President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration submitted its first rescissions package of the year to Congress, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced on Tuesday, accompanied by a list of instances of &#8220;waste, fraud, and abuse&#8221; singled out for the chopping block.
In a thread <a href="https://x.com/WHOMB/status/1929991228449312979" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> on X, OMB said lawmakers in the House and Senate &#8220;must act&#8221; on the request to claw back billions of dollars in &#8220;wasteful foreign aid and federal funding for NPR and PBS&#8221; previously appropriated by Congress, with &#8220;45 days to codify these massive cuts to woke, wasteful, and weaponized spending via a simple majority vote&#8221; using the Impoundment Control Act.
OMB specifically highlighted $67,000 for testing insect powder nutrition on children in Madagascar, $33,000 for “Being LGBTI in the Caribbean,&#8221; $643,000 for &#8220;LGBTQI+&#8221; programs in the Western Balkans, and $567,000 for &#8220;LBGTQI+&#8221; programs in Uganda.
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$67,000 for testing insect powder nutrition on children in Madagascar. <a href="https://t.co/ehLzMuIkkr">pic.twitter.com/ehLzMuIkkr</a>
— Office of Management and Budget (@WHOMB) <a href="https://twitter.com/WHOMB/status/1929991230567457260?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 3, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Scores of DEI and Global Green New Deal funding&#8221; projects were also mentioned, including: $5 million for the &#8220;Minority Serving Institute Fellowship Cooperative Agreement,&#8221; $595,400 for training women in gender equity, $500,000 for electric buses in Rwanda, $6 million for “net zero cities” in Mexico, $2.1 million for climate resilience in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and East Africa, as well as $5 million for “green transportation and logistics” in Eurasia.
OMB&#8217;s list went on to mention $4 million for “legume systems research&#8221; and $3 million for Iraqi Sesame Street.
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In addition, OMB noted millions under the PEPFAR account for so-called LGBTQIA+ programs, condoms, and vasectomies: $833,000 for &#8220;transgender people, sex workers and their clients and sexual networks&#8221; in Nepal, $5.1 million for &#8220;resilience of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans gender, intersex, and queer global movements,&#8221; $3 million for circumcision, vasectomies, and condoms in Zambia, $1 billion in contributions to &#8220;wasteful, corrupt, and anti-American international organizations,&#8221; including $135 million to the World Health Organization, and $1.1 billion for the &#8220;left-wing&#8221; Corporation for Public Broadcasting, &#8220;which uses your taxpayer dollars to fund PBS and NPR.&#8221;
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) confirmed receipt of the rescissions package, which his office said focuses on $9.4 billion in &#8220;wasteful spending&#8221; identified by the Trump administration&#8217;s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative. He also gave a shoutout to Elon Musk, who earlier had <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-cant-stand-it-anymore-goes-nuclear-on-big-beautiful-bill" target="_blank" rel="noopener">assailed</a> the lawmakers who voted to pass the &#8220;One Big, Beautiful Bill&#8221; last month, citing the &#8220;unsustainable&#8221; debt.
&#8220;The House will act quickly on this request,&#8221; Johnson said in a statement. &#8220;Under President Trump, every federal taxpayer dollar is actually being used to serve the American people, not to fund a bloated bureaucracy or purely partisan pet projects. We thank Elon Musk and his DOGE team for identifying a wide range of wasteful, duplicative, and outdated programs, and House Republicans are eager to eliminate them.&#8221;
He added: &#8220;This rescissions package reflects many of DOGE’s findings and is one of the many legislative tools Republicans are using to restore fiscal sanity. Congress will continue working closely with the White House to codify these recommendations, and the House will bring the package to the floor as quickly as possible.&#8221;
Johnson also took a shot at Democrats, who have largely opposed anything Trump supports, including DOGE.
“Democrats continue to wail and complain — NOT at the fraud, waste, and abuse — but at the Trump Administration simply for exposing it,&#8221; the speaker declared. &#8220;In fact, Democrats are the only ones in Washington who do not want to stop the egregious misspending of the people’s tax dollars. Democrats continue to defend corruption, while Republicans are delivering real accountability and real savings the American people demanded in November.&#8221;
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) criticized the spending cuts request.
&#8220;The reckless rescissions package introduced today is only the latest attempt by the Trump administration to attack the free press, decimate lifesaving humanitarian aid and hurt our national security,&#8221; Jeffries said in a statement. &#8220;House Democrats will continue to aggressively push back on the continued chaos, cruelty and corruption of this administration and on the far-right extremism being unleashed on the American people.&#8221;

President Trump

DEI, Insect Powder, And Trans ‘Resilience’: Trump Unveils ‘Woke’ Spending Cuts Request

Budget

Congress

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

Mike Johnson

National Public Radio (NPR)

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Politics

Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)

