President Donald Trump's top budget official is reportedly set to take over operations at the Department of Government Efficiency once Elon Musk steps aside.
Russell Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, will soon take on much of DOGE's workload, including working with Congress to recoup funds, reclassifying federal workers and advancing his proposed 2025 budget - which would greatly slash government funding, the Wall Street Journal reports.
He has already served as Musk's lower-profile partner, and has celebrated his own department's efforts to slash government regulations - noting that President Trump had vowed to cut 10 government regulations for every one that is added.
But the pick is likely to draw outrage from Democrats, as Vought was one of the major architects of Project 2025, a hardline conservative manifesto they say is a blueprint for Trump's second term.
It called for major cuts to Social Security and Medicare, as well as the abolition of the Department of Homeland Security.
