Inside Trump's Government Shutdown: How Russell Vought Became America's Budget "Grim Reaper"

Oct 05, 2025 03:02 pm CST

Russell Vought, Trump's powerful Office of Management and Budget director, is leveraging the US government shutdown to implement dramatic federal workforce reductions. Once a key architect of Project 2025, Vought now wields unprecedented influence in reshaping American bureaucracy while Democrats accuse him of deliberately engineering the budget crisis to dismantle essential government functions.