House Oversight Democrats slam Trump for choosing Project 2025’s ‘lead architect’ to head OMB

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, and committee member Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) condemned President-elect Trump for tapping Project 2025 co-author Russell Vought to serve as the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) during his second administration.

“After vehemently denying his links to Project 2025 through the campaign, the President-elect just tapped its lead architect, Russell Vought, to run his coming all-of-government purge as Director of the Office of Management and Budget," the lawmakers said in a joint statement.

Vought served as Trump’s OMB deputy director during Trump's first term in the Oval Office.

Vought penned the chapter on the Executive Office of the President of the United States — which largely references OMB — in The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a “governing agenda” filled with conservative priorities and insight from scholars and policy experts.

Trump on the campaign trail sought to distance himself from the playbook, previously saying he has “nothing to do with it,” especially as it came under fire for some of its more controversial policies. Democrats launched a campaign earlier this year to push back on Project 2025, forming a task force to fight what they said is a threat to the institutions of American democracy and government. 

In their statement, Raskin and Stansbury hit Vought on decisions he made while serving Trump's first administration, like carrying out an executive order signed by Trump in 2020, which took aim at diversity training for government workers by prohibiting the teaching of “divisive concepts.”

“As Democratic Members of the House Oversight Committee, the headquarters of resistance to this plan, we will fight Vought’s radical agenda, act to protect vital government services the American people depend on, and stand up to defend our fellow citizens who are honorable federal workers every step of the way," they said in the statement.