https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/18/the-king-of-the-shutdown-00614718In an administration full of disruptors, Russ Vought is a different beast.Vought, as head of the White House’s budget arm, has assembled one of the most powerful and exacting teams in Washington, all aimed at slashing the federal bureaucracy and ensuring what’s left bends to the administration’s will.He has increased the number of policy lieutenants typically operating at the Office of Management and Budget and supercharged their mandate to ensure White House priorities are pushed into each agency.That handiwork is now in motion as the Trump administration targets funding cuts to what it calls “Democrat agencies” and threatens more mass layoffs called “reductions in force,” or RIFs. On Friday, Vought said that $11 billion in Army Corps of Engineers projects in mostly blue states would be paused.Vought’s expanded policy army, the nearly dozen “Program Associate Directors” or PADs, are charged with combing line-by-line through the nearly $7 trillion federal budget for programs to slash and helping him play what he’s called “budgetary twister” (finding money to blunt the most politically painful parts of the shutdown).Beyond numbers, Vought’s lieutenants also are steeped-in-policy wonks who each lead an office composed of dozens of political and career servants. All of this positions Vought’s OMB as a potent political strike force.
“Pound for pound, they’ve got the strongest team of subject matter experts and experienced political people as well as policy experts across the government. It’s probably the strongest OMB that’s ever been assembled,” said Joe Grogan, former director of the White House domestic policy council during the first Trump administration.OMB declined comment.Under the direction of Mick Mulvaney, director of OMB in President Donald Trump’s first term, PADs “were not as empowered,” said one former Trump White House official, granted anonymity to discuss internal dynamics. “Now, they’re wielding the bully pulpit to say, ‘This is how it’s going to be.’”The person said these positions are “much more enabled to unilaterally act and carry out the direction than they were in the past, where everyone was trying to be much more cooperative.”They also reveal a microcosm of the Trump White House’s interests, such as slashing climate and diversity programs as well as restructuring federal procurements.Vought’s policy lieutenants include Mark Calabria, who previously ran the Federal Housing Finance Agency and pushed to end Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s government conservatorship. He oversees the departments of Treasury, Housing and Commerce.For natural resources and energy, Vought has selected Stuart Levenbach, who once served as chief of staff at NOAA and in Trump’s National Economic Council. Homeland security is helmed by Brian Cavanaugh, a former National Security Council senior director during Trump’s first term.
Then there’s Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, daughter-in-law of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who directs intelligence and international affairs, Michael Stumo, who leads economic policy and the Made in America Office, Anne DeCesaro, who handles education, labor and income maintenance, Tom Williams for defense, Don Dempsey for health, Hal Duncan for legislative affairs and Kevin Rhodes for federal procurement. Unlike staffers in Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency who were similarly looking for programs to cut, each of the PADs has significant government experience.The core of OMB’s operation is a tight inner circle of Trump veterans who are laying the legal groundwork for OMB’s moves during the shutdown, which has dragged on since starting Oct. 1.OMB’s general counsel Mark Paoletta, who served in the same role during Trump’s first term and once shepherded Clarence Thomas through his Supreme Court confirmation, has been intimately involved in drafting the administration’s justification not to backpay furloughed workers and to defend OMB’s actions in court.Stephen Billy, a senior adviser, has been filing RIF updates on behalf of OMB in court. A former vice president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, Billy in particular has deep knowledge about the government programs related to abortion that OMB has targeted.As one of his deputy directors, Vought has selected Eric Ueland, a reliable operator with a resume that includes multiple stints in the federal government as well as on Capitol Hill, including as staff director for former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. Former Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.), chief of staff Katie Sullivan and communications director Rachel Cauley round out the senior echelon.
Leading the charge on OMB’s deregulatory efforts is Jeff Clark, the former acting head of the civil division at the Justice Department who pushed the agency to investigate voter fraud claims. Clark is now acting administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, an office within OMB which reviews pending federal regulations.Some of these picks were affiliated with Vought’s Center for Renewing America and other conservative organizations like the Cato Institute or the Heritage Foundation during Joe Biden’s presidency, where they contributed to the Project 2025 policy blueprint and drafted proposals for Trump’s second-term agenda.“We did a lot of things in the first term,” Vought said this week on “The Charlie Kirk Show.” “But one of the things we did not do was reductions in force. We honestly learned about it in our years of exile.”Over the past nine months, his team has scrutinized federal accounts to identify what he calls the “woke and weaponized” corners of government. That work produced a 1,224-page addendum to the fiscal 2026 White House budget request this spring, a granular manifesto of what Trump’s White House wants to spend — or cut.
