This article was previously published on Human Events by David Krayden. You can find the link here: https://humanevents.com/2025/05/14/david-krayden-russell-vought-is-uniquely-suited-to-head-doge
While we are saddened to see the coming departure of Elon Musk as director of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), it is heartening to know that current Office of Management and Budget chief Russell Vought will be replacing him because Vought is even more of a principled conservative – in every way – than Musk. Or as uber liberal Slate magazine put it, Vought “might be even more dangerous” than Musk.
The author of the conservative manifesto, Project 2025, Vought, has laid the foundation for government efficiency and reducing the size of bureaucracy and the state’s interference in our lives for years. Vought has demanded consistency and clarity from the so-called conservative establishment in op ed pieces that insist it’s not good enough to talk about limiting the size of government, you have to start cutting the outrageous expenses that the federal government incurs and get on with the job.
Following the defeat of President Donald Trump and days after the inauguration of President Joe Biden, Vought was not talking about the end of the conservative dream but exhorting tax-strapped Americans to continue the fight. “But the establishment is not the only constituency breathing a sigh of relief that Trump is no longer in the White House.
Much of what can be termed the “center-right” movement in the Beltway and commentariat is ready to revert to their pre-Trump agenda: robotically extending America’s interests to the outskirts of the globe, tinkering at the margins of an ever-expanding welfare state, and prioritizing a sort of market absolutism. The cultural issues—the ones that trigger name-calling by the left—get pats on the head, but no real action, priority, or passion,” Vought wrote in The Federalist.
So clearly, just as Trump renewed his commitment not to interfere in foreign wars and continues to spread the US military around the world, Vought is also a critic of the neocons who will never find a global conflict they don’t want to immerse America in.
Vought’s plan – shocking to The New York Times – is to cut government spending by $9 trillion over the next 10 years. “Entire federal programs — from housing vouchers to student loans — would be eliminated. The government would fire thousands of civil workers, including those investigating tax fraud. And Washington would restrict aid to the poor, requiring Americans to work in exchange for benefits.”
Should people work to receive welfare? Radical idea.
Vought is also a social conservative who believes the state should not be paying for abortions – something that a lot of Democrats used to uphold as well.
“If ever there was a recent example of a Mr. Smith going to Washington and taking a relatively narrow, principled stand, it would be Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s intrepid battle against the Pentagon because of its new policy to encourage military servicewomen to obtain abortions. This is turning out to be a titanic struggle,” Vought wrote in World in 2023.
“In the wake of the Dobbs decision, the Biden Administration changed longstanding policy and began granting official leave and taxpayer-funded support for servicewomen to travel to states where they can obtain abortions. Sen. Tuberville responded by placing a ‘hold’ on all the military promotions that the Senate routinely expedites. Thanks to the courage and endurance of Sen. Tuberville, what began as a minor row has now escalated into a massive political fight against the entire defense establishment, unused to the temerity of a single senator representing his constituents and the cause of life so vigorously.”
Vought explained his fiscal and social philosophy in the 2023 treatise, “A Commitment to End Woke and Weaponized Government.”
“The evidence of America’s fiscal brokenness is everywhere. Inflation—an economic phenomenon the experts promised was permanently relegated to history—is now running at forty-year highs, making all of life more expensive, but worse, making fools out of all those taught to save money for the deferred gain of building and investing. The nation owes $31 trillion, and the interest the Treasury Department must pay steadily increases. The annual cost of interest payments will exceed the Pentagon’s budget within the next ten years,” he wrote.
“The notion of ‘fiscal discipline’ is in a time capsule. Congress considers no budgets, legislation never hits against cost limitations, and every partisan disagreement is “solved” simply by spending more on the pet programs of the opposing party. The Federal Reserve creates trillions of dollars with a few keyboard clicks payable to big banks who will be paid interest for not lending, in exchange for subsuming the nation’s debt, which alleviates policymakers from experiencing the hangover of their financial mismanagement—all while clamoring about the importance of its “independence” to escape government by the people,” Vought continued in his introduction.
“So yes, the need for a budget—a fiscal plan—could not be more immediate. But there are some serious challenges facing any renewed effort to deal with this fiscal nightmare, and any budget intended for results must consider these.”
This guy means business.
He is ideally suited to continue to lead DOGE and its campaign to root out and eradicate wasteful spending in the federal government, from exposing the USAID scam to deactivating over 500,000 government credit cards. For conservatives, DOGE is the most unifying component of the Trump administration. Until his comments in Saudi Arabia yesterday, when he condemned neocon interventionism, Trump was sometimes speaking at cross-purposes with himself on foreign policy, declaring his desire to end the war in Ukraine and then pledging to send more military aid, which of course will only prolong the struggle and result in the deaths of more Ukrainians.
His tariff policy has not been universally embraced by all conservatives either, with many fearing it will result in the hidden taxes of counter-tariffs. His desire to see a globalist and China First candidate like Prime Minister Mark Carney win the Canadian federal election was troubling and inconsistent with American interests.
However, DOGE revealed why Donald Trump was elected to a second term as president. Government spending is not just out of control; it’s controlled by the Deep State and its Democratic allies, who don’t care how much it costs to keep their power structure in place, regardless of whom Americans choose to elect. Trump underestimated the power of federal bureaucracy during his first term and how Democrats continue to exert their influence even if they don’t control the presidency or Congress. However, after years of experiencing the full force of that weaponized bureaucracy, Trump returned to Washington with a profound desire to wrestle it under control.
You do that by cutting off the flow of cash. That’s something that Trump deeply comprehends. Despite the attempts by liberal judges to stymy and block DOGE’s work, the agency soldiers on and continues to inspire millions of Americans that it might be possible to get the government off our backs and stop extorting money.
Musk was perfect as the early face of DOGE with his media-savvy ways, but Vought, with his experience in government and immense understanding of how government and Washington work, is clearly the man who can navigate DOGE through difficult times and actually change the way America works—or actually doesn’t—when it comes to government waste.
