising disease research has been halted in its tracks, students will lose access to loans to pay for college, parents with special-needs children will lose programs designed to help those kids at school, foreigners will starve to death and die of preventable illnesses because we’ve cut foreign aid and are instead literally setting food on fire rather than distribute it, and on and on and on. But what’s important here is that this sociopath Russ Vought is having fun!

Trump Lackey Still Planning Project 2025 Rollout, Because What Is Dead Can Never Die

Donald Trump Throws Climate Science In Salvadoran Supermax

The man has a weird definition of fun. Roller coasters are fun. Hanging out with friends and family is fun. Wonkmeets like the one tomorrow in Seattle* are fun. Only Murders in the Building is fun. (Well, except for the murders.) Deliberately wrecking lives in service of an inhumane governing philosophy, though? That is not something any non-sociopath would find fun. But then, this is par for the course for Vought, who once bragged that he wanted to traumatize federal bureaucrats for the sin of doing their jobs.

It’s hard to believe Vought is divorced, isn't it? He seems like such a barrel of laughs. He gives off enough Bitter Divorced Guy energy to power a thousand custody hearings.

Vought also made clear on Thursday that Constitution schmonstitution, as far as he’s concerned Congress is an advisory board whose decisions he will take as suggestion. He also told the reporters that the appropriations process “has to be less bipartisan,” and the damn Democrats better get in line:

Vought said he was “willing to work with Democrat appropriators if they conduct themselves with decorum” but that he’s seeking “a great relationship with” Republicans on the House and Senate spending panels.

Would you believe that White House spokesmoron Karoline Leavitt later interpreted this for the press corps as Vought saying “this process should be more bipartisan?” You would? You've been here before, we see.

Man, if we’re a Senate Democrat, we’re wondering if drop-kicking Vought into the Potomac would be too indecorous. We would also be deciding that the answer is a resounding “NO.”

Vought also sneered out his belief that no voter in the country voted for “a bipartisan appropriations process.” He did not address how he plans to get appropriations bills that can muster 60 votes if he thinks the whole process should be more partisan.

Even Republican senators were unimpressed. West Virginia’s Shelley Moore Capito called the comments “not helpful. Senate Majority Leader John Thune reiterated that appropriations bills will have Democratic input because math. Of course they might hold this stance only as long as it takes Donald Trump to bring them to heel, but even if he does, the math problem remains.

One irony of Vought singling out the National Institute of Health is that his daughter, who has cystic fibrosis, has reportedly been greatly helped by a cutting-edge drug manufactured because of research funded by grants provided to ... wait, let us check our notes ... the National Institute of Health. Is it a cheap shot to mention this? Probably! Do we still think it worth pointing out that this jerk is enthusiastically pulling up the ladder behind his family so that no one can benefit from medical research as he has, and has proudly announced that he’s having a hell of a good time doing it? Definitely!

But it’s fun! Isn’t this all just repeatedly-kick-you-in-the-nuts fun? Fun fun fun!

[HuffPost / Politico / Mother Jones]

Support independent media by giving Wonkette money.

* That’ll be the one in SEATTLE, Sunday, July 20, 3-6 p.m. at Lincoln Park near the North Play Area! Join Yr Editrix, Shy, the kids, and Dok for pot luck and a spirit of community that will forever be a mystery to creeps like Russ Vought.