Vought’s team has been notably deliberate compared with the chaotic first days of the administration when Elon Musk took a chainsaw to the federal government. It waited to send the first rescissions package to Capitol Hill until it had better odds of passage. They asked the Department of Energy to pace its cuts to preserve leverage for negotiations. And they’ve used the apportionment process to control agency spending, cognizant that any moves to withhold funding could form the basis of a Supreme Court challenge to the Impoundment Control Act.But the shutdown gave Vought his clearest opening yet. Since the start of the shutdown, Vought cut $7.5 billion in energy grants identified by the Department of Energy, ordered all 200 federal agencies to submit RIF plans and cut programs like the Minority Business Development Agency, CISA and the Office of Population Affairs.
Cutting government is always a good thing
>>1449492Any kind of minority program is just money laundering
>>1449492>>1449493>let's nepohire RFK Jr.'s daughter and tell her to slash a bunch of AIDS programs in AfricaMan the eventual backlash to this shit is going to be unreal.
>>1449496Tell me the backlash to not wasting billions in Africa?
>>1449497Lot of dead kids.
>>1449497>wastingkek
>>1449498>Dead African kids>While simultaneously saving billions of taxpayer dollars Sounds like a win
>>1449501>letting China fill the vacuum left by withdrawing all US foreign aidThis is why they call it "the post-American century".
>>1449503China already owns Africa. The US just wasted money on virtue signalingAfrica is being used as a garbage dump now
>>1449504It isn't just Africa and foreign aid is one of hundreds of things the Project 2025 shills are cutting to the detriment of America.
>>1449517Nah. Cutting Democrat money laundering is always a good thing
>>1449521>If I call it "democrat money laundering" they won't notice American soft power declining all over the worldYeah that's going to hurt later on.
>>1449523>Soft powerThis is the Democrat dog whistle. You're guaranteed to be talking to a full blown retard when you hear this
>>1449485Good.
So are they doing anything new or this a puff peace about "look at how strong/nefarious (depending on your political leaning) the new OMB is"?
>>1449532Where do you people get this shit from?
>>1449537He's our resident lolcow with a humiliation fetish, he just wants you to call him a dumb faggot so he can get his rocks off
>>1449534Same shit, different asshole.
>>1449534Read the story, moron.>>1449540No it isn't.
>>1449533https://www.propublica.org/article/about-russell-vought-trump-shadow-president
>>1449542>propublica
>>1449542Meanwhile, Biden is completely senile and they're autopenning everything he does
>>1449537Because it's right. No one same thinks trans shit in the middle east and sending Africa any fucking things gives the US any kind of global power. And before you say it, there shouldn't be any money given to Israel, Ukraine, or any south American shithole, either
>>1449546Yes, propublica.
Apparently esl shill doesn't know what meanwhile means, to the surprise of no one
>>1449551>tranny derangement syndrome intensifies
>>1449553Ravi, you are the ESL
>>1449555I'm sure melting down when you get called out for not knowing english will prove to us that you're totally white and american
>>1449557You are a jeet Canadian.
>>1449560I accept your concession.
>>1449492Except to the military, right? gonna need those troops on home soil to keep down those minority antifa after all these cuts. We poorling's got to scrabble after the chicken bones
>>1449497The backlash to a non-functional government hollowed out by conservative billionaire thinktanks? Progressives are going to win every election for the next 15 years.
>>1449640Get back to us after the midterms.
>>1449485Government is how WE decide how to act. We all need to behave within certain bounds that are determined by ALL of us. When this governing body is removed, the powerful are able to do whatever they want. Since the rich own the news, we don’t know what they’re doing. We elected trump to office and gave the rich EVEN MORE power and now they’re taking away the one thing that gave us some control over what they do. Now they can do whatever they want to us AND they have control of our taxes. The end.
>>1449641>usYou aren't even American.>>1449645There are still a few checks and balances left that they can't get rid of.
>>1449650>You aren't even AmericanHuge if true. Link?
