Russell Vought
Russell Thurlow Vought is an American political advisor who has served as the director of the Office of Management and Budget since 2025. Vought has additionally served as the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau since February 2025. He served as the acting administrator of the United States Agency for International Development from August to November 2025. Vought served as the Office of Management and Budget's director from 2020 to 2021 and as its deputy director, as well as its acting director, from 2018 to 2020.
Vought graduated from Wheaton College with a degree in history and political science and later from the George Washington University Law School with a Juris Doctor in 2004. While attending Wheaton, he interned for several lawmakers, including Texas senator Phil Gramm, whose views on deficits influenced Vought. After graduating from George Washington University, Vought worked for the Republican Study Committee. In December 2008, Indiana representative Mike Pence, the chairman of the House Republican Conference, named Vought as the conference's policy director. Vought clashed with Republican leadership in the House of Representatives over government spending. He resigned following the passage of the Affordable Care Act in March 2010 to establish Heritage Action for America, an advocacy organization, with Michael Needham.
Following Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 presidential election, Vought was offered a position as a senior advisor in the Office of Management and Budget. In April 2017, Trump named Vought as his nominee for deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget. He was confirmed by the Senate in February 2018, with vice president Mike Pence casting a tie-breaking vote. Vought and Mick Mulvaney, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, sought to significantly cut social programs and international aid. In December, Trump removed his White House chief of staff, John F. Kelly, over Mulvaney's claim that Kelly was seeking to block Trump from declaring a national emergency at the Mexico–United States border. Vought became the acting director after Trump named Mulvaney as his chief of staff.
Vought's first tenure as the director of the Office of Management and Budget occurred amid the 2018–2019 federal government shutdown. He sought austere spending cuts; the Office of Management and Budget's budgets called for the largest cuts in modern U.S. history. Vought's decision to cut security aid to Ukraine faced scrutiny amid an impeachment inquiry into Trump over the Trump–Ukraine scandal. In March 2020, Trump ousted Mulvaney as his White House chief of staff and as the director of the Office of Management and Budget. Vought appeared before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs to succeed Mulvaney as director in June. He was confirmed by the Senate the following month.
After Trump's loss in the 2020 presidential election, Vought founded the Center for Renewing America, a conservative think tank. He was influential in the Republican Party's strategy on the 2023 federal budget and the debt-ceiling crisis that year. Vought was a vocal opponent of California representative Kevin McCarthy's tenure as speaker of the House of Representatives and sought his removal; in October 2023, a motion to vacate the chair passed, resulting in McCarthy's removal. Concurrently, Vought was involved in an effort to re-enact Schedule F appointments and fire many of the workers in the federal civil service. He led the transition project of Project 2025, a political initiative to institute right-wing policies within the federal government, and was a key figure in its work.
In November 2024, Trump named Vought as his director of the Office of Management and Budget. He appeared before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs prior to Trump's inauguration. The Senate voted to confirmed Vought in February 2025. That month, he was named as the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In August, Trump named Vought as the acting administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, a position he held until November.
Early life and education (1976–2004)
Russell Thurlow Vought was born on March 26, 1976, in New York. He was raised in New York and Trumbull, Connecticut. Vought the only child born to Thurlow Bunyea Vought and Margaret Flowers Vought, and was the youngest in a blended family of seven children. Thurlow was a former United States Marine who worked as a union electrician, while Margaret was a public school teacher who later co-founded a Christian elementary school. Though Trumbull was a wealthy town, the Voughts were of modest means. He later described being brought into Christian faith at four years old, when one of his stepsisters died, by his mother; in a podcast interview, Vought stated that he was a member of a "really strong Bible-preaching, Bible-teaching church". Vought was sent to Christian summer camps and attended a private Christian school.Vought attended Wheaton College, where he majored in history and political science. A Wheaton student later described him as "bookish" and slightly "nerdy" to The Atlantic. In 1997, Vought unsuccessfully ran for student body vice president, campaigning on promises of improving recycling and reforming Wheaton's conservative social codes. The following year, he interned for Connecticut representative Chris Shays, later interning for Indiana senator Dan Coats. In 1999, Vought began working for Texas senator Phil Gramm, handling letters from Gramm's constituents. Gramm's political beliefs, particularly on deficits, influenced Vought. By 2001, Vought had started working at a B. Dalton bookstore, later taking night classes at the George Washington University Law School. That year, Gramm offered Vought a promotion as legislative assistant; Vought told him that he was willing to drop out. Vought graduated from George Washington University in 2004 with a Juris Doctor.
