White House Budget Chief Distances Himself From Musk’s DOGE Work

White House budget chief Russell Vought sought to minimize the public perception he is closely involved with the Department of Government Efficiency on Thursday, insisting he didn’t replace Elon Musk as de facto head of the agency.

“It’s always been fake news that I was named head of DOGE, based on a weird headline,” Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, told reporters at a roundtable hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

Vought’s comments underscore the efforts of several Trump officials to distance themselves from the Tesla CEO and former DOGE leader, even as President Donald Trump looks to take ownership of the cuts that Musk came to represent.

Vought touted a Senate vote a few hours earlier that would claw back $9 billion in foreign aid and public media funding, indicating the White House may send additional rescissions requests to Capitol Hill. Vought wouldn’t offer specifics but said it’s likely to come “soon.”

Vought said he’s not in charge of DOGE staffers, and that many of the original crew have now been assigned to various agencies.

“The energy of the remaining DOGE individuals is largely at the agencies, working for the agency heads,” he said, likening them to consultants. “So you may have a McKinsey consultant, still called McKinsey, working for an agency head.”

As for DOGE’s claim of saving $190 billion, a figure that independent analysts have scrutinized, Vought said he is “not governing our ambitions based on what the DOGE website is saying.”

While Vought praised DOGE’s efforts, he acknowledged that OMB and DOGE haven’t always been in sync.

“Sometimes we didn’t have visibility into everything they were doing and vice versa,” he said. “But you know, that’s just an administration getting its sea legs.”