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USAID

President Donald Trump&#8217;s budget chief delivered on Sunday a counterargument to Elon Musk&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-disappointed-by-one-big-beautiful-bill" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warning</a> that the House-passed version of the &#8220;One Big, Beautiful Bill&#8221; would further expand the federal deficit.
On CNN&#8217;s &#8220;State of the Union,&#8221; anchor Dana Bash showed Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a clip of Musk telling &#8220;CBS Sunday Morning&#8221; in a recent <a href="https://x.com/CBSSunday/status/1927535075144421527" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a> of his concern that the legislation will inflate the federal deficit that has already blown past $1 trillion in recent years. Musk also referred to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative that he oversaw for the past few months.
&#8220;I was like — disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decrease it. And it undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,&#8221; Musk said.
&#8220;I love Elon,&#8221; Vought responded. &#8220;This bill doesn&#8217;t increase the deficit or hurt the debt. In fact, it lowers it by $1.4 trillion. What some of the watchdogs have done is, they have used CBO&#8217;s artificial baseline, which doesn&#8217;t allow and assume that current tax law will be extended because of sunsets that are in the law.&#8221;
Vought added later, &#8220;When you assume the extension of the president&#8217;s tax relief from 2017, this budget or this bill, and it&#8217;s really a reconciliation bill — it&#8217;s not really a budget bill. It is using a budget process. This is a $1.4 trillion over 10 years deficit reduction. It&#8217;s $1.6 trillion in mandatory savings. Obviously, we have a little bit of spending in there as well for border and defense. But that is the biggest mandatory savings package that we have seen since 1997. It&#8217;s very historic.&#8221;
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The &#8220;One Big, Beautiful Bill,&#8221; which is moving through Congress through the reconciliation process that will allow the Senate to bypass the filibuster threshold, aims to advance Trump’s priorities on border security, energy, and national defense. It also seeks to retain tax cuts from 2017 that are set to expire at the end of this year, raise the debt limit by trillions of dollars, and much more.
Trump has <a href="https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1925548216243703820" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called</a> the bill &#8220;arguably the most significant piece of Legislation that will ever be signed in the History&#8221; of the United States, but has given his <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2025/05/26/make-changes-they-want-trump-gives-senate-go-ahead-take-red-pen-big-beautiful-bill/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blessing</a> to GOP senators, some of whom have also raised <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/speaker-johnson-rebuts-rand-pauls-debt-warning-big-beautiful-bill" target="_blank" rel="noopener">objections</a> to the bill in its current form, to &#8220;make the changes they want.&#8221;
Musk, who just ended his stint as a special government employee, also said in the CBS interview that when the bill came along, he thought &#8220;everything&#8221; accomplished by DOGE would get &#8220;wiped out&#8221; in the first year. He also said, &#8220;I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don’t know if it can be both. My personal opinion.&#8221;
Last week, Vought <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-budget-director-confirms-first-targets-for-clawing-back-spending" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> the White House planned to send its first rescissions package of the year to Congress on Monday or Tuesday, aiming to claw back spending for U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and NPR — programs that Republicans view as being wasteful and partisan. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has listed rescissions as being one of two actions the House will take based on findings from DOGE, in addition to using the appropriations process to “swiftly implement” Trump’s proposed 2026 budget.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Meet the man behind President Trump&#039;s scorched-earth agenda" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WfFfQJp23kA?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

White House OMB Director Russ Vought

Trump’s Budget Chief Responds To Elon’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Critique

Elon Musk

National Debt

Russ Vought

Tax Cuts

The White House plans to send its first rescissions package of the year to the Congress next week, President Donald Trump&#8217;s budget chief announced on Wednesday, aiming to gut programs that Republicans view as being wasteful and partisan.
Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), said during an interview on Fox Business that the request to claw back funds appropriated by Congress will be delivered to the House on Monday or Tuesday, whenever the lower chamber is back in session.
The package will focus on removing &#8220;waste and garbage&#8221; for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and foreign aid, Vought told host Larry Kudlow.
Vought noted the package will also target NPR and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). NPR just <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/27/business/media/npr-trump-lawsuit-executive-order-funding.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sued</a> Trump over his executive order for ending &#8220;taxpayer subsidization&#8221; of outlets presenting &#8220;biased and partisan&#8221; news coverage. In particular, the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/ending-taxpayer-subsidization-of-biased-media/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">directive</a> seeks to end funds to NPR and PBS through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CBP).
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🚨 <a href="https://twitter.com/WHOMB?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WHOMB</a> Director <a href="https://twitter.com/RussVought47?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RussVought47</a> confirms that President Trump&#8217;s first rescissions package — clawing back wasteful spending in USAID, foreign aid, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and NPR — will be sent to Congress next week. <a href="https://t.co/wBZp1lciat">pic.twitter.com/wBZp1lciat</a>
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1927831966658797660?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 28, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Axios <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/05/28/trump-budget-doge-npr-pbs-usaid-congress" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that the rescissions package is expected to cover $9.4 billion and, once delivered, lawmakers will have 45 days to approve it. Vought noted how the measure can be passed by the House and Senate with a simple majority, meaning the filibuster will not be in play.
&#8220;We&#8217;ve had good conversations to make sure they knew it was coming,&#8221; Vought said. &#8220;They had some input as to some of the changes that could be made to make it something that could pass the House. And we&#8217;re excited for that to occur next week.&#8221;
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Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/speaker-johnson-reveals-two-ways-house-act-doge-findings" target="_blank" rel="noopener">listed</a> rescissions as being one of two actions the House will take based on findings from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative, led by Elon Musk, in addition to using the appropriations process to &#8220;swiftly implement&#8221; Trump&#8217;s proposed 2026 budget.
&#8220;When the White House sends its rescissions package to the House, we will act quickly by passing legislation to codify the cuts,&#8221; Johnson <a href="https://x.com/SpeakerJohnson/status/1927749395363045819" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a Wednesday post on X.
During his appearance on Fox Business, Vought also defended the version of Trump’s &#8220;One Big, Beautiful Bill&#8221; narrowly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-passes-one-big-beautiful-bill-in-massive-win-for-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">passed</a> by the House last week after Musk <a href="https://x.com/CBSSunday/status/1927535075144421527" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warned</a> it &#8220;undermines&#8221; DOGE&#8217;s cost-cutting efforts because it risks further increasing the federal deficit, which has already surpassed $1 trillion in recent years.
&#8220;We have been in the process of getting the most important priority done, and that is the &#8216;One Big Beautiful Bill&#8217; &#8230; we are in the business of actually passing a law,&#8221; Vought <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1927822695145611426" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. &#8220;It has $1.6 trillion in actual, mandatory savers for the first time ever.&#8221;

