Russell Vought

Russell Thurlow Vought was born on March 26, 1976, in New York. He was raised in New York and Trumbull, Connecticut. Vought was the only child born to Thurlow Bunyea Vought and Margaret Flowers Vought (), and was the youngest in a blended family of seven children. while Margaret was a public school teacher who later co-founded a Christian elementary school. Though Trumbull was a wealthy town, the Voughts were of modest means. In 1997, Vought unsuccessfully ran for student body vice president, campaigning on promises of improving recycling and reforming Wheaton's conservative social codes. In 1999, Vought began working for Texas senator Phil Gramm, handling letters from Gramm's constituents. Gramm's political beliefs, particularly on deficits, influenced Vought. By 2001, Vought had started working at a B. Dalton bookstore, later taking night classes at the George Washington University Law School. That year, Gramm offered Vought a promotion as legislative assistant; Vought told him that he was willing to drop out. Vought graduated from George Washington University in 2004 with a Juris Doctor. ==Career==

Policy work (2004–2017) After graduating from George Washington University, Vought worked for Texas representative Jeb Hensarling, an associate of Gramm. In his direct work with congressional Republicans, Vought opposed bills that added to the deficit and lawmakers who voted for bills that increased spending despite claiming to be deficit-conscious. He resigned as the policy director for the House Republican Conference in July to serve as the political director of Heritage Action in July. The concurrent Tea Party movement provided Vought an opportunity to direct budget policy for Republicans. Vought—who is a deacon of the Baptist church—considered assisting in the presidential transition, Texas senator John Cornyn held up Vought's nomination over additional funding to his state in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, and his hearing faced delays over comments he wrote a year prior arguing that Muslims have a "deficient theology" and "stand condemned" for rejecting Jesus. At the Office of Management and Budget, Vought and Mulvaney worked to attempt to cut funding for Meals on Wheels, a food delivery service for disabled individuals, leading to conflicts with staff. Vought additionally coordinated with the lawyer Mark Paoletta, who was confirmed as the Office of Management and Budget's general counsel in 2018. That year, Trump—at Vought's behest—sent Congress a billion rescission that would cut funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program, the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program, and the United States Agency for International Development's Ebola response; the measure failed in the Senate by one vote. ==Director of the Office of Management and Budget (2018–2021)==

swears in Vought as the director of the Office of Management and Budget in July 2020. In December 2018, as Congress refused to fund Donald Trump's wall, Vought and Mark Paoletta devised a strategy to declare a national emergency at the border, giving Trump greater authority to seize funds from elsewhere. After Paoletta and Mick Mulvaney alleged that Trump's chief of staff, John F. Kelly, was refusing to tell Trump he could declare an emergency, Trump removed Kelly and named Mick Mulvaney as his acting chief of staff. who became the acting director before January 2019. His attempts at lessening the impact of the shutdown included allowing the Internal Revenue Service to pay tax refunds and to find money to pay recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. In a memorandum written in April, he moved to exert greater authority over the federal regulatory process by broadening the scope of regulations implemented by independent government agencies that are subject to the Congressional Review Act. In June, Vought called for a two-year delay on the federal government's ban on the Chinese technology company, Huawei. Vought's directorship was marked by "brinkmanship on the debt ceiling" and austere spending limits, according to The New York Times, and he engaged in efforts to convince Trump to follow austerity. In the impeachment inquiry into Trump, congressional investigators requested that Vought appear before House committees investigating the president to discuss the Office of Management and Budget's decision to cut security aid to Ukraine. Vought rebuffed the request, arguing that the inquiry—citing a letter written by Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel—was unconstitutional, and the office refused to provide records to investigators; a federal judge later ruled that the investigation was legal. The Trump administration ordered Vought not to testify, and Democrats later indicated that they would not force officials to comply with subpoenas with lawsuits. In March 2020, Trump ousted Mulvaney as his chief of staff and the director of the Office of Management and Budget; Vought, who was named as Mulvaney's successor, had lobbied for the position for months, according to The New York Times. Vought appeared before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on June 3, for his confirmation hearing to lead the agency; several senators pressed Vought on his agency's failure to fulfill multiple oversight requests from the Government Accountability Office relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. The committee voted to advance his nomination along party lines in a 7-4 vote on June 10, and he was confirmed by the Senate on July 20. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Vought requested emergency funding from Congress for monitoring. Kyle McGowan, a former chief of staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recalled to the Times that he and Robert R. Redfield, the agency's director, had argued with Vought over social distancing guidelines for restaurants, where Vought described restrictions as not feasible. Amid the George Floyd protests, Trump directed Vought to cut federal funding from Democratic-led cities. Days later, Vought issued a memorandum canceling contracts for sensitivity training. Near the conclusion of Trump's term, Vought sought to reclassify hundreds of Office of Management and Budget workers through Schedule F appointments, making them at-will employees, though he was unsuccessful by the time of the inauguration of Joe Biden. Vought faced allegations from staff involved in Biden's presidential transition that he was intentionally stifling the transition, an allegation he rejected. ==Post-directorship (2021–2024)==

