Meet Russ Vought, Trump’s shutdown architect

The United States government has shut down yet again.

This comes after the Democrats and Republicans have been unable to agree on the terms of passing a spending Bill. The Republicans have been unable to do so despite holding both Houses of Congress. Some US services have been suspended and government staff are already being furloughed.

This is the third such shutdown under US President Donald Trump – the first two of which came during his previous term.

However, Trump is unmoved. In fact, Trump has said the Republicans should take this opportunity to massively reduce the size of the government. But while Trump is the front man, it is Russ Vought who is the architect of the shutdown.

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But who is Vought, 49, the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the co-author of Project 2025? What do we know about him?

Who is Vought?

Russell Thurlow Vought was born on 26 March 1976. Hailing from New York originally, Vought was brought up in Connecticut.

In 1998, he graduated with a BA from Wheaton College in Illinois and a JD from the George Washington University Law School in 2004.

According to Vought, his parents were everyday working people. “Growing up as the son of an electrician and a schoolteacher, I saw firsthand the sacrifices my parents made to balance their budget and save for the future. They are a reminder of the burden government spending can place on everyday Americans,” he told Congress in February.

Ascending the ladder

Vought early in his career served as a legislative assistant for Republican Senators Phil Gramm from Texas and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska.

He later held several positions in US Congress including policy director for Representative Jeb Hensarling of Texas, as executive director for the House Republican Study Committee, and policy director for the House Republican Conference under its then chairman Mike Pence.

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He was also vice president of grassroots outreach and policy initiatives for Heritage Action for America – the arm of the Conservative Heritage Foundation.

During Trump’s first term, Vought first served as the deputy director and then as acting director of the OMB – a little-known but powerful agency within the federal government.

Vought, who later succeeded Mick Mulvaney, would later be confirmed as director of the OMB by the US Senate.

During his time as OMB chief, Vought formulated Executive Order 13957 – which allowed federal agencies to reclassify thousands of jobs within the federal government. This allowed the White House to quickly change who could apply for such jobs and who could hold them. Vought held the position of OMB chief until the end of Trump’s first term. The executive order was quickly reversed by the Biden government.

When Trump was out of office for the next few years, Vought served as the president of the pro-Trump Centre for Renewing America, which he founded. Going into the 2024 election against Kamala Harris, Vought served as the policy director of the Republican National Committee platform committee.

He also co-authored Project 2025 – a 900-page document put out by the Heritage Foundation think-tank which outlined the goals of the second Trump Administration and how to effectively achieve them.

While Trump denied any knowledge of the initiative on the campaign trail, he has changed his tune since taking office. Many of the initiatives underlined under Project 2025 have been implemented by the Trump administration. Key figures from the project have also been appointed to positions within the US government.

Trump in November 2024 confirmed that Vought would be his pick for OMB chief during his second term.
“He did an excellent job serving in this role in my First Term – We cut four Regulations for every new Regulation, and it was a Great Success!” Trump wrote.

Vought seems to be a great believer in the power of the unitary executive – that is that the president has unrivalled powers which cannot be curtailed by Congress. During his confirmation Vought also told the US Senate that it is the president who controls the power of the purse not Congress. These beliefs are actually the opposite of what the US Constitution says.

Regardless, the US Senate confirmed Vought to the position in February 2025 by a vote of 53–47.

Fierce critic of ‘deep state’

Vought has been a fierce critic of the federal government.

He has claimed that the White House must “retain control” of the government agencies to stop opponents within them from blocking their initiatives. He said his role as OMB chief is to “tame the bureaucracy, the administrative state”.

For example, Vought has claimed that the Government Accountability Office, the agency that monitors US government spending, should not exist.

Vought had also proposed cuts to Medicaid, the Education Department and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) — all of which have been implemented by the Trump administration this year.

Vought is also said to have synchronised the campaign between Maga Republicans in Congress and the Department of Governmental Efficiency against the experts and bureaucrats in the federal government – what some Maga Republicans refer to as the ‘deep state’.

One journalist described Vought as “the glue between Musk and the Republicans”. Regardless, there were reports that Vought as OMB chief felt sidelined by Elon Musk and Doge.

Vought though took pains to praise Doge publicly. “I think they’re bringing an exhilarating rush … of creativity, outside the box thinking, comfortability with risk and leverage,” Vought said.

Vought prior to the shutdown promised “mass layoffs” and took to Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast in September to claim it was a “very critical juncture”.

‘Dreaming of this moment’

According to Utah Senator Mike Lee, Vought has been dreaming and preparing for the shutdown “since puberty.”

As per Lee, Trump and Vought are jointly orchestrating the shutdown to hurt Democrats.

Vought is already making moves to cut the size of the government – specifically in blue cities and states.

On Thursday, Vought announced he was cutting $8 billion (Rs 0.71 lakh crore) from climate-related projects. On Wednesday, Vought said he would be withholding $18 billion (Rs 1.60 lakh crore) in subway and tunnel funding for New York City.

Trump, who had sought to distance himself from Project 2025, is now publicly embracing it. The US President on social media wrote he is meeting Vought “to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut. I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity.”

The Opposition has slammed Vought with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer calling him “evil” and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries referring to him as a “malignant political hack.”

Even those who do not agree with Vought admit he is extremely capable.

“He cares a lot about understanding all the details so he can maximally weaponise things,” Bobby Kogan, a former OMB staffer during the Biden administration, told Axios. “He’s incredibly effective.”

With inputs from agencies