Trump plans to name a trusted candidate to lead OMB, sources say By Reuters
By Gram Slattery and Alexandra Ulmer
(Reuters) – President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate Russell Vought to be director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, according to two sources close to his reform efforts, putting him in a position to lead the powerful agency. helps determine the president’s policy priorities and how to pay for them.
Vought was the OMB chief during Trump’s first term and would play a key role in rolling back government regulations and setting budget priorities. In this position, he will be in a position to implement a policy known as Schedule F, which will strip thousands of federal employees of other important public service protections.
Vought helped produce a plan called Project 2025 by a coalition of conservative groups for the second time in the Trump White House. One of its proposals is to dramatically reorganize the government so that conservative appointees have more power over key decisions that are usually delegated to civil servants.
Trump could change his mind, and there were others to participate as recently as earlier this week, according to one of the sources.
Trump’s transition team and Vought did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump repeatedly denied during his presidential campaign that he had any links to Project 2025, even though most of its authors were former officials of his first administration, including Vought.
At OMB, Vought will work with X CEO Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to deliver on Trump’s campaign promise to cut government spending and regulations.
Musk and Ramaswamy have been appointed by Trump to lead the newly created Department of Government Operations, an organization that Trump has indicated will operate outside of government boundaries.