In December 2020, Trump named Vought to the United States Naval Academy's board of visitors. The Biden administration requested that he resign in September 2021; Vought declined, arguing that he had been appointed to a three-year term on Twitter. A week after the inauguration of Joe Biden, Vought established the Center for Renewing America, a policy research organization, and Citizens for Renewing America, an advocacy organization. By May, the Center for Renewing America had eight paid staffers, including Vought, He oriented the Center for Renewing America's efforts towards countering critical race theory in schools, attempting to advance state legislation and working with North Carolina representative Dan Bishop to codify Trump's executive order barring federal contractors from conducting racial sensitivity trainings. Policies proposed by the Center for Renewing America included invoking the Insurrection Act to deploy military forces within the United States, freezing billions in federal funding without congressional approval, and mass firing federal workers without the consultation of unions. He served as the treasurer of America First Legal, a public interest organization founded by Stephen Miller. Vought was influential in the Republican budget proposal for the 2023 federal budget. His proposal called for a billion cut to the Department of Health and Human Services and a billion cut to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, including gradual reductions in Section 8 grants. Vought sought to cut entitlement programs, though he was forced to abandon the debate in favor of attainable goals, as well as spending in favor of the "bureaucracies arrayed against the public". During the 2023 debt-ceiling crisis, Vought advised Republicans on their strategy towards the debt ceiling. The Washington Post described Vought as "one of the central voices" in debt-ceiling discussions. He sought for the establishment of the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, led by Ohio representative Jim Jordan. Vought was a critic of a deal between president Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy, the speaker of the House, to end the crisis. After the 2022 House of Representatives elections, Vought criticized California representative Kevin McCarthy for initiating an early campaign for speaker of the House, believing it to be "presumptuous" and anticipating that several Republicans would deny him the position in the January 2023 election. Members of the Freedom Caucus, including Texas representative Chip Roy and Florida representative Matt Gaetz, concurred with Vought in seeking new leadership. In an interview with Steve Bannon, Vought an opportunity existed to elect Jordan as speaker or to have a "coalitional-style government" in which decisions are routed to the Freedom Caucus. McCarthy's deal to end the debt-ceiling crisis set into motion a conflict between the Freedom Caucus and McCarthy, resulting in McCarthy's removal as speaker of the House. Concurrently, Vought was involved in an effort to re-enact Schedule F appointments and fire many of the workers in the federal civil service. He was additionally involved in the political appointments of lawyers, in the event of Trump's victory in the 2024 presidential election, as early as November 2023. According to Politico, Vought had spoken at least once a month with Trump by February 2024. Vought has been described as an "architect" of Project 2025. He authored a section of Project 2025's Mandate for Leadership on the Executive Office of the President. Vought additionally drafted a "transition playbook" for Project 2025 to be implemented by Trump within six months. ==Director of the Office of Management and Budget (2025–present)==