>>1449541I did read the story, it was already known weeks ago that they sent out memos that agencies should consider rifs.
>>1449653>weeks agoThey just announced it 10 days ago.
>>1449651see >>1449492>>1449493
>>1449655No I'm pretty sure there were news about memos for agencies to consider rif's just before the shutdown started, or at least around that time.
>>1449659But Russ Vought started after the shutdown. That's why the white house tweeted the 'reaper' video.
>>1449660White house social media is literally just /pol/ tier shitposting, and I mean literal shitposting of Trump flinging shit in a video they posted the past weekend.Last week they supposedly sent out rif orders on around 4200 employees but many agencies already went through worse, and it's also already being sued. I haven't heard of much since then.
>>1449661I thought Stephen Miller and Karoline Levitt controlled the account but they obviously have some intern running it.
>>1449664Somebody still had to give the okay to publicly post a video you'd expect to find in a /pol/ "indian hate" thread.
>>1449492Libertarianism was tried in Argentina and they need a $40 billion bailout
>>1449684AFTER the liberals seized some power and fucked everything up.But also, libertarianism is flawed.
>>1449724OMG LIBRALS!?!?! QUICK, DOWNSIZE THE ENTIRE GOVERNMENT
>>1449728Considering taxes consume the general wealth of everyone, yes.
>>1449735No they don't or else the rich would be paying a lot more than they do now. Also this was already settled in the Whiskey Rebellion in the 1790s.
>>1449736Ah, so what you're saying is tariffs aren't a bad thing?
>>1449739i think he's saying your brain is too small to comprehend anything that isn't a simple binary
>>1449739I'm saying Trump is the reincarnation of Herbert Hoover destroying the world economy with American tariffs in 1929.
>>1449742Battleship sunk, liggerals resort to ad hom. Concession accepted.>>1449743That didn't really have much to do with tariffs from my understanding.
>>1449747https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot%E2%80%93Hawley_Tariff_Act>Hoover signed the bill against the advice of many senior economists, yielding to pressure from his party and business leaders. Intended to bolster domestic employment and manufacturing, the tariffs instead deepened the Depression because the U.S.'s trading partners retaliated with tariffs of their own, leading to U.S. exports and global trade plummeting. Economists and historians widely regard the act as a policy misstep, and it remains a cautionary example of protectionist policy in modern economic debates.[
>>1449748So, your telling me tariffs interfere with international trade, but you don't believe that taxes affect local trade?You believe that businesses will increase prices to account for tariffs, but not to account for increased taxation.>He doesn't realize>He's given an apples to oranges comparison>He believes it's apples to apples.Interesting tactic. Did Alinsky teach you thus?
>>1449751This thread is about the Project2025 guy going scorched earth on the government. Go whine about your pro-nationalist anti-tax trade policy in the tariff thread.
>>1449747is your shill job a good thing or a bad thing?
>>1449754>Defeated and unable to resolve his just realized cognitive dissonance he begs to be left aloneWill do. Thanks for that concession BTW.
>>1449759Anything to divert from the thread topic, amIright?
>>1449759we do all concede that you are a smug retard who doesn't qualify for a legitimate non-shill job
>>1449760I've already declared my full support for Project 2025.I'm sorry you and your manager are mad you got ABSOLUTELY FUCKING OBLITERATED, and easily so badly you can't even retort.
>>1449768So how long have you worked for heritage.org?
>>1449485https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/trackers/the-democratic-party-favorabilitymeanwhile democrats are at all their all time low in polling just 1% above their lowest in history.
>>1449780Cool now post the GOP favorability
>>1449789https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/trackers/the-republican-party-favorabilityuh sureits at 8.3% higher then dems and actually went up 3% in sept
>>1449790Fuck, I'm wrong again. I hate being always so wrong.
everybody listen to the party of pathological lies, you have to believe us guys pleeeeeeease, those millions upon millions of protesters telling us to fuck off were in your imagination
>>1449792so .33% of the population? that's like nothing
>>1449790What's the number?
>>1449793i know you're esl but you're also not proficient in math? sad
>>1449790So Trump's economic policies are polling 20 points below even the favorability rating of the GOP? Not a good look.
>>1449794favorability rating42.3% for republicans 33.9% for dems8.4% difference
>>1449797That only means when the dems when the midterms you're going to claim they cheated again.
