Russ Vought | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2018 | |
| 42nd & 44th Director of theOffice of Management and Budget | |
| Assumed office February 7, 2025 | |
| President | Donald Trump |
| Deputy | Dan Bishop (nominee) |
| Preceded by | Shalanda Young |
| In office January 2, 2019 – January 20, 2021 Acting: January 2, 2019 – July 22, 2020[a] | |
| President | Donald Trump |
| Deputy | Derek Kan |
| Preceded by | Mick Mulvaney |
| Succeeded by | Shalanda Young |
| Acting Director of theConsumer Financial Protection Bureau | |
| Assumed office February 7, 2025 | |
| President | Donald Trump |
| Deputy | Zixta Martinez |
| Preceded by | Scott Bessent (acting) |
| Succeeded by | Jonathan McKernan (nominee) |
| Deputy Director of theOffice of Management and Budget | |
| In office March 14, 2018 – July 22, 2020 | |
| President | Donald Trump |
| Preceded by | Brian Deese |
| Succeeded by | Derek Kan |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Russell Thurlow Vought (1976-03-26)March 26, 1976 (age 49) |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | Wheaton College (BA) George Washington University (JD) |
Russell Thurlow “Russ” Vought (IPA:/voʊt/VOHT, born March 26, 1976) is an American government official and conservative political analyst who has been the director of theOffice of Management and Budget (OMB) since February 2025. He held the same position from July 2020 to January 2021.
A self-describedChristian nationalist, Vought is the founder of the Center for Renewing America,[1] an organization that opposescritical race theory[2] and advocates for the idea of America as a "nation under God".[1] He has also played a significant role inProject 2025, an initiative led by theHeritage Foundation that aims to advanceconservative,right-wing policies and reshape thefederal government.[3] In May 2024, he was appointed Policy Director of theRepublican National Committee's platform committee.
In November 2024, President-electDonald Trump announced that he would renominate Vought as director of the OMB for hissecond term as president. He was confirmed by the United States Senate to the office on February 6, 2025, by a vote of 53–47.
Vought was born to Thurlow Bunyea Vought, an electrician andU.S. Marine Corps veteran, and Margaret Flowers Vought, an elementary school teacher.[4][5] He earned aBA fromWheaton College inWheaton, Illinois in 1998 and aJD fromGeorge Washington University Law School in 2004.[6][7]
Vought served as vice president ofHeritage Action, the lobbying arm of theHeritage Foundation.[8][9][10] He was the executive director and budget director of theRepublican Study Committee, the policy director for theRepublican Conference of the United States House of Representatives, and a legislative assistant for U.S. SenatorPhil Gramm.[11][12]
| Trump–Ukraine scandal |
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.jpg) A request by U.S. PresidentDonald Trump (right) to Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy (left) to investigateJoe Biden andhis son sparked the scandal. |
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Justice Department |
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In April 2017, PresidentDonald Trump nominated Vought to be Deputy Director of theOffice of Management and Budget (OMB). He was confirmed by the Senate on February 28, 2018, in a 50–49 vote. Vice PresidentMike Pence cast thetie-breaking vote.[13]
During the confirmation hearings, SenatorBernie Sanders questioned Vought about a statement that "Muslims do not simply have a deficient theology. They do not know God because they have rejected Jesus Christ his Son, and they stand condemned."[14][15] Various Christian organizations denounced Sanders's questioning as a violation of theNo Religious Test Clause, and Emma Green ofThe Atlantic wrote that Sanders' questioning "flirted with the boundaries" of the No Religious Test Clause.[15][16]
In 2019, Vought was one of nine government officials who defied a subpoena to testify before Congress in relation to theTrump–Ukraine scandal and the administration's decision to freeze military aid to Ukraine. The decision to freeze aid to Ukraine had led Democrats to launch thefirst impeachment of Donald Trump.[17][18]
On January 2, 2019, when OMB directorMick Mulvaney became actingWhite House chief of staff, Vought became the acting OMB director, though Mulvaney continued to hold the director position.[19][20] On March 18, 2020, Trump announced his intent to nominate him to be OMB Director.[21] Vought was confirmed by the Senate on July 20, 2020, by a vote of 51–45,[22] and was sworn in two days later.[23]
In May 2020, Vought broke the OMB's long-standing practice of publishing updatedeconomic forecasts,[18] citing disruption caused by thecoronavirus pandemic.[18]
On September 4, 2020, Vought, at Trump's direction, published an OMB memo instructing federal agencies to stop all training on "critical race theory" or "white privilege", along with "any other training or propaganda effort that teaches or suggests either (1) that the United States is an inherently racist or evil country or (2) that any race or ethnicity is inherently racist or evil". The memo further directed that agencies begin to identify legal avenues to cancel contracts or otherwise divert the "millions of taxpayer dollars" being spent on such training, which it said "engenders division and resentment within the federal workforce."[24][25][26]
AfterJoe Biden won the2020 presidential election and Trump falsely claimed that the election had been stolen, Biden's transition team accused Vought of hindering the presidential transition by refusing to allow incoming Biden officials to meet with OMB staff. Typically, career OMB staff would provide an incoming administration with cost estimates and details on existing programs.[27]
Vought defended his actions, stating that OMB had provided funding for the transition and that there had been more than 45 meetings with Biden officials but that "OMB staff are working on this administration's policies and will do so until this administration's final day in office".[28][29]
In January 2021, Vought started an organization called the Center for Renewing America, which is focused on "combatingcritical race theory," and an affiliated issue advocacy group called American Restoration Action.[30] The mission of the groups is to "renew a consensus of America as a nation under God".[1] According toAxios, the groups "will provide the ideological ammunition to sustain Trump's political movement after his departure from the White House."[31]
