President Donald Trump’s top budget officer will likely lead the Department of Government Efficiency after Elon Musk’s resignation from the cost-saving operation.
According to the New Republic, Russell Vought, Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, will soon assume a significant portion of DOGE’s responsibilities, including reclassifying federal employees, collaborating with Congress to recover funds, and advancing his proposed 2025 budget, which would drastically reduce government funding.
As Musk’s less well-known ally, he has already commended his department’s efforts to cut federal regulations, pointing out that President Trump has promised to remove 10 regulations for every one that is in place.
Vought was a major contributor to Project 2025, a hardline conservative manifesto that Democrats say is a blueprint for Trump’s second term, so they will undoubtedly be incensed by the selection.
It called for the Department of Homeland Security to be abolished and for Social Security and Medicare to be drastically reduced. Despite Trump’s efforts to distance himself from the manifesto, it was widely denounced by left-leaning voters in the lead-up to the presidential election.
Nevertheless, Trump appointed Vought as his chief fiscal officer, and he is expected to implement Musk’s drastic federal agency cuts, which have led to massive protests as whole departments have been shut down.
Following an executive directive issued in February directing heads of government agencies to start rescinding “unlawful rules,” DOGE is anticipated to concentrate on regulatory reduction in the next months.
Vought is expected to concentrate on Schedule F, an executive order that Trump signed during his first term, which removed employment protections for thousands of high-level federal workers.