Hosting this fall’s gathering so soon after the election risked turning the summit into a wake.

It was the opposite.

Even before the event officially began, Ms. #Wiles was in Las Vegas,
headlining an outdoor Saturday dinner at a steakhouse for about 30 Rockbridge donors and friends.

Around the jubilant open bars and music-filled ballrooms, attendees openly traded notes on what Trump administration roles they might get
and debated whether Mr. #Musk was the world’s most powerful person.

“Generally everyone at Rockbridge was very happy that technologists and politicians are working together directly again
and not openly hostile toward each other,”
said #John #Coogan, the co-founder of Soylent who attended.

“It’s no longer a question of whether technology will drive the future, but how we guide its impact.
So it makes sense that tech billionaires and the political elite are partying together.”

Mr. #Vance did not attend, a rare absence and a disappointment to some loyalists.

But his victory made Rockbridge suddenly a hot ticket and spurred some last-minute sign-ups.

After sometimes letting prospective members attend for just $5,000, Rockbridge raised the minimum cost to $25,000
(although some people said privately that they had been able to get in for less).

The cost of Rockbridge membership ranges from $100,000 to be a “limited partner”
to $1,000,000 for a “principal partner,”
according to a prospectus seen by The Times.

That money goes toward the eight vehicles that Rockbridge steers,
including four dark-money 501(c)(4) organizations,
two super PACs,
a donor-advised 501(c)(3) fund for nonprofit activity
and the Rockbridge Network umbrella organization,
an L.L.C. Mr. Buskirk’s main super PAC, "Turnout for America", has raised at least $25 million this year.

These eight Rockbridge groups have primarily run get-out-the-vote operations.

One, called "Faithful in Action", claims to have 160,000 members
and organizes small churches with field teams twice a week.

The group has no public presence.

Rockbridge groups have also produced documentaries that investigate prosecutors pursuing cases against Mr. Trump.

Rockbridge, according to the prospectus, has since 2020 “underwritten” polling “that has been made available for free to allied media organizations.”

And the group has helped pay for
“local and national investigations” that are “published by aligned media outlets.”

A key ally to former President Donald Trump detailed plans to 🆘 deploy the military in response to domestic unrest,
💥defund the Environmental Protection Agency
and ⚠️ put career civil servants “in trauma”
in a series of previously unreported speeches that provide a sweeping vision for a second Trump term.

In private speeches delivered in 2023 and 2024, #Russell #Vought, who served as Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, described his work crafting legal justifications so that military leaders or government lawyers would not stop Trump’s executive actions.

He said the plans are a response to a “Marxist takeover” of the country; likened the moment to 1776 and 1860, when the country was at war or on the brink of it;
and said the timing of Trump’s candidacy was a “gift of God.”

Vought does not hide his agenda or shy away from using extreme rhetoric in public.

But the apocalyptic tone and hard-line policy prescriptions in the two private speeches go further than his earlier pronouncements.

As OMB director, Vought sought to use Trump’s 2020 “#ScheduleF” executive order to strip away job protections for nonpartisan government workers.

But he has never spoken in such pointed terms about demoralizing federal workers to the point that they don’t want to do their jobs.

He has spoken in broad terms about undercutting independent agencies but never spelled out sweeping plans to defund the EPA and other federal agencies.

Vought’s plans track closely with Trump’s campaign rhetoric about using the military against domestic protesters
or what Trump has called the “enemy within.”

Trump’s desire to use the military on U.S. soil recently prompted his longest-serving chief of staff, retired Marine Gen. #John #Kelly, to speak out,
saying Trump “certainly prefers the dictator approach to government.”

Other policies mentioned by Vought dovetail with Trump’s plans,
such as embracing a wartime footing on the southern border
and rolling back transgender rights.

Agenda 47, the campaign’s policy blueprint, calls for revoking President Joe Biden’s order expanding gender-affirming care for transgender people;

Vought uses even more extreme language, decrying the “transgender sewage that’s being pumped into our schools and institutions”
and referring to gender-affirming care as “chemical castration.”

Since leaving government, Vought has reportedly remained a close ally of the former president.

Speaking in July to undercover journalists posing as relatives of a potential donor, Vought said Trump had “blessed” the Center for Renewing America and was “very supportive of what we do,” CNN reported.

propublica.org/article/video-d…

Videos Reveal Trump Adviser’s “Shadow” Plan for Second Administration

Private videos reveal Trump adviser Russ Vought’s “shadow” plans for using the military on protesters, defunding the EPA and villainizing civil servants.

^ProPublica