In April 2021,The Washington Post fact-checker rated Vought's statement that only 5 to 7 percent of the Biden administration's$2.3 trillion infrastructure plan would go to "actual roads and bridges and ports and things that you and I would say is real infrastructure" as "Three Pinocchios" out of four.[32]
On June 8, 2021, Citizens for Renewing America (CRA), the advocacy arm of Center for Renewing America, released a guide to "combattingcritical race theory."[33] Vought toldFox News the 33-page handbook is "a crash course in CRT, a 'one-stop shopping' for parents trying to hold their school board members accountable."[34]
On June 22, 2022, Vought confirmed that federal agents conducted a search of the home of his organization's director of litigation,Jeffrey Clark, a former U.S. Department of Justice official who participated inefforts to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election.[35]
In October 2024,ProPublica reported on speeches Vought had made at Center for Renewing America events. According to the report, Vought's proposals included plans to reshape government by using military force against protesters if deemed necessary, to defund agencies like theU.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the purpose of reducing federal influence, and to cast civil servants as obstructive to conservative agendas.[36]
CRA is a member of the advisory board ofProject 2025,[37] a collection ofconservative andright-wing policy proposals from theHeritage Foundation.[38]
Vought played a major role in the creation ofProject 2025, a collection ofconservative andright-wing policy proposals from theHeritage Foundation to reshape theUnited States federal government and consolidateexecutive power.[39][40][41] Project 2025 includes proposals toreclassify tens of thousands of merit-basedfederal civil service workers aspolitical appointees in order to replace them with Republican loyalists.[40][42] It seeks to infuse the government and society withChristian values.[43][44][45]
In August 2024, CNN reported on a lengthy conversation between Vought and two journalists who falsely claimed to be relatives of a potential donor. The conversation, which occurred in July 2024, was videotaped by the journalists without Vought's knowledge. The video shows Vought describing his secretive efforts to prepare executive orders for a potential second Trump administration, as well as his "expansive views on presidential power, his plans to restrict pornography and immigration, and his complaints that the GOP was too focused on 'religious liberty'". During the conversation, Vought summed up his core political ideology as "Christian nationism".[46]
Vought was named policy director of theRepublican National Committee platform committee in May 2024.[47]
In November 2024, president-elect Trump announced that he would renominate Vought as director of the OMB for his second term as president.[48] Vought appeared before theSenate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on January 15, 2025. During the hearing, Vought did not commit to spend all the money assigned by the Congress to the federal government.[49] The committee advanced his nomination in an 8–7 vote on January 20.[50] He later appeared before theSenate Budget Committee on January 22.[51] The committee approved his nomination in an 11–0 vote, with all 9 Democrats and 1 Independent boycotting the vote due to the recent federal spending freeze.[52] The Senate voted 53–47 on February 6 to approve his nomination.[53]
Upon taking office the next day, Vought was also installed as acting director of theConsumer Financial Protection Bureau.[54] In his first month at the CFPB, the CFPB dropped at least a half dozen cases which targeted financial institutions for cheating customers.[55]
Vought graduated from theevangelical Christian Wheaton College and describes himself as a Christian nationalist.[1] He seeks to infuse the government and society with elements of Christianity, saying he has "a commitment to an institutionalseparation between church and state, but not the separation of Christianity from its influence on government and society," according toThe Washington Post.[56] In a secretly recorded meeting in 2024, Vought said that elected leaders should discuss whether to prioritize Christian immigrants over those of other religions. Vought supports a total ban onabortion. He has called theDemocratic Party "increasingly evil" for supporting secularism.[1]
Since 2022,[57] Vought has advocated for what he calls "radicalconstitutionalism" to reverse what he calls a current "post-Constitutional time"; he asserts this has been the result of a century of corruption of laws and institutions by the political left. He characterizes the federal bureaucracy as "woke and weaponized" and advocates replacing it with "radical constitutionalists".[1][56] Vought proposes to "gut the FBI" and end the tradition of political independence of theU.S. Justice Department.[56][43]
Vought was formerly married to Mary Grace Vought, with whom he had two daughters. Mary Vought filed for divorce on August 4, 2023, and the divorce was finalized on August 30 in Arlington County, Virginia.[58][59]
"I want to make sure that we can say we are a Christian nation [...] And my viewpoint is mostly that I would probably be Christian nation-ism. That's pretty close to Christian nationalism because I also believe in nationalism."
Media related toRussell Vought at Wikimedia Commons
| Government offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Director of theConsumer Financial Protection Bureau Acting 2025–present | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Deputy Director of theOffice of Management and Budget 2018–2020 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Director of theOffice of Management and Budget 2019–2021 Acting: 2019–2020 | Succeeded by Rob Fairweather Acting |
| Preceded by Matthew Vaeth Acting | Director of theOffice of Management and Budget 2025–present | Incumbent |
| Order of precedence | ||
| Preceded byasAdministrator of the Environmental Protection Agency | Order of precedence of the United States as Director of the Office of Management and Budget | Succeeded byas United States Trade Representative |
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