>>1449795oh my apologies 0.03% of the populationhttps://columbiachronicle.com/metro/hands-off-chicago-unites-over-100000-protestors-to-rally-against-the-trump-administration/i accidentally added an extra 0 because i took your comment seriously.
>>1449799you love parading your own stupidity around for us don't you. this really is your humiliation fetish in action isn't it
>>1449798>when the dems whenok>>1449800what's 100000/population of united states
>>1449801where's your shill farm located, and how bad are the budget cuts
>>1449802i do it for free because your anger is tasty *lick lick*democrat tears and in denial of reality
>>1449801I don't think you realize how unpopular Trump's clown show is.
>>1449812more popular then you think according to the polls anon maybe get out of your echo chamber
>>1449811The reality is a third of America is in a Trump cult and the polls reflect that. It's been that way for almost 10 years now.
>>1449814so you agree you're a minority
>>1449813>>1449815Look at the OP pic again.
>>1449814>The reality is a third of America is in a Trump cult and the polls reflect that. It's been that way for almost 10 years now.And yet they just won the popular vote. First time in 25+ year a Republican has done that. Curious.
>>1449820>bragging about getting 49% of the voteI don't think you get how majorities work. Also, Joe Biden and Kamala's fuck ups aren't an indicator of Trump's popularity.
>>1449821>nooo the popular vote only counts when we win it.
>>1449825How did you get that from the post you replied to? I'd really like to know.
>>1449828We just had a popularity contest. Trump won it by historic margins.
>>1449830>Trump won it by historic margins.>49%That's where you're wrong. Trump won it because 30 million democrats protested by sitting out the election.
>>1449832>win the popular vote for the first time in a generation>nooo it doesn't count
>>1449834I didn't say it didn't count. You have to make shit up because you know I'm right.
>>1449838right about what? Democrats losing the popular vote?
>>1449832>Trump won it because 30 million democrats protested by sitting out the election.Trump won it by 30 million retards realizing they came out in droves and completely fucked up by voting for Biden, then they fucked back to their retard shacks under the realization they never should've voted in the first place, and will likely never vote Democrat ever again.It's hilarious.
>>1449817>>1449821they're voting for trump in spite of that anon, maybe you should've had a better opposition
>>1449832joe rogan's audience are liberal bernie bros they voted for trump
>>1449841About Kamala not having a primary being the reason why dems lost, not because Trump is somehow popular (he never has been). >>1449846Come back when you can speak English.>>1449847No they didn't. Turnout was horrible because they sat out the election.
>>1449853>About Kamala not having a primary being the reason why dems lost, not because Trump is somehow popular (he never has been).Trump got more votes (77.3 million) in 2024 than he did in 2020 (74.2 million). Its a generational victory. You can be a big boy and deal with it. Or you can keep doing whatever it is you're doing.
>>1449856The DNC fucked up the primary and consequently 30 million democrats didn't show up. That doesn't mean Trump won a "generational victory" wtf that is. It has very little to do with Trump at all.
>>1449853>Come back when you can speak English.No. Eat my word salad.The mod of new voters Democruds mobilized by using convid and the media got immediately BTFO by Biden fucking everything up.What makes you think these people will be back later?
>>1449860>Republicans win popular vote for first time in a generation >No it doesnt count no it doesnt matter its not real here are WORDS WORDS WORDS about why its not important You're a shamefully weak man.
>>1449861>What makes you think these people will be back later?Again I refer you to the OP pic>>1449862Nobody said it didn't count but you, Anon, I'm just telling you why democrats didn't show up.
>>1449865>Again I refer you to the OP pic>Nate Silver lol >I'm just telling you why democrats didn't show up.You're coping.
>>1449866>copingThat's what your delusions about Trump's popularity are, yes.
>>1449869>popularity We just had a popularity contest. He won.
>>1449870>11 months ago is "just had it" >49% means a majority>Trump won a "generational victory"I genuinely don't know if you actually believe this shit or you're just pushing the party line, but either way you're in the cult.
>>1449875>>11 months ago is "just had it"Yes. We have the popularity contest every four years. >49% means a majorityNo, it means the "popular vote" because its more than anyone else. >>Trump won a "generational victory"Yes. No Republican has won the popular vote since 2004. That is 21 years ago, approximately one generation. These are basic facts. A man has the strength to face facts.
