Vought wrote the theory before he wielded the power
In the Project 2025 volume, Vought described OMB as the president's 'air-traffic control system' and argued the director should operate as the best approximation of the president's mind across the bureaucracy.
The later fights over grants, layoffs, rescissions, and agency shutdowns followed a theory Vought had already put in writing.
Then the Senate put that theory back in power
Congress.gov says Vought was confirmed as OMB director on Feb. 6, 2025 by a 53-47 vote.
The White House cabinet page framed him as the returning budget chief. His Project 2025 chapter framed the job as a command post for presidential control across agencies.
The funding-freeze chaos was an early preview
AP reported that Trump's budget office rescinded its federal funding-freeze memo less than two days after it triggered confusion and legal challenges across the country. The initial move rattled states, schools, nonprofits, and anyone dependent on federal money by suggesting the White House was ready to yank huge parts of the spending system into ideological review all at once.
After the memo was rescinded, AP reported on Feb. 11, 2025 that courts were still blocking attempts to revive or preserve the broader effect of the pause.
Vought kept pushing the power-of-the-purse fight anyway
In June 2025, AP reported that the White House formally asked Congress to claw back $9.4 billion in approved spending targeted by DOGE, and Vought said more rescission packages could follow. Then in August 2025, AP reported that Trump used a pocket-rescission maneuver to block $4.9 billion in foreign aid that Congress had already approved, the first use of that tactic in nearly 50 years.
The rescission request and pocket-rescission maneuver kept the same fight alive after the initial funding freeze stumbled: presidential control over money Congress had already approved.
The budget fight and the agency-shutdown fight were the same project
In both cases, Vought was testing whether the White House could weaken or suspend congressionally created commitments by controlling the administrative machinery after the fact.
The budget fight and agency fight were the same operating theory applied to two levers: appropriated money and administrative capacity.
He also moved from theory to mass layoffs
AP's February 26, 2025 profile on Vought said the administration's demand that agencies radically downsize was the clearest assertion yet of his power.
The downsizing push moved Vought's Project 2025 chapter from transition paper into operating government.
The CFPB became the main case study in how far he wanted to go
AP reported in December 2025 that a federal judge blocked the White House's attempt to let CFPB funding lapse and described the bureau as largely inoperable under Vought. Employees were mostly forbidden from doing any work while the administration tried to hollow the agency out from the inside.
On April 2, 2026, AP reported that the administration had scaled back its earlier CFPB demolition plan but still wanted to cut the bureau from 1,700 authorized employees before Trump's second term to roughly 550 staffers.
