Additional archive dossier fields
- Current role
- Director, Office of Management and Budget
- Outside organization
- Founder, Center for Renewing America
- Project 2025
- Author, Executive Office of the President chapter
- Core relevance
- Executive-power theory ↔ policy organization ↔ OMB
Related reading from the archive dossier
Archive profile record
Budget and executive-power strategist who led OMB in the first Trump administration, founded the Center for Renewing America, contributed to Project 2025 and returned as OMB director in 2025.
Why this entry is in the archive: A clear movement-to-government-to-movement-to-government personnel path.
Additional archived dossier material
Government and movement career
Vought spent years in congressional and conservative-policy roles before joining the first Trump administration and becoming OMB director.
After leaving government, he founded the Center for Renewing America in 2021 and later returned to OMB in the second Trump administration.
Center for Renewing America
CRA develops policy proposals around executive power, budgeting, immigration, culture and administrative governance.
CPI identifies CRA within its partner/incubation ecosystem, linking Vought's policy organization to a larger infrastructure network.
Project 2025
Vought authored the Mandate for Leadership chapter on the Executive Office of the President, focusing heavily on presidential control of the executive branch and OMB's coordinating role.
His later return to OMB is a documented personnel overlap; it does not prove that every OMB action derives from Project 2025.
Evidence limits
Policy similarity should be labeled as overlap unless there is documentary evidence of authorship or implementation through a specific Project 2025 mechanism.
Founding CRA does not mean CRA controls Vought's government actions after his return to office.
Overview
Russell Vought has served as director of the Office of Management and Budget in two Trump administrations. Between those terms, he founded the Center for Renewing America, a conservative policy institution.
Federal service
The White House lists Vought as director of the Office of Management and Budget in the second Trump administration and notes his earlier OMB leadership in the first Trump administration.[1]
Center for Renewing America
The Center for Renewing America says Vought established it in 2021, after his first OMB service. Its mission statement describes conservative policy research and advocacy around government, national identity and federal administration.[2]
CRA's current organizational biography identifies Wade Miller as its executive director. Vought's earlier founder role should not be confused with every later operational decision.[2]
Policy pipeline
Vought's career illustrates a documented move from federal budget oversight to outside policy organization and back to federal leadership. This is a personnel chronology and should not be treated as evidence of private direction of government decisions.[1][2]
Timeline
- Serves as director of OMB during first Trump term. [1]
- Founds Center for Renewing America after leaving government. [2]
- Returns as OMB director in the second Trump administration. [1]
- Specialized infrastructure expands
CPI brings in Mark Meadows; Cleta Mitchell launches EIN; Russ Vought launches CRA; Stephen Miller co-founds AFL; American Moment launches a personnel pipeline.
Mark Meadows · Cleta Mitchell · Election Integrity Network · Center for Renewing America · Stephen Miller · America First Legal · American Moment
- The CPI ecosystem expands
CPI brings in Mark Meadows; Cleta Mitchell launches Election Integrity Network; Russ Vought launches Center for Renewing America; Stephen Miller co-founds America First Legal; and American Moment begins building a personnel pipeline.
Mark Meadows · Cleta Mitchell · Election Integrity Network · Center for Renewing America · Stephen Miller · America First Legal · American Moment · Conservative Partnership Institute
- Personnel returns to government
Russ Vought returns as OMB director and Stephen Miller returns to senior White House policy leadership in the second Trump administration.
- Movement personnel return to government
Russ Vought returns to OMB and Stephen Miller returns to senior White House policy leadership, creating documented personnel bridges from outside policy/legal organizations back into government.
Center for Renewing America · Stephen Miller · America First Legal · Donald Trump
- Project-linked personnel enter senior government roles
Russ Vought returns as OMB director and Brendan Carr becomes FCC chairman; both had documented Project 2025 roles before the administration.
Brendan Carr · Federal Communications Commission · Project 2025 · Donald Trump
Documented connections
Open an entry to learn more. Each relationship below identifies exactly what its supporting record establishes.
- Center for Renewing America
Founded organization in 2021. [2]
View these connections on a map →
Additional archive relationship receipts
Russ Vought → Center for Renewing America
Founder · 2021
Evidence status: documented
Russ Vought → Donald Trump
OMB director in first and second administrations · 2020; 2025–present
Evidence status: documented
Sources & original records
These links identify primary records, institutional accounts and independently reported findings. Source classifications describe the document's origin, not an automatic guarantee that its claims are true.
- White House — Cabinet biographies: Russ VoughtFederal government biography
- Center for Renewing America — Who we areOrganizational history
- Center for Renewing America — About
- White House — Cabinet biography
- Project 2025 — Mandate for Leadership
Evidence rule: Being linked to a person or organization does not establish criminal conduct, common command, financial control or shared intent. Claims of that kind require specific proof.