WASHINGTON — While the future of some of President Donald Trump’s more controversial nominees remains in flux — two Republican senators announced Thursday they will not support defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth — most of his nominations are expected to be embraced by the Senate GOP’s 53-47 majority.

But Democrats in the chamber are aiming their ire at Trump’s budget director nominee, Russell Vought — a veteran of Trump’s first administration and a key architect of the Heritage Foundation’s far-right Project 2025 — in an attempt to derail his path back to the key federal role atop the Office of Management and Budget.

What You Need To Know

  • Senate Democrats are taking aim at Donald Trump’s budget director nominee, Russell Vought, in an attempt to derail his path back to the key federal role atop the Office of Management and Budget
  • Vought is a veteran of Trump’s first administration and a key architect of the Heritage Foundation’s far-right Project 2025 with a history of taking policy stances on the extremes of the Republican Party
  • The OMB director is responsible for crafting the president’s budget and ensuring federal agencies are enacting the president’s priorities
  • Democrats fear Vought’s stance that a 1974 law solidifying Congress’ authority to set the federal budget was unconstitutional and that presidents have greater authority to spend funds how they like
  • He has also expressed a desire to bring independent federal agencies — regulatory bodies given autonomy from the president’s authorities to avoid corruption or misconduct — under control of the White House

“We all know that a good number of Donald Trump's nominees are very, very troubling, but this guy is almost — he's probably at the very top of the list in terms of how dangerous he is to working people and to America,” said New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democrats’ leader, at a news conference Thursday. “Mr. Vought is the godfather of the ultra right. He is the chief cook and bottle washer for Project 2025, which would decimate the lives of so many Americans.”

As Schumer noted, “the OMB Director holds one of the most critical positions in the federal government. It affects every federal agency, every local economy, every town, city, every American family.” The office’s director is responsible for crafting the president’s budget and ensuring federal agencies are enacting the president’s priorities, but Democrats fear Vought’s stance that a 1974 law solidifying Congress’ authority to set the federal budget was unconstitutional and that presidents have greater authority to spend funds how they like.

“No, I don’t believe it’s constitutional, the president ran on that view, that’s his view, and I agree with it,” Vought said at a hearing last week. 

He has also expressed a desire to bring independent federal agencies — regulatory bodies given autonomy from the president’s authorities to avoid corruption or misconduct — under control of the White House.

Vought "is an aggressive cost cutter and deregulator who will help us implement our America First Agenda across all Agencies," Trump said in a statement announcing Vought's nomination shortly after the election in November. "Russ knows exactly how to dismantle the Deep State and end Weaponized Government, and he will help us return Self Governance to the People."

Republicans have largely stood behind Vought, with none publicly opposing his nomination. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, the chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, praised Vought in a hearing last week, imploring him to slash government spending in order to reduce the national debt.

"We need someone with the strength of character like Mr. Vought to put the hammer down and say 'enough is enough,'" Paul said. "He is well-qualified for this role, having previously served as a director in official and acting capacity, as well as being deputy director."

Vought, who is a longtime veteran of the Heritage Foundation and a former senior congressional aide, has a history of taking policy stances on the extremes of the Republican Party, even as the party has moved further to the right during Trump’s reign. Working on Project 2025, Vought has called for using military force against U.S. protesters, defunding the Environmental Protection Agency, rolling back protections for transgender people and purging the federal bureaucracy of workers deemed sufficiently disloyal to Trump. He has also long maintained the lie that Trump won the 2020 election.

He previously served as the OMB director during Trump’s final two years in office. When he was nominated to be that agency’s deputy director in 2018, Vought’s writings that Muslims “do not know God” and “stand condemned” because they don’t recognize Jesus Christ as the son of God became a point of contention. He was ultimately confirmed by the Senate on a party-line vote with then-Vice President Mike Pence breaking a tie. 

Both in public and private, Vought has defended Christian nationalism as central to his political philosophy and said on a recording made by a British-based climate nonprofit last year that Republicans have “been too focused on religious liberty, which we all support, but we’ve lacked the ability to argue we are a Christian nation.”

“I want to make sure that we can say we are a Christian nation and my viewpoint is mostly that I would probably be Christian nation-ism. That’s pretty close to Christian nationalism because I also believe in nationalism,” Vought said. “Can we, if we're going to have legal immigration, can we get people that actually believe in Christianity? Is that something? Or … are we not allowed to ask questions about Sharia law?”

Now, Trump wants Vought back atop OMB and Democrats are sounding the alarm. Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, the senior Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee which Vought appeared before Wednesday, described Vought on Thursday as “the chief engineer of the Trump Train” and warned that the OMB director nominee would cut social programs funding health care, housing and education and then cut taxes for the richest Americans. 

“He is all about the golden age that Trump talked about at his … inauguration,” Merkley said. “That golden age is for Big Pharma and Big Oil. That golden age is for Wall Street and hedge funds. That golden age is for Big Tech. But you know what it is for the rest of the working families, ordinary families across America? It's not the golden age, it's the Dark Ages.”

Washington Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat, has been particularly focused on Vought and his stark opposition to abortion in any scenario. At his hearing on Wednesday, she highlighted Vought’s comments from last year that he would like “to get to abolition” of abortion in the United States and that he doesn’t believe in abortion ban exceptions for cases of rape, incest and instances when the life of the mother is in danger.

“You have said that you don’t believe in exceptions for rape, for incest or the life of the mother,” Murray said. “Is that your position?”

“Senator, my views are not important. I’m here on behalf of the president,” Vought answered, pointing to Trump’s public support for those exceptions on the campaign trail.