Nomination and confirmation As early as February 2024, Vought was widely believed to be a potential White House chief of staff in Donald Trump's prospective second term. After Trump's victory the following month, ABC News reported that Vought had been discussed as a possible nominee for director of the Office of Management and Budget or an economic-focused policy role. According to The New York Times, Vought gave Elon Musk an overview of the workings of the federal government, and Musk advocated for Vought to serve as the director of the Office of Management and Budget. On November 22, Trump announced that Vought would be his nominee for director of the Office of Management and Budget. Vought appeared before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on January 15, five days before Trump's inauguration. The committee voted to advance Vought's nomination hours after Trump's inauguration. On January 30, Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, which had equal jurisdiction over Vought's nomination, voted to advance the nomination 11–0 along party lines after Democrats refused to attend the meeting; concurrently, they held a press conference to criticize Vought as "dangerously unfit". On February 5, Democrats in the broader Senate, after a procedural vote to advance Vought's nomination passed, attempted to stall the final vote by staying awake through the night. The following morning, Vought was confirmed in a 53–47 vote along party lines. A post from Wheaton College congratulating Vought, a Wheaton alumnus, led to a controversy at the college. Tenure After his confirmation in February 2025, Vought supported an executive order Trump signed instituting "large scale" cuts to the United States federal civil service. An order signed later by Trump gave Vought the ostensible authority to withhold funding from initiatives conflicting with Trump's broader agenda. That month, Vought and Charles Ezell, the acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, issued a memorandum requiring agencies begin "large-scale reductions in force", modify their organizational charts, and propose moving their offices out of Washington, D.C. Vought's tenure occurred as the Department of Government Efficiency, a government initiative intended to cut spending, mounted across the federal government. Vought told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs in his confirmation hearing that the Department of Government Efficiency would advise the Office of Management and Budget. After the executive order establishing the United States DOGE Service was signed, Vought privately asked allies how the initiative would operate. Prior to Musk's exit—and the Trump–Musk feud—a Trump administration official told Bloomberg News that he was "waiting in the wings". The following day, he ordered the bureau's employees to cease "all supervision and examination activity" and "all stakeholder engagement"; a day later, he closed its headquarters for the coming week. The National Treasury Employees Union later sued Vought in two lawsuits, alleging that he violated the Privacy Act in granting the Department of Government Efficiency access to worker information, and that he infringed on the congressional mandate to establish the bureau. The ambiguous legality and verbiage of Vought's stop-work order led to confusion among employees. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau faced mass firings, refused to pursue enforcement cases, and sought to repay mortgage lenders. Vought attempted to fire over ninety percent of the bureau's staff, a plan that was paused by federal judges. In November 2025, he posed a legal argument that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding—which originates from the Federal Reserve—is illegal. That month, Trump nominated a permanent director, Stuart Levenbach, in an effort to ensure Vought could remain as acting director for longer. Though he halted the agency's operations, the bureau instituted a "humility pledge" to seek less vigorous enforcement and to work with companies facing investigations. The following month, a federal judge compelled Vought to seek funding from the Federal Reserve. On August 29, 2025, Vought succeeded Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, as the acting administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, an agency that faced efforts to be forcefully closed in Trump's second term. He was succeeded by Eric Ueland, Vought's deputy director for management, on November 25. ==Political positions==

Domestic issues and religious views Vought has referred to himself as a defender of an "older definition of conservatism", specifically the New Right. In September 2019, Vought supported a plan to revoke California's legal authority to set tailpipe pollution regulations stricter than the federal government's rules. He praised Donald Trump for being the first president to attend a March for Life rally held in January 2020, referring to it as a "golden chapter for our movement"; Vought later called for drugs used in medical abortions to be banned. In his Project 2025 chapter, he called for a special assistant to the president to implement policies focused on "life and family". Vought has argued in favor of immigration restrictionism, believing that migrants should "accept Israel's God, laws, and understanding of history". In Trump's first term, he defended its family separation policy. In a hidden-camera video, Vought described the George Floyd protests as about "destabilizing the Trump administration" and justified Trump's deployment of federal forces. His proposals at the Center for Renewing America included using military force against protesters if deemed necessary and defunding agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency. Vought is a self-described Christian nationalist. After Trump was found guilty in a criminal trial in New York, Vought posted on X that the Constitution had lost its effect. Vought opposed the Republican-supported highway funding bill proposed in 2012 for adding to the national debt. In January 2025, Vought told the Senate Committee on the Budget that he believed the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act was unconstitutional. In 2023, Vought stated that he sought to shut down agencies and leave federal workers "traumatically affected". In a privately meeting secretly recorded in July 2024, Vought stated that he spent much of his time "working on the plans of what's necessary to take control of these bureaucracies", including developing arguments against agency independence. Vought frequently derided Republicans for failing to block Barack Obama's policy initiatives. Vought lobbied against NATO ascensions of Finland and Sweden, countries that later entered the alliance. After Trump stated that he would allow Russia to attack NATO countries that had not met financial commitments, Vought told the Financial Times that NATO's collective defense should be "reassessed". ==Bibliography==

Vought met his first wife, Mary MacLean, in Washington, D.C., where they both eventually worked for Mike Pence. one of whom was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, before they divorced in 2023. In August 2025, a 26-year-old Maryland man, Colin Demarco, allegedly traveled to Vought's Arlington, Virginia, home while carrying a backpack and wearing a mask, gloves, and sunglasses. Court documents state he was captured on a Ring doorbell camera at the front door, looked through the mailbox, and approached a neighbor asking about Vought while appearing to carry a gun. Investigators later recovered notes referencing plans to kill "R.V.", weapons, and a "body disposal guide." Demarco was arrested in January 2026 and charged with attempted murder, firearms offenses, and unlawful mask-wearing. ==See also==