Trump’s Budget Director Pick, on Path to Confirmation, Could Hurt Millions of Working-Class Americans Including MAGA Voters

U.S. President Donald Trump's nominee for Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought testifies during the Senate Banking Committee nomination hearing in the Dirksen Senate Building on January 22, 2025 in Washington, DC. Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images.

In the 2024 election, Donald Trump was favored by lower-income and middle-income voters who cited their own economic hardship and expressed confidence that he would improve their lives. It was a major turnaround from the 2016 election, when Trump lost among voters earning less than $100,000.

Yet Trump’s pick to head the White House Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, has been a proponent of massive cuts in government spending to programs that help low-income Americans and their families such as Medicaid, Head Start and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).