Career
Policy work (2004–2017)
After graduating from George Washington University, Vought worked for Texas representative Jeb Hensarling, an associate of Gramm. He assisted in drafting the Family Budget Protection Act, a proposal that would cut trillion in entitlement programs. By the following year, Vought had begun working for the Republican Study Committee. He helped develop Operation Offset, a deficit reduction plan for Hurricane Katrina disaster relief. In December 2008, Indiana representative Mike Pence, the chairman of the House Republican Conference, named Vought as the conference's policy director. In his direct work with congressional Republicans, Vought opposed bills that added to the deficit and lawmakers who voted for bills that increased spending despite claiming to be deficit-conscious.Following the passage of the Affordable Care Act in March 2010, Michael Needham and Vought established Heritage Action for America. He resigned as the policy director for the House Republican Conference in July to serve as the political director of Heritage Action in July. The concurrent Tea Party movement provided Vought an opportunity to direct budget policy for Republicans. He publicly disagreed with Republican congressional leaders over subsidies for agriculture and regulations on greenhouse gas emissions. In one such act of defiance, Vought suggested that Heritage Action send out mailers associating Tennessee senator Bob Corker with U.S. president Barack Obama, Russian president Vladimir Putin, and Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, over Corker's vote to support New START, a nuclear disarmament treaty between the United States and Russia, according to ProPublica. In 2013, Vought led an effort to encourage Republicans to defund the Affordable Care Act, a protest that led to a federal government shutdown.
Deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget (2018–2020)
After Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 presidential election, Vought was offered a position as a senior advisor in the Office of Management and Budget; according to The Washington Post, he was brought into the Trump administration by vice president Mike Pence and Mick Mulvaney, Trump's nominee for director of the Office of Management and Budget. Vought—who is a deacon of the Baptist church—considered assisting in the presidential transition, then attend seminary and becoming a pastor. In a podcast interview, Vought stated that "God had other plans". In March 2017, Trump signed an executive order seeking to reorganize the federal government. The order was executed by Vought, who led a plan to convince Trump to cut funding for the United States Agency for International Development and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as well as combine the Department of Health and Human Services and food stamps programs into a singular organization. Several of Vought's proposed initiatives were opposed by members of Trump's cabinet and the general counsels of multiple agencies; many of the recommendations in Vought's plan, released the following year, were not implemented. According to the Post, Vought originated the Office of Management and Budget's request of billion for Trump's wall along the Mexico–United States border.In April 2017, Trump named Vought as his nominee for deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget. Texas senator John Cornyn held up Vought's nomination over additional funding to his state in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, and his hearing faced delays over comments he wrote a year prior arguing that Muslims have a "deficient theology" and are "stand condemned" for rejecting Jesus. Vought was confirmed on February 28, 2018 in a 50–49 vote along party lines; vice president Mike Pence cast a tie-breaking vote after Arizona senator John McCain and South Dakota senator Mike Rounds were absent. At the Office of Management and Budget, Vought and Mulvaney worked to attempt to cut funding for Meals on Wheels, a food delivery service for disabled individuals, leading to conflicts with staff. Vought additionally coordinated with the lawyer Mark Paoletta, who was confirmed as the Office of Management and Budget's general counsel in 2018. That year, Trump—at Vought's behest—sent Congress a billion rescission that would cut funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program, the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program, and the United States Agency for International Development's Ebola response; the measure failed in the Senate by one vote.