Trump announced the decision on Friday evening. Vought, 48, was the budget director from 2019 to 2021, when Trump first departed from office.

“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,” Trump said in a statement. “Russ knows exactly how to dismantle the Deep State and end Weaponized Government, and he will help us return Self Governance to the People. We will restore fiscal sanity to our Nation, and unleash the American People to new levels of Prosperity and Ingenuity.”

If confirmed, Vought would play a key role in implementing Trump’s budget ideas. Trump has vowed an ambitious rollback of President Joe Biden’s agenda and has promised major policy undertakings, including mass deportations of illegal immigrants and a historically expansive tariff regime. Trump has also promised to extend the 2017 tax cuts and enact new forms of tax relief, a goal that would be complicated by the rising federal deficit.

Vought’s nomination may court controversy on Capitol Hill. Vought is the president of the conservative think tank Center for Renewing America, which was on the advisory board for the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a blueprint for the next Republican presidential administration — an initiative that Trump disavowed on the campaign trail.

Democrats have nonetheless attempted to tie Trump to the Project 2025 agenda, and Vought’s pick to lead the budget office will undoubtedly prompt more comparisons.

The director of the OMB is a Senate-confirmed role.