An evangelical former director of the White House Office of Management and Budget under the administration of former President Donald Trump launched a new think tank meant to advance the "America First" principles of the previous administration, and to "restore an American consensus of a nation under God," a report says.
Russel Vought, former Trump cabinet member, announced the creation of the Center for American Restoration late last month.
Vought elaborated his goals on the new think tank in an interview with The Christian Post on Tuesday. He mentioned some details about how the organization is planning to operate.
Even though Vought admitted the fact that there are still many things he would have liked to accomplish during a second Trump term, he embraces the opportunity to start a new journey, calling it "the silver lining in some respects of ... not being in office."
"A lot of the things that have been rattling around in my mind for a number of years are the things that the Center for American Restoration is going to be working on," Vought said. "I think that this gives us an opportunity to articulate and work on issues and proposals and ideas that you need a little bit of time outside government to be able to work on and to be able to set up future policy-makers to work on these issues."
He also explained the goals and plans of the new organization he is starting in an op-ed for The Federalist published on January 26.
"Many men and women of the right are asking themselves in the days following President Trump's departure from office: "Where do we go from here?"" he started.
He then argued that the "center-right" movement, which is ready to continue its pre-Trump agenda, failed to "change America's trajectory" as a result of their actions in spite of the fact that "policy victories on taxes, welfare, and the right to life" in the past decades have been made.
"That is why I am founding the Center for American Restoration, and a corresponding activist organization named American Restoration Action. It will help restore an old consensus in America that has been forgotten, that we are a people For God, For Country, and For Community," he continued.
He said that "few are equipped to stand athwart the age and make a full-throated defense of something other than 'progress' or going forward." He believes that most people are not willing to fight because they no longer have faith, "and repeatedly lose policy fight after policy fight because they have no firm footing."
"The Center for American Restoration exists to provide that footing," Vought added. "Its mission statement is to restore an American consensus of a nation under God with unique interests worthy of defending that flow from its people, institutions, and history, where individuals' enjoyment of freedom is predicated on just laws and healthy communities."
Vought, whose evangelical beliefs were questioned by Senator Bernie Sanders during a 2017 confirmation hearing, criticized liberals' control of "the commanding heights of culture."
He said those heights include "the academy, the media, [and] the entertainment industry," and described Trump's presidency as "the first real counter assault to the left in decades."
The organization also aims to continue Trump's legacies against the political left even though Trump is no longer in office.
"We hope to give voice to the common, forgotten men and women across this great country, possessed with extraordinary intuition, who work hard, pay their taxes, and attempt to raise their families in healthy communities," he maintained.
Vought emphasized that it is important to remember that "we're a country under God."
The think tank also will reject "the militant 'successor ideology' that has taken root in elite institutions" and aims to weaken the power of "cancel culture" and further promote their "pro-life" principles nationwide.
