President Donald Trump gave a shoutout to Russell ‘Russ’ Vought, referring to ‘big surprises’ in the coming weeks, and sparking fears about the midterm elections . Trump’s reference to Vought came when he was speaking in Maryland, at a time the Republican is facing fire from both sides over comments made in Nebraska where he suggested Iran should be allowed to ‘take out’ Los Angeles and San Diego .
Vought is director of the Office of Management and Budget since February 2025. The fallout over Project 2025 might have diminished Vought’s chances of returning to the Trump administration. Then, two weeks before the election, Trump announced Vought’s return as the OMB director.
Trump, after mentioning Vought, said “we have some big surprises coming up in a few weeks, right Russ? Yet another said “Vought has gotten by too easy. He’s gonna be one of the important people in the history of our country. He’s the one diverting the congressional funds to what trump wants as opposed to what Congress legally allocated the monies for. He, along with Stephen Miller, had become two of Trump’s most critical enforcers by the end of the president’s first term in office, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan noted in their book ‘Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump’. Haberman and Swan noted that his name had initially been left out, but this was protested by Stephen Miller, JD Vance, and others. When Vought arrived, he hit it off with Elon Musk, who at that time was a critical voice in the Trump administration.
In Project 2025, Vought authored a chapter under the section titled ‘Taking the reigns of government’.
Vought wrote “The modern conservative President’s task is to limit, control, and direct the executive branch on behalf of the American people,” and added “it is the President’s agenda that should matter to the departments and agencies. He also wrote that the “White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) should establish a reputation as the keeper of ‘commander’s intent’.” He has also been described as fiscally hawkish and Vought championed the freezing of congressionally approved funds, diverting Pentagon money to pay for Trump’s border wall, and was also a key proponent of Schedule F. As per Haberman and Swan, this was designed to make it easier to potentially fire numerous ‘ostensibly apolitical government workers and replace them with loyalists. Prior to Vought’s White House service, he spent almost two decades in the conservative movement on Capitol Hill, with roles including Policy Director for the House Republican Conference, Executive Director of the Republican Study Committee, and Legislative Assistant to former U.S. Senator Phil Gramm.
