President-elect Donald Trump, who repeatedly disavowed Project 2025 during his campaign, has announced he will nominate one of the plan’s co-authors, Russell Vought, to his Cabinet.
Trump said Friday that he has picked Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget, a role that would put Vought in charge of overseeing the White House budget and enact Trump’s policies across the executive branch. In a statement announcing his choice, Trump called Vought “an aggressive cost cutter and deregulator who will help us implement our America First Agenda across all Agencies.”
“Russ knows exactly how to dismantle the Deep State and end Weaponized Government, and he will help us return Self Governance to the People,” Trump added.
Vought was formerly vice president of the Heritage Foundation’s sister organization Heritage Action for America. He was also previously OMB director in Trump’s first term.
Vought is one of the architects of Project 2025, a policy blueprint the conservative Heritage Foundation put together for Trump’s second term. Vought wrote a chapter in Project 2025 in which he argued that the president must rein in a “sprawling federal bureaucracy” and laid out in part how the OMB could help consolidate Trump’s executive power.
On the campaign trail, Trump sought to distance himself from Project 2025, claiming he knew “nothing” about it and had “no idea who is behind it.” But he has since nominated several key figures behind Project 2025 to his administration, Vought among them.
Vought has publicly advocated for greater presidential control over government agencies. “We have to solve the woke and the weaponized bureaucracy and have the president take control of the executive branch,” he said in an interview with Tucker Carlson posted on X this week. “There may be different strategies with each one of them, about how you dismantle them, but as an administration, the whole notion of an independent agency should be thrown out.” His upcoming nomination as OMB director was hailed by the Heritage Foundation. The group’s president, Kevin Roberts, praised Vought as the “perfect pick to take the reins at OMB in President Trump’s second term” in a statement on Friday. “Russ will be a driving force for the transformative change our federal government so desperately needs,” Roberts said. “His leadership will be a breath of fresh air in The Swamp — we’re ready to see him take charge again.” Vought must be confirmed by the Senate to take on the role.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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