Our breakfast with Trump budget mastermind Russ Vought
| Washington
I asked Russ Vought a deceptively simple question at this week鈥檚 Monitor Breakfast: 鈥淎re you now effectively the head of DOGE?鈥�
The White House budget director bristled at the suggestion that, in his drive to slash the size of government, he鈥檚 become the new Elon Musk, the multibillionaire who ran the Department of Government Efficiency at the start of Trump 2.0.聽
鈥淣o, I鈥檓 not,鈥� Mr. Vought said. 鈥淚鈥檓 the head of two agencies.鈥澛�
Why We Wrote This
鈥婣s people, Elon Musk and Russ Vought 鈥媍ould hardly be more different. But 鈥媡hey share a determination 鈥媡o shrink government. And M鈥媟. Vought鈥檚 power to do it, as the Trump administration鈥檚 budget director鈥�, is enormous.
鈥淥nly two?鈥� I half-joked, hinting at the Trump administration鈥檚 practice of聽. In addition to budget director, Mr. Vought is also head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 it. It鈥檚 always been fake news that I was named head of DOGE based on a weird headline,鈥� he said, referring to a聽聽from May anticipating Mr. Musk鈥檚 departure from the administration.
Yet in key ways, Mr. Vought is picking up where Mr. Musk left off, working to get Congress to claw back money for agencies targeted by DOGE. The first 鈥渞escissions鈥� package, $9 billion in funding for public broadcasting and foreign aid, passed early Friday.
At our breakfast Thursday, Mr. Vought said more rescissions are 鈥渓ikely to come soon,鈥� but declined to provide specifics.聽My colleague Cameron Joseph鈥檚聽news article聽about the breakfast highlighted that point.
More striking, perhaps, was his contrast in style to that of Mr. Musk. The DOGE king is a larger-than-life character who arrived in Washington with no experience in government. Mr. Vought is a reserved government official steeped in Washington ways, including years on Capitol Hill and a leading role in Project 2025, the conservative聽聽for President Donald Trump鈥檚 second term. In the first term, Mr. Vought served as deputy budget director before rising to director.
In short, he鈥檚 the anti-Musk. But their goal is the same: to downsize government, eliminate bureaucracy, and cut costs. 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 actually Musk holding a chainsaw,鈥� a senior government official聽. 鈥淢usk was a chainsaw in Russ Vought鈥檚 hands.鈥�
At our breakfast, Mr. Vought didn鈥檛 hesitate to spar with reporters about cuts to government programs, often highlighting what he described as a 鈥渇undamentally woke bureaucracy鈥� at work. The National Institutes of Health? He rattled off a list of projects he found objectionable, including $5.1 million for 鈥溌燼t Northwestern University鈥� and 鈥�$699,000 for聽聽among sexual minority gender-diverse individuals.鈥�
Thus far, some 51,000 federal employees聽, yet budget deficits remain high. Mr. Vought suggests he鈥檚 only just begun.
But it is his breakfast comments about Congress, including the budget process, that got the most attention on Capitol Hill, especially his dismissive approach to bipartisanship. He refused to commit to funding levels agreed to in the next bipartisan funding bill.
鈥淲ho ran and won on an agenda of a bipartisan appropriations process? Literally no one,鈥� Mr. Vought said.
Members learned of his comments quickly. GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska聽聽the government funding process. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called him 鈥渁 very grave danger鈥� to democracy, and聽.
To be honest, I was most caught off guard when Mr. Vought said he was 鈥渉aving fun鈥� in his job. He had noted the privilege of coming back to a job he had done before, and how he was able to 鈥渉it the ground running.鈥� But I had to ask: What did he mean by fun? Work is work, I said. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 not fun?鈥� he responded.
I reminded myself that Mr. Vought is known for reading budget documents in his spare time, even on weekends. In my note to him after the breakfast, I thanked him for coming and, yes, told him I had fun 鈥� which I did.
