'Russ Vought is the reaper' as Trump throws shade at Dems
Meet President Donald Trump’s reaper.
His name is Russell Thurlow Vought (pronounced “vote”) and he’s in his second stint as director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.
The job allows him to exert executive branch control over the nation’s purse strings.
Trump is touting Vought’s role as an enforcer who will exact punishing cuts aimed at Democrats as the government shutdown continues this week with no end in sight.
Trump shared a video created by the Dilley Meme Team, a group of creatives who relish being internet trolls. They bill themselves as “Trump’s Online War Machine” and “the tip of the spear.”
They didn’t immediately respond to queries for comment sent to their website and via direct X message.
The post, shared by Trump on his social media site Truth Social, parodies Blue Öyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper.”
A staple of classic-rock radio, the tune was ranked 115 in the WDVE Memorial Day 500.
The band wasn’t contacted about use of the song and posted this statement on Facebook:
“Let’s clarify a few things: BLUE ÖYSTER CULT was not contacted or notified in advance. The copyright in the song (Don’t Fear) The Reaper is 100% owned by SONY MUSIC. BLUE ÖYSTER CULT has no legal right to either authorize or withhold usage, which is 100% controlled by SONY MUSIC.”
Sony didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
It was famously lampooned April 8, 2000, on “Saturday Night Live,” in a sketch featuring Christopher Walken and Will Ferrell.
The new video has seemingly struck a chord with Trump, who is depicted delivering plenty of cowbell — and lots of shade — toward the Democrats.
Vice President JD Vance cameos as the drummer in the band. Democratic leaders are lambasted and Vought is presented as the man with a scythe who will harvest the amber waves of grain.
So who is this reaper, and why is he grim?
In his X profile, Vought cites Ephesians 2:4-5, Bible verses that focus on God’s mercy and love. He’s a 1998 graduate of Wheaton College, a prominent Evangelical Christian institution founded in 1860.
Vought, a balding and bearded 49-year-old divorced father of two, lives just beyond the beltway in the Virginia suburbs of D.C.
His middle name was his father’s first name. Thurlow Vought was a union electrician who died in 2000 in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., according to an obituary.
His mother, Margaret (née Flowers) Vought, was a Southern belle from Atlanta who taught elementary school in Ossining, N.Y. She died in 2010, according to an obituary.
Russell Vought has two brothers and three sisters.
He’s worked in conservative circles in Washington for more than two decades, including seven years as vice president of Heritage Action for America, the lobbying arm the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation.
Vought also worked as policy director for the House Republican Conference, was executive director of the Republican Study Committee and was a legislative assistant for U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, a Texan who has been a member of the GOP since 1983.
He also was one of the architects of Project 2025, a blueprint for a conservative overhaul of government.
During his reelection campaign, Trump distanced himself from the document, but his second term has proved otherwise, as Trump invoked Vought’s connection to Project 2025.
Vought has also garnered recognition as the person behind Trump’s designs on remaking the presidency and rebuilding the government as something that’s smaller and shrewder with a seemingly all-powerful president. He is a proponent of the unitary executive theory, a longtime effort by conservative policy advocates to concentrate more power in the presidency.
Grover Norquist, the anti-tax activist who was born in Western Pennsylvania (Sharon, although he was raised in Connecticut), said this of Vought in The New York Times: “He is lining up the billiards shots, getting each ball in place, one by one, for each consecutive move.”
Vought’s stances and aims aren’t a secret: They were detailed shortly after Trump’s second inaugural in this Politico report: “Russell Vought’s about to use a normally obscure role to tear down the ‘deep state.’”
Despite openly proclaiming his Christian faith that’s central tenet is love of neighbor, Vought lacks the support of his own neighbors in Virginia, according to Mother Jones, a stalwart of liberal media.
The irony was also tackled in video shared on Instagram by an account called Friends of USAID. USAID is the global assistance program the Trump administration has gutted at Vought’s direction. The video uses a song by Fred Rogers — the pride of Latrobe and Squirrel Hill, whose legacy revolves around neighborly altruism — to raise awareness about Vought’s intentions.
The White House Office of Management and Budget didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment for this story.
Tom Davidson is a TribLive news editor. He has been a journalist in Western Pennsylvania for more than 25 years. He can be reached at tdavidson@triblive.com.
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