Trump Budget Director Confirms First Targets For Clawing Back Spending

President Donald Trump&#8217;s &#8220;one big, beautiful bill&#8221; offers a &#8220;historic level of mandatory savings,&#8221; Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Russell Vought declared on Wednesday when pressed for a response to the legislation&#8217;s skeptics among conservative lawmakers.
Vought spoke about the legislation making its way through Congress through the reconciliation process during an appearance on &#8220;The Ben Shapiro Show&#8221; as House Republican leadership tries to rally the GOP rank-and-file behind the comprehensive package that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/passing-trump-one-big-beautiful-bill-gop-duty-voters-white-house" target="_blank" rel="noopener">aims</a> to provide funding for Trump’s domestic priorities, retain the 2017 tax cuts, raise the debt limit, and more.
After noting how fiscal hawks are experiencing &#8220;heartburn&#8221; over the bill not doing enough to reduce the deficit and concerns that it might actually contribute to the deficit or add to the nearly $37 trillion national debt, Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro asked Vought to provide the &#8220;truth&#8221; of the matter.
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.<a href="https://twitter.com/RussVought45?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RussVought45</a>, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, details President Trump&#8217;s &#8220;one big, beautiful bill&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/qtTZ876fUk">pic.twitter.com/qtTZ876fUk</a>
— The Ben Shapiro Show (@BenShapiroShow) <a href="https://twitter.com/BenShapiroShow/status/1925245778114584630?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;This is the most historic level of mandatory savings that we&#8217;ve had, ever: $1.6 trillion,&#8221; Vought replied. &#8220;And just to give people a little bit of context: for 30 years, we&#8217;ve had virtually no efforts to&#8221; rein in spending programs, &#8220;which are the things that are kind of hardwired into permanent law. Welfare benefits, things like Medicaid, and we&#8217;ve had nothing of consequence since the 1997 Balanced Budget Agreement which included the work requirements with a Republican Congress and [former President] Bill Clinton.&#8221;
Vought said the bill currently being considered by Congress &#8220;essentially doubles that with $1.6 trillion, begins to have sizable savings to get illegal immigrants off of Medicaid, to have a work requirement in Medicaid to take those reforms from 1997 and apply them to more of the federal programs to get people back into the labor force.&#8221;
The bill &#8220;does sizable things,&#8221; Vought continued, noting that the Trump administration believes the bill will also bring economic growth.
&#8220;My view as the budget guy: you can&#8217;t cut spending if you don&#8217;t have a growing economy,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And so, the last thing you wanna do is not preserve these cuts, get them extended, that really is just what current law is. There&#8217;s a unique thing in budget land where you allow for programs to be permanent, but tax relief sunsets. So all that we&#8217;re doing is extending what is essentially current law and then adding $1.6 trillion in mandatory savings. We think it&#8217;s actually historic and something this town hasn&#8217;t even begun to approach, as we are working with members to be able to tell that story.&#8221;

OMB Boss Russel Vought

Trump’s Budget Chief Responds To Fiscal Hawk ‘Heartburn’ Over ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’

Taxes

U.S.

On April 28, air traffic controllers lost all radar and radio contact with planes headed into one of the nation’s largest airports.
For nearly 90 seconds, air traffic controllers couldn’t see, hear, or communicate with flights inbound to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/05/air-traffic-controllers-newark-airport-delays.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Newark Liberty International Airport</a> — a horrifying blackout that underscores the urgent need for a complete overhaul of our air traffic control system.
The culprits were a fried copper wire transmitter and a failed backup communications line — symptoms of an antiquated air traffic control infrastructure that faces mounting pressure with every passing day.
Although flight remains the safest form of commercial travel, we shouldn’t tempt fate. It’s foolish and negligent to continue standard operating procedures amid the aviation sector’s rapid deterioration.
At present, <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-25-108162" target="_blank" rel="noopener">76%</a> of all functioning air traffic control systems are “unsustainable” or “potentially unsustainable.” Moreover, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/31/business/air-traffic-controllers-understaffed.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">90% of towers nationwide</a> are significantly understaffed amid glaring failures in recruitment and training.
But these visible failures signal a deeper problem with American aviation: consistent obstruction of necessary investments in America’s aviation infrastructure.
Congress has repeatedly failed to allocate enough funding for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Even when it does provide funding, it is often distributed by agencies in an inefficient manner due to burdensome regulatory processes. At times, these bureaucratic hurdles block funding altogether.
With all the wasteful spending and other non-essential things American taxpayers fund, upgrading the nation&#8217;s air traffic control system is, correctly, a top priority for President Donald Trump and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
But if we expect to keep our airways safe and secure, and ensure that America has the best air traffic control system in the world, it also needs to be a top priority for Congress.
To make matters worse, the FAA is presently without clear, stable leadership. Nearly two months after the president’s nomination of Bryan Bedford to lead the FAA, Congress has yet to schedule his confirmation hearing. Bedford’s nomination has received overwhelming support from airline industry leaders, and his swift confirmation would expedite the implementation of necessary reforms in American aviation.
Recently, Secretary Duffy reiterated the urgency of enacting such reforms, unveiling a comprehensive plan to realize Trump’s vision to restore safety and excellence to the industry. The plan includes immediate emergency funding for the most critical system updates, multi-year budgets so the FAA can prioritize innovation, and supercharging the air traffic controller training and hiring pipeline.
Cooperation from enforcement and budgeting agencies and their leaders is critical for implementing this ambitious and necessary plan and ensuring that funding is directed toward the most acute areas of concern. Once Congress moves to provide funding, swift action and coordination from departments like the Office of Management and Budget, where I once served, is paramount to seamless air travel and this plan’s success.
The funding approval and regulatory enforcement processes must be expedited so that funds can easily and efficiently reach air traffic control towers, operators, and training centers. We cannot allow these urgent reforms to be derailed by bureaucratic backlogs, red tape, and delays in leadership appointments.
Frugality to the extreme can quickly become recklessness — especially when it means gambling with the lives of pilots and passengers. There is no badge of honor for continuing to push off essential upgrades to ensure safety in the skies. We must ensure that the funding Congress allocates is distributed in a rational, efficient manner.
Once implemented, Secretary Duffy’s proposals will radically overhaul our air traffic control infrastructure by building six new control towers, replacing antiquated radars and communications systems — including WWII-era radar monitoring platforms and 1980s technologies like floppy disks — with updated wireless and satellite technologies, and streamlining hardware and software systems for a common national platform.
The American people have entrusted their safety to the government. President Trump and Secretary Duffy have answered that call with a plan of action. Once congressional funding is secured, it will be our agency leaders’ duty to steward taxpayer dollars toward this end in an efficient and responsible manner.
Overhauling our air traffic control systems will be a joint effort between Congress, the president, and our executive agencies. Together, their regulatory and enforcement work must be a catalyst, not a speed bump, in making the president’s vision a reality.
Once a paragon of innovation and excellence, America’s air traffic system has descended into atrophy. But this administration finally has a chance to enact the change we so desperately need — a chance to restore American ingenuity and maintain safety in flight in perpetuity.
Joe Grogan served as Assistant to President Donald Trump for Domestic Policy from 2019-2020 and Associate Director of the Office of Management and Budget from 2017-2019.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

