Russell Vought, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, has emerged as one of the most powerful figures in the Trump administration during the ongoing federal government shutdown. On the second day of the shutdown, President Trump shared an AI-generated video featuring Vought set to the Blue Oyster Cult song Don't Fear The Reaper, depicting him as the Grim Reaper of Washington. The video quickly went viral and underscored Vought's role as the architect behind the administration's efforts to fire civil servants, freeze government programs, and dismantle entire agencies.
Vought's influence has been so pronounced that many have described him as operating like a shadow president. His office controls every penny appropriated by Congress, reviews all significant regulations proposed by federal agencies, and issues workplace policies for more than two million federal employees. In recent weeks, he has frozen twenty-six billion dollars in federal funding for infrastructure and clean energy projects in blue states as part of a strategy to pressure Democrats into reaching a deal to end the shutdown.
The relationship between Vought and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency has also come into sharper focus. According to insiders and court records, DOGE's aggressive budget cuts and staffing reductions were guided more than previously known by the OMB director. An official with Citizens for Renewing America, a group founded by Vought, stated in May that DOGE operates underneath OMB and that many of Musk's targets came at Vought's direction.
However, Vought's plans have faced legal challenges. Last Friday, the Trump administration confirmed in court filings that it was holding off on firing thousands of federal workers to comply with a temporary restraining order issued by a federal judge in California. The case challenges the administration's ability to carry out reductions in force during a lapse in funding.
President Trump has openly acknowledged Vought's central role, referring to him as Russ Vought of Project 2025 fame when announcing plans to meet with him to decide which agencies to cut. This contradicts Trump's campaign claims of having nothing to do with Project 2025, the conservative policy roadmap that Vought helped create.
As the shutdown stretches into its twentieth day, with federal employees missing their first full paycheck, Vought continues to centralize decision-making power to an unprecedented extent. One senior agency official told ProPublica that while they work for the president, right now it feels like they work for Russ Vought.
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