Trump picks Project 2025 architect Russell Vought to return as top budget official

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump said Friday he will nominate Russell Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget, a position Vought held during Trump’s first presidency.
READ MORE: Russell Vought, a Project 2025 architect, likely in line for high-ranking post if Trump wins 2nd term
Trump said Vought, who is known as a Republican hardliner on budget and cultural issues, “knows exactly how to dismantle the Deep State and end Weaponized Government.”
Vought, 48, was the head of the Office of Management and Budget from mid-2020 to the end of Trump’s first term in 2021, having previously served as the acting director and deputy director. He’s paired a deep knowledge of government finances with his own Christian faith.
After Trump’s initial term ended, Vought founded the Center for Renewing America, a think tank that describes its mission as renewing “a consensus of America as a nation under God.”
The Center for Renewing America released its own 2023 budget proposal entitled “A Commitment to End Woke and Weaponized Government.” The proposal envisioned $11.3 trillion worth of spending reductions over 10 years and about $2 trillion in income tax cuts in order to bring the budget into surplus by 2032.
“The immediate threat facing the nation is the fact that the people no longer govern the country; instead, the government itself is increasingly weaponized against the people it is meant to serve,” Vought wrote in the introduction.
Vought’s proposed budget plan would cut spending on food aid through the Agriculture Department. There would be $3.3 trillion in spending reductions in the Health and Human Services Department in large part through how Medicaid and Medicare funds are distributed. It also contains about $642 billion in cuts to Affordable Care Act. The budgets for the Housing and Urban Development and Education departments would also be cut.
Vought’s budget ideas were independent of Trump, who has not entirely spelled out the details of his economic plans.
Vought was closely involved with Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for Trump’s second term that he tried to distance himself from during the campaign.
Vought has also previously worked as the executive and budget director for the Republican Study Committee, a caucus for conservative House Republicans. He also worked at Heritage Action, the political group tied to The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.