President-elect Donald Trump’s choice of Russell Vought, a Project 2025 architect, to lead the White House budget office was seen as further evidence of the threat the incoming administration poses to Social Security, Medicare, and other critical government programs.
Vought, who currently heads the far-right think tank Center for Renewing America think tank, served as director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) during Trump’s first term, and he’s set to return to the post after playing a central role in crafting the Project 2025 agenda that the Republican president-elect attempted to disavow on the campaign trail.
In remarks to an undercover journalist earlier this year, Vought dismissed the notion that Trump opposed the aims of Project 2025, saying the Republican leader was “very supportive of what we do.”
Vought is expected to aggressively pursue federal spending cuts in concert with other actors within and around the incoming Trump administration, including the “government efficiency” commission led by billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
“With the architect of Project 2025 nominated to lead Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, there can be no distinction between the two.”
During his tenure at OMB and as an outside adviser to Republican lawmakers, Vought advocated massive cuts to Medicaid and federal nutrition assistance, programs that the GOP is targeting as it looks to offset the costs of its proposed tax cuts.
Vought also spearheaded budget proposals from the Trump White House that recommended cuts to Social Security and Medicare, both of which the president-elect vowed to protect during his 2024 campaign.
“Vought oversaw every budget in the first Trump administration that cut Social Security and Medicare,” said Tony Carrk, executive director of the watchdog group Accountable.US. “This much is clear: Social Security and Medicare are at risk in the second Trump presidency.”
According to Accountable, Vought is one of at least six individuals associated with Project 2025 whom Trump has picked for a spot in the incoming administration.
“With the architect of Project 2025 nominated to lead Trump’s Office of Management and Budget,” said Carrk, “there can be no distinction between the two.”
While Project 2025’s sweeping policy document includes little discussion of Social Security, the far-right program’s authors have endorsed changes such as raising the retirement age—which would result in across-the-board benefit cuts.
As for Medicare, Project 2025 proposes making privatized Medicare Advantage plans the default enrollment option for U.S. seniors, a change that would be massively profitable for insurance giants and potentially disastrous for patients.
Vought’s nomination to lead OMB is expected to bolster Trump administration efforts to slash spending across the federal government. As Punchbowlreported Monday, Vought “is among those Trump allies looking to challenge Congress’ authority over spending via impoundment,” a strategy that Democratic lawmakers have condemned as unlawful.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, told Punchbowl in a statement that Vought “is deeply confused about this and many other points about the Constitution and the Impoundment Control Act of 1974.”
“While Trump distanced himself from Project 2025, Vought’s nomination makes it crystal clear that Trump lied to the American people,” said DeLauro. “Trump’s agenda is the Project 2025 manifesto.”
