The United States Senate has confirmed Russell Vought, a key architect and co-author of Project 2025, as the Director of the White House Budget Office.
On Thursday (February 6), Project 2025 architect Russell Vought, 48, was confirmed as the White House Budget Office Director by the Senate in a vote of 53-47. Vought previously served in the same position during President Donald Trump‘s first presidential term and he was responsible for overseeing POTUS’ budget, reviewing federal regulations, and setting funding priorities for executive agencies.
According to the Washington Post, during Trump’s first term, Vought proposed billions of dollars in federal funding cuts, which affected Medicaid, the Interior Department, and the U.S. Agency for International Development, and saw other reductions in funding for the Department of Education, an agency which Trump has recently proposed to dismantle and abolish.
At the time, Vought also oversaw the freezing of military aid for Ukraine, a move that notably caused Trump’s impeachment in 2019. It’s reported that before serving in Trump’s administration, Vought previously served as Vice President of the Heritage Action for America, the sister organization to the Heritage Foundation, the conservative agency that created the highly controversial and critical policy blueprint known as Project 2025, which Democrats and critics have called dangerous and authoritarian.
Labeled as a key architect and co-author of Project 2025, Russell Vought, whom the Senate just confirmed as Director of the White House Budget Office, is credited with authoring the chapter on executive power. In it, he argued that the president’s powers are limited by a “sprawling federal bureaucracy” that carries out “its own policy plans and preferences.” Throughout his 2024 presidential campaign and even through his January 2025 inauguration, Trump has notably attempted to distance himself from having any part in Project 2025.
RELATED: Donald Trump Denies Any Involvement In Project 2025: ‘I Know Nothing’
After securing the election and his second term in November 2024, Donald Trump nominated Project 2025 co-author Russell Vought as Director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. At the time, Trump said, “Russ knows exactly how to dismantle the Deep State and end Weaponized Government, and he will help us return Self Governance to the People. We will restore fiscal sanity to our Nation, and unleash the American People to new levels of Prosperity and Ingenuity.”
Last month, during his confirmation meeting, Russell Vought told Senators that government spending can be a “burden” on the everyday American and that he would step into his role, pledging to use “taxpayer dollars wisely.” He has since been confirmed as Director of the White House Budget Office. However, before the confirmation, Senate Democrats attempted to protest Vought in an overnight session on Wednesday (February 5). They argued that he was a threat to democracy and would harm Americans due to his ties to Project 2025.
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