US-AVIATION-FAA-TRAVEL

It’s Time For Congress To Stop Gambling With Airline Safety

Air Travel

Airline Crash

Airplane

Donald Trump

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)

Sean Duffy

Illinois’ Wheaton College has long traded on its reputation as a doctrinally conservative Christian institution. Its landing page promises prospective students that they will “find [their] Christ-centered calling” at the school. And its alumni list reads like who’s who of evangelical leaders.
But the college is unwilling to honor the accomplishments of one famous son because of his association with the Trump administration.
On Thursday, the Senate confirmed Russ Vought, who has a strong pro-life record, to lead the Office of Management and Budget, with all 53 Republicans voting in his favor. The following day, Wheaton’s social media accounts commended Vought, posting that the school “congratulates and prays” for him.
But by Saturday morning, negative comments left by Facebook users prompted Wheaton to retract the post.
“The recognition and prayer is something we would typically do for any graduate who reached that level of government,” Wheaton<a href="https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1GV18yRwgk/"> said</a> in a statement. “However, the political situation surrounding [Vought’s] appointment led to a significant concern expressed online. It was not our intention to embroil the College in a political discussion or dispute.” 
The college added that “as a non-profit institution, [it] does not make political endorsements,” even though its congratulatory message was not at all partisan.
While Wheaton did not make any formal political endorsements in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election, the school did<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C_jSy0gRwmp/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA=="> host a political event</a> with<a href="https://www.instagram.com/theafterparty2024/p/DACU4eaSWl9/?img_index=1"> anti-Trump speakers</a>. On September 12, it welcomed<a href="https://redeemingbabel.org/the-after-party/"> The After Party</a>, a political Bible study program created by New York Times columnist David French, Christianity Today editor-in-chief Russell Moore, and Duke Divinity consulting professor Curtis Chang, all three of whom openly opposed Trump’s candidacy. French went as far as to endorse Kamala Harris, while Chang <a href="https://x.com/Protestia/status/1854502429225574780">called</a> Trump’s win “a disaster for the country” that left him in “anguish.”
Though The After Party says its mission is to “reframe Christian political thinking,” it was financed exclusively by<a href="https://firstthings.com/follow-the-money-to-the-after-party/"> left-wing secular funders</a>, including<a href="https://x.com/megbasham/status/1887690285120983165"> Bill Kristol’s</a> anti-Trump group, the Defending Democracy Together Institute — which the campaign finance watchdog Open Secrets highlighted as a<a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/defending-democracy-together/news?id=D000073042"> major source of dark money</a> in the 2020 and 2024 elections. Moreover, Christian authors like Natasha Crain have<a href="https://natashacrain.com/how-the-after-party-curriculum-is-sowing-political-confusion-in-the-church/"> highlighted</a> that The After Party’s content is “in no way non-partisan” and seems intended to “confuse [church] members into believing that there’s a moral equivalence between the political parties.”
 Wheaton does not appear to have held any similar political events with conservative speakers in 2024, and Vought told The Daily Wire that he has not been welcomed to speak to students at the school since his early years as a Hill staffer.
The Daily Wire reached out to Wheaton about its Vought retraction, The After Party event, and whether it welcomed conservative speakers in 2024. Wheaton spokesman Joseph Moore replied “Offering prayers and congratulations is not a political endorsement. However, the social media post created a distracting amount of conflict on our social media channel, so we removed it and explained why.”
Eric Teetsel, Executive Vice President of the Center for Renewing America and former Vice President of Government Relations at the Heritage Foundation, is, like Vought, a Wheaton graduate with a long history in conservative politics. He told The Daily Wire he’s incredibly disappointed in his alma mater, and no longer feels he can recommend it to friends. 
“Last summer, I proudly walked two of my daughters around campus to see the place that means so much to me,” he said. “It breaks my heart that I could not in good conscience encourage them to attend Wheaton, too. The alumni magazine always features generational students. Some have family members going back seven and eight generations! I always wanted that. It sucks.”
 Economist and author David Bahnsen echoed Teetsel’s sentiments, <a href="https://x.com/DavidBahnsen/status/1888265808016716145">writing</a> on X, “Admitting you took down a ‘call to prayer’ because people online were mad at you is rank cowardice. Parents should take note of [Wheaton’s] boldness and courage when considering a school for their young adult children, because this is seriously pathetic.” 
Bahnsen added in a text to The Daily Wire: “Their rationale for the takedown was even worse than the takedown.”
Members of Congress, too, were quick to express their disgust with Wheaton’s capitulation. 
“Russ Vought is a highly accomplished alumni who should be celebrated. It’s absurd that the smallest minority of detractors come away victorious yet again,” Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt<a href="https://x.com/SenEricSchmitt/status/1888283551176495590"> said</a>.
Hillsdale College, which, like Wheaton, is a private institution, had also<a href="https://x.com/Hillsdale/status/1887682363179557001"> congratulated</a> Vought on its social media pages on Thursday. On Saturday, it reaffirmed those well wishes, <a href="https://x.com/Hillsdale/status/1888287288389722443">posting</a>, “Trigger warning: We will not be deleting our earlier post congratulating Russ Vought.”

