Russell Vought: The Man Implementing Trump’s Project 2025 Agenda Behind the Scenes
As we watched the government shutdown enter the coldest months of the year, millions were left weighing whether to feed their families, keep the heat on, or pay their health insurance. And we have none other than Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director and Project 2025 architect Russell Vought to thank for that, in part. Alongside President Donald Trump, Vought conducted mass firings of federal workers. While many federal workers and vulnerable families were living through distressing financial uncertainty, President Trump shared an AI video of Russ Vought as the grim reaper, a sick and twisted nod to the mass firings.
President Trump and Vought together share one common goal; undermining our democracy and blocking gender justice by seizing the power of the purse from Congress and consolidating it under the president. Gender justice thrives in a democracy with checks and balances, personal freedoms and civil rights, and where the public can make their voice heard in Washington through their representatives, not through a would-be king. We first sounded the alarm about Vought when he was nominated back in January, and sadly many of our fears have materialized.
Attacks on Federal Workers
Vought made good on his promise to put federal workers “in trauma” and has gleefully carried out his anti-democratic Project 2025 plan. Elon Musk and DOGE were the known villains behind the firing of federal workers, from mail carriers and park rangers to air traffic controllers and scientists, and the slashing of critical government programs. However, Vought was later reported as the man behind the curtain, à la The Wizard of Oz, when it came to dismantling the federal government.
Through the DOGE cuts, Vought oversaw the downsizing of agencies critical to the rights and well-being of women and girls, including the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the U.S. Department of Labor. Women made up more than 59% of the initial cuts across the five targeted cabinet level departments, even though they comprised 46% of the federal workforce before the downsizing. Additionally, Vought brought back his radical “Schedule F Rule,” now renamed Schedule P/C, which would take away employment protections from federal workers and allow those recategorized to be fired for political reasons. Federal workers, many who have spent decades in public service, now sit in fear at work or have been tossed out simply for doing their job and not breaking the law at Trump’s behest. Many continue to face the jarring reality of not knowing when their next paycheck will come.
Rescissions
As Vought first proposed in Project 2025, the Trump administration spent much of 2025 clawing back billions of dollars already approved by Congress for critical programs. He was instrumental in pushing for an initial $9.4 billion in “rescissions” that cut funding for multiple federal government agencies, including the Department of State and USAID programs. Specifically, Vought came after USAID and Department of State programs that he ridiculously claimed, “worsen the lives of women and children.” These so-called horrifying programs? They were family planning, reproductive health, LGBTQIA+ health and civil rights programs, and equity programs. The cuts in health and equity programs that are critical to communities around the world are unconscionable and mirror the administration’s efforts to target the same communities in the United States.
But that’s not all. Since his initial cuts to USAID, Vought has continued to make moves that illegally usurp power from Congress. Even though an independent agency said it was illegal, Vought has tried to take back money for foreign aid that Congress has approved. Vought’s response? Claiming the agency shouldn’t even exist. The move is so controversial and radical that even a bipartisan group of 10 top budget and appropriations former aids, seven Republicans and three Democrats, signed a letter arguing that this power grab is unconstitutional. Judge Amir Ali ruled that Trump’s pocket rescission was unconstitutional, but now the Supreme Court is considering whether to take the case and allow it.
It hasn’t even been a year into Russell Vought’s tenure as the OMB director, but he has already wreaked havoc on the lives of millions of people across the United States and beyond. From working to take away employment protections and firing federal workers en masse to taking away the power of the purse from Congress, Vought’s attacks on democracy and gender justice this year are unprecedented and dangerous. Like the “Great Oz,” Vought is no hero. He’s a con artist who wields power to benefit his vision of government: one that operates not for the benefit of the people, but for a president who sees himself as king.
