Russell Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, will reportedly lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) when Elon Musk steps aside.

Project 2025 architect Russell Vought will lead DOGE after Elon Musk steps down.

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From The Wall Street Journal:

Russ Vought, President Trump’s top budget official, is looking to lock in many of Elon Musk’s cost-cutting efforts once the billionaire CEO steps aside from government. A key part of his plan: steamrolling Congress.

Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, has already drawn the ire of Republican national security hawks by insisting that military spending receive increases only through a procedure known as budget reconciliation, as opposed to the annual budget. Aside from the reconciliation spending, the White House budget blueprint proposed maintaining military spending at current budget levels of $892.6 billion.

BREAKING: Russell Vought to lead DOGE after Elon Musk steps down, per WSJ. pic.twitter.com/Gwwx91xBGZ

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Daily Mail reports:

He has already served as Musk’s lower-profile partner, and has celebrated his own department’s efforts to slash government regulations – noting that President Trump had vowed to cut 10 government regulations for every one that is added.

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But the pick is likely to draw outrage from Democrats, as Vought was one of the major architects of Project 2025, a hardline conservative manifesto they say is a blueprint for Trump’s second term.

It called for major cuts to Social Security and Medicare, as well as the abolition of the Department of Homeland Security.

Many liberal voters decried the manifesto in the lead-up to the presidential election, even though Trump tried to distance himself from the document.

Still, Trump appointed Vought to serve as his chief budgetary official – and he is now expected to continue with Musk’s drastic cuts to the federal government, which have caused widespread protests as entire departments were shut down.

In the coming months, it is believed DOGE will focus on regulation cutting in accordance with a February executive order that instructed heads of government agencies to begin rescinding ‘unlawful regulations.’

Vought is also likely to turn is attention to what is called Schedule F, an executive order that Trump issued in his first term to eliminate job protections for thousands of high-level federal employees. The Biden administration blocked the order, but Trump reintroduced it when he retook office in January.