The President’s 2021 Budget

Christian College Caves to Woke Mob, Apologizes For Congratulating Alum In Trump Admin 

Christian Colleges

Wokeness

The GOP-led <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/u-s-senate" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Senate</a> confirmed Russell Vought to once again become director of the Office of Management and Budget (<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/office-of-management-and-budget-omb" target="_blank" rel="noopener">OMB</a>) under President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> after Democrats spent all night into the day protesting the nomination.
On Thursday evening, all Republicans voted in favor of Vought while every Democrat and the independents who caucus with them opposed the Cabinet nominee, resulting in a final <a href="https://x.com/SenateCloakroom/status/1887661003573502260" target="_blank" rel="noopener">53-47</a> tally.
&#8220;Russ Vought will have the chance to address two key economic issues – cutting burdensome government regulations and addressing excessive spending,&#8221; Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said in a <a href="https://x.com/LeaderJohnThune/status/1887192842285785137" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post</a> to X on Wednesday. &#8220;I am confident that he will help lead that charge.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Russ Vought will have the chance to address two key economic issues – cutting burdensome government regulations and addressing excessive spending.
I am confident that he will help lead that charge. <a href="https://t.co/jwTf7XBkqm">pic.twitter.com/jwTf7XBkqm</a>
&mdash; Leader John Thune (@LeaderJohnThune) <a href="https://twitter.com/LeaderJohnThune/status/1887192842285785137?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Vought led OMB during the first Trump administration and later <a href="https://americarenewing.com/about/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">founded</a> the Center for Renewing America. In November, Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-selects-russell-vought-to-once-again-lead-omb" target="_blank" rel="noopener">picked</a> Vought to serve another stint as leader of OMB, a role in which he is poised to work alongside the new Department of Government Efficiency (<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/department-of-government-efficiency-doge" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DOGE</a>) and its leader <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/elon-musk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elon Musk</a> in enacting sweeping <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/weekend-warrior-elon-musk-reveals-how-doge-is-cutting-billions-in-spending-every-day" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cuts to spending</a> across the federal bureaucracy.
&#8220;Russ has spent many years working in Public Policy in Washington, D.C., and is an aggressive cost cutter and deregulator who will help us implement our America First Agenda across all Agencies,&#8221; Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-selects-russell-vought-to-once-again-lead-omb" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a statement. &#8220;Russ knows exactly how to dismantle the Deep State and end Weaponized Government, and he will help us return Self Governance to the People.&#8221;
When Vought appeared for his confirmation hearing last month, he testified about efficient use of taxpayer dollars to help U.S. citizens, citing the scourge of inflation fueled by &#8220;irresponsible&#8221; federal spending.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
WATCH: OMB Director Nominee Russell Vought Opening Statement <a href="https://t.co/SF2v5lAPK7">pic.twitter.com/SF2v5lAPK7</a>
&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1879599514593431568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee later voted <a href="https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/media/reps/dr-paul-releases-statement-on-nomination-of-russell-vought-to-be-director-of-the-office-of-management-and-budget-advancing-from-committee/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">8-7</a> to send Vought&#8217;s nomination to the full Senate. On Wednesday, the upper chamber voted 53-47 along party lines to break the filibuster on Vought&#8217;s nomination.
Democrats then pulled an all-nighter, using 30 hours of debate time to speak out on the Senate floor against the Cabinet pick. Many of them brought up <a href="https://x.com/SenateDems/status/1887348343816527982" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Project 2025</a>, which Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/director-project-2025-is-stepping-down-trump-campaign-welcomes-projects-demise" target="_blank" rel="noopener">disavowed</a> in the midst of his campaign, and spending.
&#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t trust Russell Vought to run a 5K, let alone to run the federal government, let alone to run the process by which we distribute funds to the things that keep us safe and healthy and prosperous,&#8221; <a href="https://x.com/SenateDems/status/1887584120768979359" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE).
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
“I wouldn&#39;t trust Russell Vought to run a 5K, let alone to run the federal government,
let alone to run the process by which we distribute funds to the things that keep us safe and healthy and prosperous.”
—Senator <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisCoons?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ChrisCoons</a> <a href="https://t.co/roGSB255km">pic.twitter.com/roGSB255km</a>
&mdash; Senate Democrats (@SenateDems) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenateDems/status/1887584120768979359?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 6, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Ultimately, the Democrats were powerless to stop Vought&#8217;s confirmation on Thursday and even got shut down when some tried to speak out when the final vote was taking place.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🚨WATCH🚨 Democrat Senators heckle and shout during the vote to confirm Russel Vought as OMB Director <a href="https://t.co/QWBCfTvPKq">pic.twitter.com/QWBCfTvPKq</a>
&mdash; Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) <a href="https://twitter.com/DailyCaller/status/1887659698054418645?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 7, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🚨New: Elizabeth Warren just got humiliated
She tried to scream down Russ Vought&#39;s nomination for OMB Director
The Chair scolded her: “No debate is permitted during a vote, the Senator will suspend.”
After this she sat back down in her chair. <a href="https://t.co/jVivd4lrtn">pic.twitter.com/jVivd4lrtn</a>
&mdash; The Calvin Coolidge Project (@TheCalvinCooli1) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheCalvinCooli1/status/1887659993895174508?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 7, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Democrats spent all night on the Senate floor to delay a vote on [Vought] for OMB Director. They’re wasting their time,&#8221; Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) <a href="https://x.com/SenRickScott/status/1887570337212059721" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a post to X. &#8220;Americans made their voices heard by electing President Trump &amp; we WILL deliver by confirming Trump’s team ASAP.&#8221;
The Senate has now confirmed more than a dozen of Trump&#8217;s Cabinet nominees and more are making their way through the confirmation process. Besides Vought, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is the only other Trump pick this cycle to get approval with <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/vance-breaks-tie-to-confirm-pete-hegseth-for-pentagon" target="_blank" rel="noopener">only Republican votes</a>, including Vice President JD Vance serving as tie-breaker.
Earlier on Thursday, Democrats on the Judiciary Committee secured a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dem-delay-tactics-push-back-vote-on-kash-patel-for-fbi-director" target="_blank" rel="noopener">one-week delay</a> on a vote to advance the nomination of Kash Patel, Trump&#8217;s pick for FBI director, to the full Senate. The same thing previously happened with Pam Bondi, who later advanced out of committee and was then <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/senate-confirms-pam-bondi-for-attorney-general" target="_blank" rel="noopener">confirmed</a> by the Senate to become U.S. Attorney General on Tuesday.
After confirming Vought, the Senate proceeded with procedural steps that set the stage for final votes on Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s nominee to be director of national intelligence; Robert F. Kennedy, the pick to be HHS secretary; and other remaining nominees, likely to happen next week.