>>1449881Look at the OP pic again and tell me about Trump and his policies are somehow popular.
>>1449882>Look at the OP pic again and tell me about Trump and his policies are somehow popular.Consult the outcome of the last popularity contest. >b... but NATE SILVER Yes, he was all in on Brat Summer too. How did that turn out?
>>1449885>let me tell you about this thing that happened 11 months ago instead of current pollshahaha you really are a broken record
>>1449886>hahaha you really are a broken recordYes. I dont care about "the polls". The only polls that matter happen on one specific day every four years.
>>1449888Then stfu about Trump's popularity. It isn't November 2024 anymore and he wasn't popular then either.
>>1449890You're the one talking about popularity. >It isn't November 2024 anymore and he wasn't popular then either.Clearly he was, he won.
>>1449886Kamala is Brap
>>1449892We've been over this. The only reason he won is because 30 million dems stayed home out of spite for the DNC. That doesn't somehow make him popular.
>>1449895>when you win the popularity contest you're not popular The fact that I am still enjoying election cope in October is fucking incredible.
>>1449895My version is that there never were 30 million Dems. There were 30 million individuals driven to action by the media.These individuals poured out to save the country from Runnold bLumpfs.And realized they were total retards and should never vote again after getting no-lube ass raped by Biden.Then these same people who were fucked in the ass by Biden were fed lies from the media again that "things aren't so bad" while everything went to shit.They will not be back. They will not be Democrats.Captcha: MAADD
>>1449899Yes you seem to still be coping with the fact that Trump isn't (and has never been) popular.
>>1449902>muh MSMJesus grandpa find an argument not based in the 20th century ffs.
>>1449903Popular enough to become president :)
>>1449903Yet he beat a Democrat. What does that say about Democrats?
>>1449905>Convid>Russiagate>Constant bullshitI experienced it, faggot, as a brown man, you've vowed to suck my cock when I speak about my lived experiences.
>>1449906Ahh so you've gone from "generational popularity" to "just popular enough". lmao>>1449907It's like when an NFL team outperforms the other team but loses due to holding and offsides penalties. It has nothing to do with the other team being good.
>>1449911>generational popularityWhere did I say that? You're getting emotional.
>>1449914here >>1449856
>>1449909Hilarious satire
>>1449916>generational victory Emotions running high.
>>1449920Get your Hindi ass on your knees, Sukdeep
>>1449921It's the same thing. And also it's a sign of your weak argument that you have to fall back on "u mad bro" bullshit.
>>1449924>It's the same thing.Its not. I said "generational victory" this is not the same as "generational popularity". Words have meaning.
>>1449927It is. You just went on at great length about it being "the only popularity contest that matters".
>>1449930An election is a popularity contest. Yes. Republicans winning the popular vote for the first time in a generation is a generational victory. Its not generational popularity. That would go whomever won by the largest margin in the last 25 years - Obama 2008. words have meaning.
>>1449933Now THIS is called mincing words.
>>1449937I am sorry that I didnt say what you wish I said so that you could win an argument.
>>1449941Naaah everyone can see in your replies your need to self-rationalize Trump's lack of popularity.
>>1449947As I have told you, repeatedly, I don't care about daily opinion polling. Elections are the only polls that matter.
>>1449954NOOOO. PLEASE LOOK AT MY 538+ POLLING AND VOTE FOR MY TEAM BECAUSE WE'RE MORE POPULAR!!!
>>1449955lmao
>>1449954There you go self-rationalizing again.
>>1449961Its been my argument since the very first post.
>>1449964So you are or aren't the Anon who posted the favorability ratings like they decide elections? Which one is it?
It's weird how the two chuds abandon the threads at same time, almost coordinated.
>>1449501They raised our taxes you burning buttfucked faggot.
>>1449684They literally gave Argentina the 2025 handbook.
>>1449503oh no instead of the US wasting their money its china wasting it.. oh wait thats a win we keep ours and they burn it in the never ending aid blackhole that is africa.
>>1449987Yeah that money is going to argentina instead lmao. Which is even more of a blackhole, because instead of at least saving some lives, it goes towards lining Milei's parachute.
>>1449987That isn't a long term win. China is setting up military bases there.
>>1449485They’re just destroying the government. That’s the goal. I don’t know how else you can put it.
