Wheaton College praises alum Russell Vought, Project 2025 leader, before deleting post

The Christian college faced intense pushback for celebrating the confirmation of a Trump lackey

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In October of 2020, Republicans installed Amy Coney Barrett as a Supreme Court justice immediately after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and after presidential voting had begun, something they never would have allowed Democrats to get away with if the situations were reversed.

After Barrett’s confirmation, the Girl Scouts published a tweet congratulating her on “becoming the 5th woman” on the Court.

The backlash was fierce for obvious reasons: Everything we knew about Barrett suggested she opposed women’s rights, including the right to control her own body. That prediction has panned out. Barrett is the reason Roe v. Wade was overturned. The Girl Scouts quickly deleted that post and issued a statement saying it was “not our intent” to post anything “viewed as a political and partisan statement.” That was a lazy non-apology, though.

In their mad rush to celebrate a woman—any woman—they ignored the actual things that woman had pledged to do, including hurting other women.

That’s what came to mind when I heard about Wheaton College and Russell Vought.

On Friday, the Illinois-based Christian school posted a quick congratulatory message after Vought, who graduated from Wheaton in 1998, was confirmed as director of the White House Office of Management and Budget:

But Vought isn’t some random graduate who earned a powerful title. He’s the Christian Nationalist who spearheaded Project 2025, wants to utterly decimate the government in ways that will cause unspeakable harm, and the only reason he was selected for the post is because he’s a spineless conservative who’ll do whatever his Lord and Savior Donald Trump tells him to do. He didn’t get the position based on merit; he got it because he only ever says “yes” to Trump. Senators didn’t vote for him because he was qualified; Republicans voted for him because they know the consequences of not supporting Trump’s nominees no matter how unqualified they are.

Russell Vought during his confirmation hearings (screenshot via YouTube)

Vought also ran OMB for a portion of Trump’s first term, but his intentions this time around are far more sinister. He wants to destroy Head Start, make it tougher to build affordable housing, make deep cuts in Medicaid and Medicare, bulldoze environmental protections, and purchase more weapons to help America raze down other countries. He also wants to make it easier for Trump to fire career civil servants who have dedicated their lives to running the government because getting rid of expertise will make it easier for Trump to take over the country.

The Constitution is being torn apart from the inside and Vought is one of the main reasons why.

So to congratulate Vought for being a notable graduate is like Berkeley congratulating Ted Kaczynski for publishing a math paper: Maybe that guy’s not worth celebrating no matter what else he “achieves.”

Many of Wheaton’s graduates were quick to point out that Vought was doing far more harm than good and his affiliation with the school should be a source of embarrassment rather than pride.

Within a day, Wheaton took down that post and issued its own non-apology:

On Friday, Wheaton College posted a congratulations and a call to prayer for an alumnus who received confirmation to a White House post. The recognition and prayer is something we would typically do for any graduate who reached that level of government. However, the political situation surrounding the appointment led to a significant concern expressed online. It was not our intention to embroil the College in a political discussion or dispute. Our institutional and theological commitments are clear that the College, as a non-profit institution, does not make political endorsements. Wheaton College’s focus is on Christ and His Kingdom.

The statement is an act of cowardice. Not for the reasons conservatives are now whining about in their echo chambers—They caved! This is cancel culture! Why are they compromising on God’s Word?!—but because Wheaton has no problem diving into political discussions when it suits the school’s needs. A decade ago, they suspended a professor who expressed solidarity with marginalized Muslims. Last month, they celebrated students who attended the March For Life, ignoring how right-wing justices and politicians have pushed policies that actively harm women. They continue to name a building on campus after evangelist Billy Graham, who was homophobic and antisemitic.

Graham’s even more disgraceful child Franklin Graham, whose entire M.O. is adding fuel to culture war battles, naturally attacked Wheaton for walking back its message:

… This is the school my father Billy Graham and mother attended. However, shockingly, after negative comments were made by some who were obviously just leftist Trump-haters, the school deleted the post! Shame on them for backing down and having no backbone. I wish the leadership of this Christian school would stand firm with what is right and not be intimidated or moved by the winds of wokeness. I’ll say it for them—Congratulations Russ Vought! May God guide and use him in this important role.

Graham, as usual, is lying because Jesus never taught him that was unacceptable.

The “negative comments” weren’t made by “leftist Trump-haters” because I promise you that’s not the target audience for Wheaton College’s Facebook page. Many of the comments were left by other Wheaton graduates who understand that Vought is doing just as much damage to their practice of faith as he is to everything else.

Religion News Service noted what one of them said:

One Wheaton graduate who has worked on foreign assistance inside and outside the federal government said she agreed with Wheaton’s decision to delete their congratulatory post. “There are Wheaton alumni out there who really do follow Jesus’ teaching in the gospel, but they aren’t always the ones who are powerful, and so it’s incredibly frustrating to see those who, I think, don’t necessarily embody the gospel taking power in the Trump administration,” she said.

As an example, she cited Vought’s support of freezing foreign assistance and decision to shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects consumers from predatory practices, as “deeply against the letter and spirit of the whole biblical witness.”

Hardly a leader of #TheResistance.

Another pointed out the direct hit that Christian non-profits were taking because of Vought and the Trump Administration:

One commenter responded that Vought was not only working at cross-purposes to Christian values but to his fellow alums: “The work that he is doing negatively and directly impacts countless other Wheaton alum who are seeking to be the hands and feet of Jesus in this country and around the rest of the world,” the commenter said, per screenshots of the exchanges that were deleted along with the original post but obtained by RNS.

Other comments included:

“What!? Give me a break! What about all the amazing young graduates who are working for USAID and World Relief and are now out of a job because of this Christian Nationalist administration? This is a ridiculous partisan post. This appointment should not be celebrated.”

…

“Russell Vought said in a speech, ‘I want federal employees to be traumatized. I want to put them in trauma. I want them to come to work — to not want to come to work — because they know that they are increasingly viewed as the villain.’ This does not exemplify the values I heard from my teachers when I was a student at Wheaton College in the class of 1964. Nor does it represent the faculty I knew when I taught philosophy at Wheaton College in the mid 2010s. It is deplorable that a Wheaton College graduate should make such a statement.”

…

“Celebrating an apostate war mongering traitor to Christ is not a good look, Wheaton. He’s in obvious mortal sin, courting Trump and other nationalists in the name of Christ. Celebrating the public disgracing of Christ’s name means you share his sin. Disgraceful.”

Again, no one outside of fundamentalist Christian circles would ever accuse Wheaton students of being too liberal, but what they’re saying in this case is accurate. The Trump administration has actively made it harder for Christians working for ministries and NGOs to save lives all over the world.

That’s not a political attack. That’s just reality. Plenty of Christians have faith-based reasons to work overseas and help people in dire circumstances, and Vought’s appointment will actively harm their efforts in the name of appeasing a wannabe dictator. If you’re not outraged about it, you’re either actively promoting fascism or you’re not paying attention.

One school that isn’t outraged by any of this is the ultra-conservative Hillsdale College, which has become the hub for conservative Christian extremism and has all the academic integrity of a right-wing troll.

So kudos to the Wheaton graduates whose pressure eventually led the Christian school to do the right thing bare mininum. The fact that the school had any role to play in Vought’s upbringing should be a cause for shame for everyone involved in his education and anyone who still goes there.

Vought responded to this whole controversy over the weekend on X/Twitter with the word “SAD!” That would have been a far more appropriate message for Wheaton to publish along with his picture.

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