Russell Vought

Senate Confirms Trump’s OMB Pick After Democrats Pull All-Nighter To Complain

Cabinet

Presidential nomination

President Trump is keeping his promises, moving fast and making changes in historic and amazing ways.
On Tuesday, the President of the United States, via his Office of Management and Budget (OMB), put forward a proposal that would temporarily pause $3 trillion in spending from the federal government.
The pause is temporary; much of that spending will go forward.
But the idea is to review all non-mandatory federal government spending. There&#8217;s a lot of mandatory spending in the federal budget that includes Medicare, Social Security, and many aspects of Medicaid. That will all continue, as will various payments to law enforcement, bodies, and defense.
What the order is meant to do is allow a pause for the various branches of the federal government, which are under the control of President Trump, to review spending and ensure all expenses are in accordance with the president&#8217;s wishes and with the wishes of Congress.
So, of course, the Left freaked out, claiming that President Trump is doing something deeply unconstitutional and fascistic.
But here’s the point: You do not get to expand and centralize power of the executive branch for over a century and control every aspect of Americans’ lives, as the Left has done, and then, when your political opponent takes over and uses that power in order to cut back the amount of power the executive branch would be exerting in Americans lives, get to claim that he is a dictator.
You don&#8217;t get to do that. You break it; you bought it. You built this thing, so you can&#8217;t be shocked when the person who takes over decides he&#8217;s going to use the instruments that you created to downgrade the amount of impact that those instruments have on Americans’ everyday lives.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2127-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
On Tuesday, the executive office of the President, the Office of Management and Budget, put out a memo. It <a href="https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25506186/m-25-13-temporary-pause-to-review-agency-grant-loan-and-other-financial-assistance-programs.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stated</a>: 
<blockquote>The American people elected Donald J. Trump to be President of the United States and gave him a mandate to increase the impact of every federal taxpayer dollar. In Fiscal Year 2024, of the nearly $10 trillion that the Federal Government spent, more than $3 trillion was Federal financial assistance, such as grants and loans. Career and political appointees in the Executive Branch have a duty to align Federal spending and action with the will of the American people as expressed through Presidential priorities. Financial assistance should be dedicated to advancing Administration priorities, focusing taxpayer dollars to advance a stronger and safer America, eliminating the financial burden of inflation for citizens, unleashing American energy and Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve.</blockquote>
In other words, “We got elected, and now we&#8217;re going to implement the priorities of the American people.”
This memorandum, according to the OMB, requires federal agencies to identify and review all federal financial assistance programs and supporting activities consistent with the president&#8217;s policies and requirements. By the way, this does not include assistance provided directly for individuals. Nothing in the memo itself should be construed to impact Medicare or Social Security benefits.
So, of course, the media, en masse, lied, suggesting that individual benefits from these mandatory social spending programs were going to be impacted by the OMB order.
That&#8217;s false. It&#8217;s a lie. And it&#8217;s being promoted by people who are lying to you. According to the OMB: 
<blockquote>To implement these orders, each agency must complete a comprehensive analysis of all of their Federal financial assistance programs to identify programs, projects, and activities that may be implicated by any of the President&#8217;s executive orders. In the interim, to the extent permissible under applicable law, Federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.</blockquote>
One of the great boondoggles in American public life is non-governmental organizations being paid grants by the federal government that are going to Left-wing social organizations on a nonprofit basis.
According to the memo, “No later than February 10, 2025, agencies shall submit to OMB detailed information on any programs, projects or activities subject to this pause. Each agency must pause: (i) issuance of new awards; (ii) disbursement of Federal funds under all open awards; and (iii) other relevant agency actions that may be implicated by the executive orders, to the extent permissible by law, until OMB has reviewed and provided guidance to your agency with respect to the information submitted. OMB may grant exceptions allowing Federal agencies to issue new awards or take other actions on a case-by-case basis.”
It is a lie that this is a blanket nuking of all federal spending.
It is a way of taking a harder look at the federal spending that has grown wildly out of control — spending in which your taxpayer dollars are being used to subsidize groups that, for example, sponsor illegal immigrants or go toward social engineering of the Left, such as transgenderism.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and OMB found that $37 billion was about to go out the door to the World Health Organization, which is an organization that President Trump no longer wants the United States to be a part of. So that wouldn&#8217;t be in line with the president&#8217;s agenda. DOGE and OMB also found that $50 million taxpayer dollars would have gone out the door to fund condoms in Gaza, where Hamas makes them into helium balloons carrying inflammatory devices.
What we are also seeing is malicious compliance here from various people inside the so-called “Deep State,” attempts to humiliate the Trump administration. The Medicaid portal story, which was the biggest story yesterday in the mainstream media, was just silly. The portal was up and running again within hours. What likely happened is that somebody in the Medicaid system pretended they were complying with Trump, but shut down the website to attempt to create a humiliating fiasco for President Trump.
A federal judge, according to CNBC, has put a hold on Trump’s administration order. This will likely end up at the Supreme Court level, and that will determine presumably exactly how far empowerments can go.
It’s a fight worth fighting.

TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-TRUMP

Trump Takes A Wrecking Ball To The Federal Government

Ben Shapiro

Federal Government

Leftists

Medicaid

Medicare

Opinion

Social Security

spending

A federal court has blocked an order from President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> to temporarily freeze a broad swath of federal spending on controversial programs.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a two-page <a href="https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000194-ae0c-dd75-adfc-af8f40e50000" target="_blank" rel="noopener">memo</a> on Monday ordering a freeze of federal spending aimed at cutting off funding used to “advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies.”
A federal judge on Tuesday paused the impending freeze, scheduled to take effect at 5 p.m. The judge granted a request to stay Trump’s spending freeze as part of a lawsuit, according to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/dc-federal-judge-temporarily-blocks-trump-plan-pause-federal-aid-spend-rcna189706" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NBC News</a>.
Trump instituted the freeze to give his administration time to “identify and review all Federal financial assistance programs and supporting activities consistent with the President’s policies and requirements.” The order targeted a plethora of federal spending programs totaling potentially trillions of dollars.
“Federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal,” the OMB letter said.
The order exempted Social Security, Medicare, and other programs. In followup guidance from the OMB, the agency clarified that the spending freeze “is expressly limited to programs, projects, and activities implicated by the President’s Executive Orders, such as ending DEI, the green new deal, and funding nongovernmental organizations that undermine the national interest.”
“Any program that provides direct benefits to Americans is explicitly excluded from the pause and exempted from this review process. In addition to Social Security and Medicare, already explicitly excluded in the guidance, mandatory programs like Medicaid and SNAP will continue without pause,” the OMB said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Full memo here &#8211; outlining what is and isn’t impacted by OMB pause on federal funds for a period of review
Document shows pause is not across the board, but limited to programs impacted by executive orders such as ending DE, the Green New Deal, and NGOs that “undermine the… <a href="https://t.co/1AknxYbIVY">https://t.co/1AknxYbIVY</a> <a href="https://t.co/5z5l6QqV9H">pic.twitter.com/5z5l6QqV9H</a>
&mdash; Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) <a href="https://twitter.com/JacquiHeinrich/status/1884322205196009864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Tuesday <a href="https://x.com/Jules31415/status/1884291609203991009">accused</a> Trump of plunging “the country into chaos” with the order.
“Donald Trump must direct his Administration to reverse course immediately and the taxpayers’ money should be distributed to the people. Congress approved these investments and they are not optional; they are the law,” Schumer said.

Federal Judge Blocks Trump Spending Freeze Aimed At Foreign Aid, ‘Woke’ Programs

Chuck Schumer

Courts

President-elect <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> announced on Monday that he intends to have Mark Paoletta serve another stint as the top lawyer at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
In the role, Paoletta will help out the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/department-of-government-efficiency-doge" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)</a>, a new project headed by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/elon-musk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elon Musk</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/vivek-ramaswamy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vivek Ramaswamy</a> that aims to cut down on waste, Trump declared.
&#8220;I am pleased to announce that Mark Paoletta will be returning as General Counsel of the Office of Management and Budget,&#8221; Trump said in a <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/113625471739178108" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post</a> to Truth Social. &#8220;Mark will work closely with our DOGE team to cut the size of our bloated Government bureaucracy, and root out wasteful and anti-American spending.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-left-is-triggered-by-justice-thomas-mark-paoletta-on-the-crusade-against-the-supreme-court" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RELATED — ‘The Left Is Triggered By Justice Thomas’: Mark Paoletta On The Crusade Against The Supreme Court</a>
Paoletta is a &#8220;brilliant and tenacious lawyer, who worked tirelessly to advance my Agenda in the First Term&#8221; and as OMB general counsel &#8220;led the charge to identify funding to build the Southern Border Wall, and worked with then-OMB Director Russ Vought to rein in woke and weaponized Government spending,&#8221; Trump added.
Trump revealed in November that he was nominating Vought to once again serve as his OMB director. In the intervening years, Vought founded The Center for Renewing America, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/flagrant-disregard-for-taxpayer-funds-pentagon-fails-sixth-consecutive-audit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a conservative policy organization</a> where Paoletta has worked as a senior adviser.
The announcement on Monday noted that Paoletta is also a partner at the Schaerr Jaffe law firm, served as a chief counsel for Oversight and Investigations in Congress for a decade, and was a &#8220;key lawyer&#8221; in the White House Counsel’s Office to confirm Justice Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1991.
&#8220;Mark is a conservative warrior who knows the &#8216;ins and outs&#8217; of Government — He will help us, Make America Great Again!&#8221; Trump exclaimed.
In responding to Trump&#8217;s decision to have him return to OMB, which has a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stated mission</a> &#8220;to assist the President in meeting policy, budget, management, and regulatory objectives and to fulfill the agency’s statutory responsibilities, Paoletta mentioned DOGE, too.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Thank you <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> for the privilege to work for you again. I am thrilled to be rejoining my friend <a href="https://twitter.com/russvought?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@russvought</a> at OMB where we will once again be the tip of the spear to implement President Trump’s agenda, including working w/ <a href="https://twitter.com/DOGE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DOGE</a> to cut wasteful government spending! <a href="https://t.co/loS4wr6GT3">pic.twitter.com/loS4wr6GT3</a>
&mdash; Mark Paoletta (@MarkPaoletta) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkPaoletta/status/1866300910755774734?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 10, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Thank you [Trump] for the privilege to work for you again,&#8221; he <a href="https://x.com/MarkPaoletta/status/1866300910755774734" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. &#8220;I am thrilled to be rejoining my friend [Vought] at OMB where we will once again be the tip of the spear to implement President Trump’s agenda, including working w/ [DOGE] to cut wasteful government spending!&#8221;
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Paoletta <a href="https://grabien.com/story?id=500474" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recently </a>told Fox News host Brian Kilmeade that career Department of Justice employees who refuse to get on board with Trump&#8217;s second administration should leave the federal government.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🚨 <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkPaoletta?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MarkPaoletta</a>: DOJ career employees who plan to subvert President Trump’s agenda shouldn’t work at the Justice Department <a href="https://t.co/16RctrNGW0">pic.twitter.com/16RctrNGW0</a>
&mdash; Center for Renewing America (@amrenewctr) <a href="https://twitter.com/amrenewctr/status/1856350442369736899?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 12, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Only in the federal government, only with a deep swamp do people &#8230; the career employees  think that they get to run the joint as it were,&#8221; Paolota said, adding that Trump &#8220;was reelected with an overwhelming majority of an agenda by the American people popularly supported.&#8221;

