Russell Vought is well-known on Capitol Hill and thus far at least looks like a shoo-in to be confirmed as President-elect Donald Trump’s budget director, as he was during Trump’s first term on a party-line vote in 2020.
The hard-charging Vought is a revered figure on the right with his pledges to upend the “deep state” and dismantle “woke and weaponized government,” including by refusing to spend all the money Congress appropriates.
He’ll need to be vetted again in the new year, where Democrats on the Senate Budget and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs panels will be poring over Vought’s writings and speeches since leaving the Trump administration to found a new pro-Trump think tank, the Center for Renewing America.
