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Donald Trump had a warning for Democrats.

In the near future he will determine what "opposition-supported departments" he would cut and whether those cutbacks would be temporary or permanent.

He said the government shutdown, which began on Tuesday, had given him an "unique chance."

"I have a meeting today with the budget director, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame," he wrote on his social media platform on Thursday morning.

The Project 2025 Connection

The budget director, the head of the federal budget office, may not be a household name.

But the 2025 initiative, a right-wing plan for administration put together mostly by former Trump officials like Vought when the Republicans were out of power, played a significant role during the recent election cycle.

The comprehensive policy guide contained proposals for significant cuts in the size of federal government, increased executive power, strict border controls, a national prohibition on abortion and other elements of an far-right social program.

It was frequently touted by Democratic presidential nominee the former vice president, as what she called a risky proposal for the future if he was to win.

At the time, seeking to reassure undecided voters, the president attempted to separate himself from the policy document.

"I know nothing about Project 2025," the president stated in July 2024. "I disagree with some of the things they're saying and some elements are absolutely ridiculous and terrible."

A Change in Strategy

Currently, though, the president is employing the conservative blueprint as leverage to get the opposition to accept his budgetary demands.

And he is holding up the budget director, who wrote a section on the use of executive power, as a sort of financial grim reaper, prepared to make cuts to federal programs important to Democrats.

To make the point even clearer, on Thursday evening Trump shared an AI-generated parody music video on Truth Social with the director depicted as the figure of death, accompanied by changed words of the rock band's classic song.

Political Reactions

In Congress, GOP officials have echoed Trump's characterisation of Vought as the administration enforcer.

"We have no say over his actions," GOP Senate leader John Thune said. "This is the risk of closing federal operations and handing the keys to Russ Vought."

The Utah senator of Utah told the news network that Vought had been "preparing for this moment for many years."

This might be somewhat exaggerated, but the director, who gained experience as a congressional staffer for GOP fiscal conservatives and helped run the advocacy division of the conservative think tank, has extensive background digging through the intricacies of the federal budget.

The Bean-Counter Behind the President

He served for twelve months as the assistant head of the White House budget office during the initial administration, advancing to become its head in 2019.

Unlike many who served with Trump during that initial term, Vought had staying power - and was quickly reinstalled as director of OMB when the president came back this year.

"A lot of those who didn't return embody outdated approaches," said a policy expert, a Heritage economic policy director who, similar to the director, started his professional life in conservative congressional budget circles.

"Russ was ahead of his time in the first term and perfectly positioned now."

While the director doesn't tend to avoid controversial statements – he previously stated that he hoped to become "the individual who dismantles the bureaucratic establishment" – he doesn't exactly look the part of a Republican bogeyman.

Thinning hair and wearing glasses, with a greying beard, Vought's public statements typically have the controlled rhythm of a bean-counter or professor.

He doesn't possess the intense stare and amped-up rhetoric of another advisor, another longtime Trump adviser who oversees White House immigration policy.

Capitalizing on Government Closure

Currently the president has warned to deploy the director at a time when, because of the regulatory uncertainty created by the government shutdown, their reductions could become more extensive and lasting than those implemented previously.

Former House Speaker the political veteran, a participant in the major closure battles of the nineties, told the media outlet that the director and his staff have been preparing for exactly these kind of circumstances while they were in the political wilderness during the Biden years.

"Everyone understood a federal closure was likely," he said. "I believe they concluded early on that you're only going to get the scale of change they want if you're determined and very determined and every chance you get, you take the opportunity."

The advantage this shutdown presents for budget-cutters like Vought is that, without congressionally approved funding, the government is operating in a regulatory uncertainty with reduced spending constraints.

The White House can, theoretically, cut budgets and personnel more extensively than it could earlier in the year, when spending was governed by standard funding levels.

And while permanent layoffs would still have to abide by a two-month warning, the director could begin that clock ticking when he, and Trump, decide to.

Current Actions and Future Battles

The director has declared major infrastructure projects in New York City and Chicago are on hold, referring to required a review of potentially illegal racial hiring practices - a review that he said cannot occur during the shutdown.

He's also cancelled nearly $8bn in clean energy projects across multiple states, all of which backed the Democratic candidate, Trump's opponent, in the recent election.

Democrats and federal worker unions have vowed to challenge these reductions in the legal system and claimed that the president is issuing mostly bluffs to try to force them to giving up their opposition.

Many economists have noted that the administration cutbacks have been paired with other spending-increasing measures, which could undercut their attacks on the opposition for being the party of fiscal irresponsibility.

"The GOP is raising expenditures in different sectors and cutting taxes at the same time," an economics professor, an economics professor at the Columbia University School of Business commented.

"The notion that they're devoted to financial responsibility is not borne out by their actions."

Political Risks

Some Republicans in Congress have expressed concern that the visible enthusiasm with which Trump is touting Vought-ordered cuts could alienate voters if the closure continues.

Republicans have been warning of the serious effects of the shutdown on government services - part of a concerted effort to depict the opposition as the ones to blame.

Doing so while celebrating the new ways the administration is slashing programmes could derail those efforts.

"Russ is less politically in tune than his boss," South Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer, a participant in the efficiency group, told the media outlet.

"Our party have never had so much ethical advantage on a spending measure in recent memory… I don't understand why we would squander it, which I think is the risk of employing executive power in this moment."

Thom Tills, a North Carolina senator who has decided against campaigning for re-election next year, warns that government representatives "must exercise caution" in how they announce additional reductions.

The efficiency group-mandated job cuts and program reductions were mostly disliked, according to public-opinion surveys, negatively affecting the president's approval ratings.

A reprise of that could be risky.

According to Stern, though, the administration, and Vought, may view the long-term benefits as well worth the short-term challenges.

"For the director, for me, for anyone working on fiscal matters, the nation faces financial crisis,"