When the US government shut down for the first time in seven years last week there were warnings that this was not like the shutdowns of the past: it would be more vicious, bad-tempered and potentially longer lasting. Another difference? The man calling the shots from inside the administration: Russell Vought.
As the Republican senator Mike Lee put it in a post on social media: “OMB [Office of Management and Budget] director Russ Vought has been dreaming about, and meticulously preparing for, the Schumer Shutdown since puberty” before predicting that the whole ordeal would “empower Trump” and “the American people”.
The thinking is that the shutdown is the perfect chance for the 49-year-old White House budget director to slash the administrative state he has spent his career working out how to curtail. It comes as Vought is increasingly talked of as one of the most powerful figures in the administration. Since Elon Musk’s departure from government in May, Vought has emerged as Trump’s slasher-in-chief. While he may not be the pantomime villain that Musk was for the Democrats — he lacks the chainsaw, theatre and erratic social media account — the Christian nationalist may be the more effective.
• Sign up for The Times’s weekly US newsletter
When the shutdown first came into effect, it was Trump who threw Vought’s name into the conversation. In a Truth Social post, he heralded an “unprecedented opportunity”: “I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame.”
Trump was referring to the infamous tome from the Heritage Foundation, the DC-based Conservative think tank, which set out an effective blueprint for Trump’s second term on reshaping the federal government for good. While parts of that book became so problematic that Trump’s campaign team distanced itself from it — notably chapters on abortion — Vought’s chapter titled “Executive Office of the President of the United States” is a clear statement of intent.
Vought writes: “The great challenge confronting a conservative president is the existential need for aggressive use of the vast powers of the executive branch to return power — including power currently held by the executive branch — to the American people.”
An AI video posted by Trump last week showed Vought as the Grim Reaper
As for how to bring about “success in meeting that challenge”, “a rare combination of boldness and self-denial” is needed: “Boldness to bend or break the bureaucracy to the presidential will and self-denial to use the bureaucratic machine to send power away from Washington and back to America’s families, faith communities, local governments and states.”
If the shutdown runs on, Democrats and Republicans believe Vought could use it as an opportunity to target government workers and programmes he has long found problematic. Trump has not ruled out layoffs.
It is a prospect that makes many Republicans nervous. As John Thune, the Senate majority leader, put it: “This is the risk of shutting down the government and handing the keys to Russ Vought.” Thune warned that “there should have been an expectation” among Democrats that Vought’s OMB could target jobs.
• Trump warns Democrats the ‘grim reaper is coming’
Since then, other Republicans put their head above the parapet over the shutdown. The Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene broke ranks with her party over the Democrats’ demand to end the shutdown — extending Obamacare provisions — to say that while she disliked the concept of insurance as a whole, failing to extend the subsidies would make insurance unaffordable to many Americans — including her own adult children.
“Not a single Republican in leadership talked to us about this or has given us a plan to help Americans deal with their health insurance premiums DOUBLING!!!” Greene said.
Vought is said to want to dismantle the federal workforce
WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES
Whether the shutdown runs on or a way out is found, seasoned Washington figures say it won’t make a great difference to Vought’s efforts. Why? He is getting on with the job regardless. Instead, they say the shutdown is a red herring as Vought’s agenda remains either way, and in some ways Republicans like using the threat of Vought to try to get Democrats to fold.
When Musk left the government, the billionaire insisted this was “not the end” of Doge (the Department of Government Efficiency). That was true, but not perhaps in the way Musk meant. The mission has been largely continued by Vought, who has a less flashy and more focused approach. During Musk’s time at the helm, Doge stormed government buildings and demanded employees fill in surveys, but ultimately there was an annoyance in the White House and beyond that many of Musk’s efforts fell short of his targets.
“We’re going to let Doge break things, and we’ll pick up the pieces later,” Vought told his staff, The New York Times reported. He did not like the impact of some of Musk’s cuts — with critics seeing Musk as lacking the knowledge and focus to avoid unintended consequences.
By contrast, Vought knows how the system works, having worked in government previously. He is regarded as one of the “true believers” in the administration. As head of the OMB, he wants to deliver his own brand of shock therapy to bureaucracy, consolidate power to the president and dismantle the federal workforce.
In the words of one figure close to administration thinking: “Elon Musk is playing at it. Russell does it.”