This Musk counterpart actually knows how to use the government to dismantle it

Politico

4 hours ago

The Elon Musk era of the Trump administration's fiscal sturm und drang is over. But his much more understated — and savvy — counterpart, Russ Vought, is just hitting his stride.
Vought, the two-time director of the Office of Management and Budget, is the most strategic player in executing the Trump administration's effort to slash the federal government. Just this week, Vought has been everywhere from doing TV hits at the White House and on the Sunday shows to sitting in Speaker Mike Johnson's office to sell the 'big beautiful bill' and lay the groundwork for codifying the DOGE cuts.
His omnipresence highlights how Vought's work is taking on a more public profile after months of behind-the-scenes planning as Musk captured the spotlight — and that far from slowing down, his agenda to fundamentally remake government from the ground up remains in high gear.
Whereas Musk bulldozed through bureaucracy and largely ignored Capitol Hill, Vought relies on a different playbook: pushing change through institutional channels, backroom conversations, and contingency planning. That sort of meticulousness and deep understanding of government has inspired fear among federal workers as he strengthens presidential authority to dismantle large parts of the federal bureaucracy, underscoring that unlike Musk, Vought actually knows how to get things done.
His ultimate goal is to 'bend or break the bureaucracy to the presidential will,' and use it to send power from Washington and back to America's families, churches, local governments and states, he wrote in Project 2025.
'It wasn't actually Musk holding a chainsaw. Musk was a chainsaw in Russ Vought's hands,' said a senior government employee with a front row seat to Trump's remaking of government, who, like others in this story, was granted anonymity to describe it.
The contrast between the two men is stark, and increasingly consequential. While Musk operated with a kind of maniacal urgency, Vought has proven he's willing to slow down before speeding up. While Musk staffed DOGE with tech loyalists barely old enough to rent cars, Vought's team at OMB is a veteran-heavy group with deep roots in government.
'Elon is an owner. Russ has, for his entire career, been an exceptional staffer,' said Paul Winfree, who held various policy roles in the first Trump administration.
'Russ knows how to manage both up and down, and he also knows how to use the levers of government, whether or not they're at OMB, and how to think more broadly about legislative strategy and working with Congress, basically the way that things get done in this town,' Winfree added. 'He is a master at this.'
And it takes a mastery of government and near-endless patience to achieve what Vought really wants: stripping down what he has long seen as a bloated federal budget, bringing an unwieldy federal bureaucracy to heel and drastically transforming the foundation of the U.S. government.
Musk arrived with grand plans to slash $2 trillion from the federal budget but left his role having cut less than 10 percent of that figure, forced to admit that the sprawling federal bureaucracy was not as easy to wrap his arms around as he originally thought.
'Everyone thinks they can come to D.C. and fix it,' said one former Trump administration official. 'But you have to have a really good understanding of this town, how the policies are cooked and baked. At OMB, that's the team. These are seasoned policy guys. They've been working on their issue areas forever.'
Vought has spent more than two decades in Washington, including stints as executive director of the Republican Study Committee, a group of conservative House members; and vice president of Heritage Action, the conservative Heritage Foundation's advocacy arm. At his core, Vought is both a fiery conservative ideologue and a budget wonk, allies say. He's known for spending free time poring over budget documents — even on weekends — but also has been one of the administration's sharpest messengers on traditional cable news networks and conservative shows.The distinction between Vought and Musk is apparent in the rescissions package, a $9 billion bundle of cuts originally slated to be sent to Congress in April. When internal GOP whip counts showed the White House wouldn't have enough Senate votes to pass it, Vought pulled back, recalibrated, and started working the phones.
'Why the delay? Because the House actually wants to pass it … and put pressure on the Senate,' Vought said on longtime Trump adviser Steve Bannon's WarRoom show late last month. 'I don't want to send a rescissions bill out there that goes nowhere.'
Trump allies on the Hill have welcomed his engagement.'I'm glad he comes over here. We need that,' said Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.). 'We can't have an administration where you never hear from them, never see them, except when they want to spend a ton of money.'
Assisting Vought is a team of allies from his first OMB stint, including deputy chief of staff Hugh Fike, general counsel Mark Paoletta and communications director Rachel Cauley.
Unlike Musk, Vought isn't an act-first, come-up-with-the-legal-theory-later type. If his recissions package fails to pass Congress, Vought has a plan B and if that fails, a plan C, which he's started to outline publicly in recent days.
Vought has long been a proponent of the idea that the executive can legally impound, or withhold, spending that has been approved by Congress. Critics say only Congress has the power of the purse. Though an OMB memo from the early days of the administration suggested it was poised to wage that fight — by abruptly freezing all federal financial assistance — the office quickly pulled the order back.
Vought's allies say he's being deliberate about which fights he picks over impoundment and is waiting to build a solid legal case.
Another interim strategy if Congress declines to approve the package is pocket rescissions, a process in which the White House would send the rescissions package at the end of the fiscal year and then run out the clock on Congress's ability to act on the proposal, leading to the automatic cancellation of funds when the fiscal year ends.
'I've worked closely with him for 15 years, and one of the things that he has always done a pretty good job at doing is thinking out into the future,' Winfree said. 'With this recissions package that he's moving on the Hill right now — it isn't just about the recissions. He's thinking about, how do the moves on this package set up the next move that sets up the next move?'
Former administration officials say that Vought learned from the failed recissions fight of 2018 — spearheaded by then-Trump budget director Mick Mulvaney — by building relationships on the Hill that he hopes will get the package across the finish line this year.
Now, 'I think they're more attuned to the push and pull here, and the need to find the center of gravity with the Hill,' a second former Trump administration official said, even if that means making small tweaks to the recissions package to get it across the finish line in the Senate. 'Give them a win, and then it should be fine.'
Others are less optimistic about the totality of the administration's legislative agenda, including the president's 'one big beautiful bill,' which Vought also is playing a key role in shepherding.
'Russ is going to have to get in there with some hand-to-hand combat and get these guys to 'yes,'' a third former administration official said. 'If this bill passes, Trump's going to have everything. He'll have [deregulation] on steroids with Russ. He'll have tariffs as a negotiating tool and tactic for China and he'll have [the] cost of living going down for all Americans. And that's the midterms. Like, the end.'
'If one of those things falters,' the person added, 'I think Republicans lose the midterms.'