Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Russell Vought attends a Rose Garden Club lunch, hosted by U.S. President Donald Trump, at the White House in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 21, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Reactions mounted Friday after news that the White House defended using funds from the U.S. Agency for International Development to provide security for Russell Vought, the architect of Project 2025.
President Donald Trump had named Vought the director of the Office of Management and Budget, and a new Reuters report found that the Trump administration had redirected $15 million in funds from USAID, which had been decimated by Vought, to his security detail. More than one dozen U.S. Marshals were assigned to protect Vought, a source familiar with the arrangement told Reuters.
Social media users reacted to the White House's move.
"Disgusting," Catherine Rampell, economics editor at The Bulwark, wrote on Bluesky.
"So life-saving aid that Russ Vought has cut from poor children, causing many to die, is being used instead to protect the life of Russ Vought - the white Christian nationalist fanatic whose objective is traumatizing other people," journalist John Harwood wrote on Bluesky.
"How many children’s lives does it cost to provide security for Russell Vought?" User Pareto wrote on Bluesky.
"Russ Vought: We should not spend millions of dollars saving the lives of poor children in Africa, Asia, or anywhere else. Also Russ Vought: We should spend those millions instead, on me," user New Yorker in DC wrote on X.
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