If Russell Vought is confirmed as Office of Management and Budget director, he will continue to enact and accelerate the radical, sweeping agenda he began to implement in that same position during the final two years of the first Trump administration.

President Trump's pick to lead the Office of Management and Budget faced a tough grilling from Democratic lawmakers on the Senate Budget Committee on Wednesday.

Vought was OMB director during Trump’s first term. He already had a hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

It’s looking like "thumbs up" for Russ Vought in the Senate, where Republicans are preparing to confirm him to lead the White House budget office despite his reputation for withholding congressionally-approved funding.

PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST — After 15 months of war that have killed 47,000 people, laid waste to much of Gaza and triggered political fallout around the world, Israel and Hamas have finally struck a cease-fire deal, according to multiple officials.

Russell Vought, who's been tapped to manage Trump’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB), said during his confirmation hearing on Wednesday that the president should have broad powers over funding allocated by Congress.

If confirmed again as White House budget director, Russell Vought would likely do more than oversee spending, policy and regulations. Vought, a co-author of Project 2025 who served as budget ...

Russell Vought, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be Director of the Office of Management and Budget, poses for a photo with Cabinet picks, other nominees and appointments, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Russell Vought, President-elect Donald Trump‘s nominee to be the next director of the Office of Management and Budget, faced tough questioning from Senate Democrats during his Wednesday confirmation hearing.

The Senate’s confirmation hearing of Russell Vought, one of Washington’s staunchest advocates for cutting spending, offered a preview Wednesday of the bruising spending wars likely to consume Congress this year.

Russell Vought, President Donald Trump’s nominee for director of the Office of Management and Budget, will testify before Congress for the second time. Since the first, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) met with Vought and released a statement disagreeing with the nomination.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rushed to Elon Musk’s defense Thursday, claiming that the billionaire’s disturbing inauguration gesture —which millions of people around the world recognized as the Sieg Heil salute used by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party—was little more than a misunderstanding.