Russ Vought, the Project 2025 architect/ghoul who now runs the Office of Management and Budget, is pretty sure that when Americans voted for Donald Trump, they were enthusiastically endorsing the idea that Trump can single-handedly decide how taxpayer money is spent. This tramples on the separation of powers, but it’s also just a comical reach to say that people who pulled the lever for Trump gave him infinite power.
On Thursday, during a Christian Science Monitor breakfast meeting, Vought explained his vision of how the government should work to reporters. First, bipartisanship has got to go, because “literally no one” ran and won “on an agenda of a bipartisan appropriations process.”
Buddy, no one ran on that because everyone else understands that the budget process is, of necessity, bipartisan. It’s that whole thing where Congress sets spending, and spending bills need 60 votes to pass. But per Vought, he doesn’t even have to talk to congressional Democrats because he is going to “change the paradigm” of budgeting.
Somehow, cutting Democrats out of the budgeting process will make things better, according to Vought: “I actually think that over time, if we have a more partisan appropriations process—for a time—it will lead to more bipartisanship.” Yep, that is definitely how things work.
Vought grudgingly acknowledged that Congress has the power of the purse, but he has a very … unique … understanding of that: “It is one of the most constitutional foundational principles, but that power of the purse does not mean—It’s a ceiling. It is not a floor.”
Wait, what? That word salad sounds a lot like Vought thinks that Congress can pass a budget, but then Trump can cut whatever he wants. Actually, yes, that’s precisely what Vought means: “It is not the notion that you have to spend every last dollar.” If Trump can unilaterally refuse to spend money Congress has appropriated, then Congress no longer controls spending power, period.
Vought’s actions are in keeping with Trump’s view that Americans elected him to be a king, and by electing him, affirmatively agreed to anything he wants to do. It’s also in keeping with Trump’s February executive order, which essentially said that OMB gets to tell agencies what to do, and they just have to do it.
Letting Trump unilaterally cut spending is actually restoring the constitutional balance, per Vought, because it means that the executive branch is “not cowing to a legislative branch’s understanding of its own authorities and powers.”
Sure, except the plain language of Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution could not be clearer about where spending power lies: “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States.”
Vought doesn’t care for your pesky thoughts about the Constitution, though. He’s a Christian nationalist who espouses a theory of “radical constitutionalism.” That theory is indeed radical, as it essentially requires you to throw out the whole Constitution and just say that the president is a king and Congress cannot place limits on him.
The administration’s belief that all power rests with Trump has been, unfortunately, backed by both the Supreme Court and Congress. Since both of those branches have abdicated their duties to act as a check and balance on the executive branch, there is no one to stop Vought from implementing his vision, a world where Congress doesn’t matter and Trump controls everything.
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In case you are wondering, Vought’s vision also means even more cuts. The administration is planning on sending additional rescission packages to Congress, continuing to cut spending even though Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill” already cut the whole of government to the bone to fund tax cuts for the rich and shower money on Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
It’s hilarious to watch Vought pretend to be rooting out fraud and finding savings when his boss just added at least $2.4 trillion to the national debt to fund those tax cuts. It’s hilarious to pretend that Trump should be the arbiter of spending when he’s really terrible with money. It’s hilarious to pretend that the administration’s actions have saved Americans money when Elon Musk’s antics with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency have cost the government $135 billion, which far outstrips the ostensible savings achieved by DOGE.
None of these people should be in charge of a children’s checkbook, much less the federal government.