The White House’s budget office is financing a security detail for one of its most aggressive cost-cutters with funds from the same international aid and development agency he helped effectively shut down.
Russell Vought, who serves as Donald Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), is set to receive protection worth $15 million from the U.S. Marshals Service through the end of 2026, Reuters reported Friday.
Vought took over MAGA’s cost-cutting drive after Elon Musk’s departure as head of the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative last year. The 49-year-old was also a principal architect of conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 proposals, widely regarded as the blueprint for Trump’s second term in office.
The White House has sourced funds for Vought’s security detail from what was the United States International Aid and Development agency, where he briefly served as acting director during its gutting last year, and where he remains appointed as a senior advisor.
“We are going to continue to use available funds at the three agencies overseen by the director to protect him,” OMB spokesperson Rachel Cauley told Reuters, referring to the office, USAID, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
President Donald Trump wiped out USAID upon assuming his second term, firing thousands of workers worldwide and ending numerous global health programs. Trump claimed, without evidence, that the agency was “run by a bunch of radical lunatics” in February 2025.
There have been threats against Vought’s safety, primarily linked to his role in authoring Project 2025, according to Reuters. A 26-year-old Maryland man is currently facing attempted murder charges after allegedly showing up at Vought’s home earlier this year.
Prosecutors say Colin Demarco was captured on a Ring doorbell camera approaching the residence in January while wearing gloves and a surgical mask. A neighbor claims to have seen what appeared to be a firearm.
Demarco has allegedly said the 2024 election was “the lowest point in his life,” and that following Trump’s victory, he now fears a “fascist takeover.”
More than a dozen U.S. Marshals will be assigned to Vought’s protection detail, according to one person familiar with the matter. In her statement to Reuters, Cauley blamed “the Left” for creating an “assassination culture against public officials.”
The Marshals Service did not confirm that Vought was under their protection. The agency did tell Reuters in a statement that it “could offer protection to members of the executive branch who face threats or at the direction of the Attorney General.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to OMB for comment on this story.
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