Reactions poured in Thursday night as the Senate confirmed Project 2025 architect Russ Vought, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the White House budget office.
Vought passed by a vote of 53-47 despite Democrats holding an all-nighter in protest of his nomination as director of the Office of Management and Budget, which some fear could be used to take Congress' so-called "power of the purse."
Democrats vehemently opposed Vought with Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) slamming Vought for saying he wanted federal workers to be “put in trauma” and be “viewed as the villains.”
“Is there a single manager or leader or organizational chief that we admire who believes that their mission, their happiness, their glee, their purpose is to make their workforce feel traumatized?” Kaine told colleagues on the Senate floor. “No, we would never celebrate a leader of that kind.”
Additionally, he's said the half-century-old Impoundment Control Act is unconstitutional and argued the president ought to have more unilateral power to cut spending.
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Social media critics expressed outrage at Vought's confirmation.
"Senate Republicans just confirmed Russ Vought to manage our nation's budget. Vought is an extremist who has made clear he'll ignore our nation's laws, cut funding that helps people across the country & give Trump unprecedented & unconstitutional power. There will be consequences," warned Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) on Bluesky.
Sen. Andy Kim (NJ) said in a statement that Vought's "extreme views trample on the Constitution and opens the door for corruption at the expense of the American people."
"We need a government that works for everyone, not just the well-off and the well-connected who pledge loyalty to the president," he said, adding that while the battle for the nomination is over, the battle to "stand up against corruption and unchecked power" is underway.
"And there it is: Russell Vought is confirmed. I wrote a long profile of him, his worldview, his political project: He’s one of the architects of Project 2025, an avowed Christian nationalist, and a radical ideologue of the 'post-constitutional' Right. He is at war with pluralistic democracy," wrote Thomas Zimmer, a historian at Georgetown University, on Bluesky.
"Every single Senate Democrat voted against Vought, the architect of Project 2025, as any reasonable person should. This guy is a threat to us all. Watch. Him. Closely," warned Rahna Epting, executive director at MoveOn.
