Project 2025 January Update: Executive Office & Central Personnel Agencies
Russ Vought has been busy busy!
Russ Vought has been busy in his role as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and he hasn’t even been confirmed yet by the Senate!
If you’re unfamiliar with Russ Vought, he’s one of the primary architects of Project 2025, the author of its chapter on the “Executive Office of the President of the United States”, and Trump’s nominee for Director of the Office of Management and Budget. His nomination just passed out of the Senate Budget Committee and will likely go to a full Senate floor vote next week. Chuck Schumer has identified Vought as the key nomination to oppose—all Democrats boycotted the Budget Committee vote to advance his nomination.
With all of the talk about the dangers of Hegseth (now confirmed at DOD), Gabbard, and RFK Jr., why the outcry about Vought? It’s difficult to argue that Vought is not qualified—in a very literal sense—for OMB Director; after all, he served in the position for Trump from 2019-2021, and he is clearly knowledgable about all of the intricacies and powers of the office. The concern is quite the opposite: Russ Vought is all too aware of how he can shape the Executive Branch to conform to his own radical notions of executive power and to achieve his self-described Christian nationalist and radical constitutionalist goals. I highly recommend a couple of overviews on Vought by The Economist:
https://www.economist.com/united-states/2025/01/03/russ-vought-donald-trumps-holy-warrior
https://www.economist.com/united-states/2025/01/26/a-controversial-idea-to-hand-even-more-power-to-the-president
And this brilliant essay on Vought and his ideology by Thomas Zimmer, historian and writer:
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/meet-the-ideologue-of-the-post-constitutional
So how is Russ Vought & Co.’s project coming along? The first three chapters of Project 2025, which make up the first of its five sections, provide recommendations for the White House Office, the Executive Office of the President, and the Central Personnel Agencies. The actions combined would concentrate significant power within the Presidency, facilitating the enactment of the rest of the Executive’s policy agenda.
What follows is an accounting of the actions undertaken by the second Trump Administration that follow specific recommendations from Project 2025. There are also a few cases—mostly involving Elon Musk—where the Administration’s actions are not all that well-aligned with Project 2025, illustrating the tensions between Trump’s Christian-conservative, Heritage Foundation et al. disciples and his frathouse of techbro tag-alongs.
Note:
MFL = Mandate for Leadership, the Project 2025 book of recommendations
The White House Office
Notes:
- Example of memo from Merrick Garland outlining separation between DOJ and the White House. It seems like we won’t see one of these from the Trump DOJ.
- https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/31/us/politics/trump-fbi-agents.html
- https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/white-house-sidelines-160-national-security-council-detailees-as-it-reviews-staffing-to-align-team-with-trumps-agenda
- https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/strengthening-american-leadership-in-digital-financial-technology/
The Executive Office of the President
* this is the chapter written by Russ Vought.
Notes:
- https://democrats-budget.house.gov/OMB-Abuse
- https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/19/white-house-budget-authority-political-appointees-398668
- https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/01/29/2025-01953/ending-radical-and-wasteful-government-dei-programs-and-preferencing
- https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opinions/attachments/2020/12/30/2019-10-08-extend-reg-review.pdf
- https://www.archives.gov/files/federal-register/executive-orders/pdf/12866.pdf
- https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/04/11/2023-07760/modernizing-regulatory-review
- https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/01/28/2025-01901/initial-rescissions-of-harmful-executive-orders-and-actions
- https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/10/15/2019-22623/promoting-the-rule-of-law-through-improved-agency-guidance-documents
- https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/01/25/2021-01767/revocation-of-certain-executive-orders-concerning-federal-regulation
- https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/03/01/2021-04281/revocation-of-certain-presidential-actions
- https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/05/19/2021-10691/revocation-of-certain-presidential-actions-and-technical-amendment
- https://www.federalregister.gov/executive-order/12630
- https://scholarship.law.pitt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1079&context=fac_articles
- https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/01/30/2017-02095/border-security-and-immigration-enforcement-improvements
- https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/115/text
- https://media.defense.gov/2025/Jan/29/2003634987/-1/-1/1/RESTORING-AMERICAS-FIGHTING-FORCE.PDF
- https://www.npr.org/2025/01/29/nx-s1-5279386/hegseth-milley-security-detail
- https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/01/29/2025-01956/unleashing-american-energy
- https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/02/01/2021-02177/tackling-the-climate-crisis-at-home-and-abroad
The Central Personnel Agencies
This is really helpful, thank you! Do you have plans to make a public dashboard to better visualize this info? I've seen a number of people looking for a Project 2025 tracker but haven't seen one published yet.
The list of rouges,deplorables,traitors, grifters,Nazi types grows. Elon is #1 even above Donnie. This OMB guy Christian national guy ranks high too. I can't keep track of names. Thanks for educating, helping us. Lots of links to follow. Everyone of those people are who my dad would call creeps.