Ex-Trump Aide Crafting GOP’s Debt Ceiling Playbook

“Last month, amid the raucous battle to elect House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, former president Donald Trump spoke with a hard-line Republican who had been influential in blocking McCarthy’s path to power,” the Washington Post reports.

“The agitator was not a member of Congress, or even an elected official. It was Trump’s former budget director, Russell Vought, who has quietly emerged as an intellectual leader of the GOP’s conservative flank.”

“Vought explained his opposition to McCarthy, citing the California Republican’s deals with Democrats to increase federal spending. Trump, who supported McCarthy, didn’t push back, Vought said. Conservatives eventually extracted concessions from McCarthy that could empower them to secure spending cuts.”