President-Elect Donald Trump

Trump Reveals ‘Conservative Warrior’ Attorney Who Will ‘Work Closely’ With DOGE

President-elect <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> announced on Friday night that he has nominated Russell Vought to once again be the Director of the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
&#8220;He did an excellent job serving in this role in my First Term,&#8221; Trump said in a statement. &#8220;We cut four Regulations for every new Regulation, and it was a Great Success!&#8221;
&#8220;Russ has spent many years working in Public Policy in Washington, D.C., and is an aggressive cost cutter and deregulator who will help us implement our America First Agenda across all Agencies,&#8221; Trump continued. &#8220;Russ knows exactly how to dismantle the Deep State and end Weaponized Government, and he will help us return Self Governance to the People.&#8221;
Vought graduated with his bachelors degree from Wheaton College and received his J.D. from the Washington School of Law.
Trump said that Vought will help restore &#8220;fiscal sanity&#8221; to the U.S. and will help usher in a new era of prosperity and ingenuity.
Vought thanked Trump for the nomination and said that it was &#8220;an honor of a lifetime to get the call again&#8221; to serve his country.
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He added that there was &#8220;unfinished business&#8221; that the administration planned to accomplish for the American people.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Thank you <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a>! There is unfinished business on behalf of the American people, and it’s an honor of a lifetime to get the call again. <a href="https://t.co/iqxO733w63">https://t.co/iqxO733w63</a>
— Russ Vought (@russvought) <a href="https://twitter.com/russvought/status/1860121532758204758?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 23, 2024</a></blockquote>
Trump&#8217;s reference to Vought being an &#8220;aggressive cost cutter&#8221; and helping restore the government to &#8220;fiscal sanity&#8221; comes after he announced the creation of a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that aims to reduce wasteful government spending.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, whom Trump has tasked with leading DOGE, laid out their vision in a Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-and-vivek-ramaswamy-outline-the-doge-plan-to-reform-government" target="_blank" rel="noopener">op-ed</a> on Wednesday.
Musk and Ramaswamy said that the way the government is currently run is “antidemocratic and antithetical to the Founders’ vision” because it takes the power out of the hands of elected leaders and places it in the hands of bureaucrats.
The department was created to “cut the federal government down to size,” they wrote. “The entrenched and ever-growing bureaucracy represents an existential threat to our republic, and politicians have abetted it for too long.”
They said that the Trump transition team has hired them to lead a lean team of “small-government crusaders” who will “pursue three major kinds of reform: regulatory rescissions, administrative reductions and cost savings.”
They continued:
<blockquote>A drastic reduction in federal regulations provides sound industrial logic for mass head-count reductions across the federal bureaucracy. DOGE intends to work with embedded appointees in agencies to identify the minimum number of employees required at an agency for it to perform its constitutionally permissible and statutorily mandated functions.</blockquote>
The department will work with legal experts and use “advanced technology” to determine where cuts can be made immediately that they say will “liberate individuals and businesses from illicit regulations never passed by Congress and stimulate the U.S. economy.”
They said that DOGE will aim to gut $500 billion in annual federal expenditures every year that are “unauthorized by Congress or being used in ways that Congress never intended, from $535 million a year to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and $1.5 billion for grants to international organizations to nearly $300 million to progressive groups like Planned Parenthood.”
They also advocated for large scale audits of federal contracts that have gone unexamined, which they argued would yield “significant savings” to taxpayers.
Musk and Ramaswamy said that they aim to dissolve the DOGE by July 4, 2026, hoping that they will have fixed many of the country’s spending problems by its 250th birthday.

Trump Selects Russell Vought To Once Again Lead OMB

Executive

The federal government made nearly a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/money" target="_blank" rel="noopener">quarter of a trillion dollars</a> in &#8220;improper payments&#8221; in the last fiscal year, a congressional watchdog agency estimated.
A Government Accountability Office (GAO) <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/d24106927.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> unveiled last week said 14 agencies reported a total of $236 billion in botched payments in fiscal 2023.
Here, &#8220;improper payments&#8221; were defined as &#8220;those that should not have been made or were made in the incorrect amount.&#8221;
GAO said agencies reported that $175 billion, or over 74% of the total, were attributed to overpayments.
The total represented an $11 billion decrease from fiscal 2022, but GAO demonstrated in a graphs how &#8220;improper payments&#8221; have, on average, risen over the past 20 years.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The federal government has made an estimated $2.7 trillion in improper payments in the last 20 fiscal years—including $236 billion in FY23.
Today’s WatchBlog post looks at our new report on what is causing these errors &amp; what can be done to prevent them: <a href="https://t.co/tbSrZG882J">https://t.co/tbSrZG882J</a> <a href="https://t.co/axpRrhNNtr">pic.twitter.com/axpRrhNNtr</a>
&mdash; U.S. GAO (@USGAO) <a href="https://twitter.com/USGAO/status/1772685603185815899?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 26, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Since fiscal 2003, the cumulative amount has totaled $2.7 trillion. GAO said improper payments have &#8220;consistently&#8221; been an issue across the government.
The $236 billion figure for fiscal 2023 is just an estimate, GAO cautioned, and it does not include some programs that agencies have determined to be &#8220;susceptible&#8221; to mismanaged payments.
GAO listed the Health and Human Services Department&#8217;s Temporary Assistance for Need Families program as an example.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1700760801843000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2PQrVSrJfhxNb4LcARqniG">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
An analysis found that problematic expenditures were &#8220;concentrated&#8221; in five program areas, including $51.1 billion for Medicare and $50.3 billion for Medicaid.
There was also $43.6 billion for Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, $21.9 billion for Earned Income Tax Credit, and $18.7 billion for Paycheck Protection Program Loan Forgiveness.
All other programs from which there was data accounted for $50.1 billion in &#8220;improper payments.&#8221;
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) commented on the topline $236 billion estimate for fiscal 2023 by taking a swipe at the Biden administration.
&#8220;We need accountability here! This is YOUR money the Biden admin took out of your wallet and wasted,&#8221; he <a href="https://twitter.com/SenRickScott/status/1774172902755123374" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a post to X.
GAO said it provided a draft of its report to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and comment, but &#8220;OMB did not have any comments on the report.&#8221;
In fiscal 2022, 14 of 24 agencies covered by the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 &#8220;complied with applicable improper payment criteria, as reported by their agency inspectors general,&#8221; GAO said.
That number marked an increase from 2021, when GAO said inspectors general reported 10 agencies were compliant.
GAO <a href="https://www.gao.gov/blog/federal-government-made-236-billion-improper-payments-last-fiscal-year?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=blogsm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> it has made &#8220;numerous&#8221; recommendations and suggestions to Congress on ways to reduce payment errors.

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Federal Agencies Made $236 Billion In ‘Improper Payments’ In Fiscal 2023, GAO Finds

Federal Agencies Made $236 Billion In 'Improper Payments' In Fiscal 2023, GAO Finds

Biden Administration

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Inspector general

Rick Scott

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