Comedian and podcast host Marc Maron calls President Donald Trump a “mob”, a “doll” for Russ Vorge, director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
Newsweek Contact OMB and the White House to comment via email outside normal working hours.
Why it matters
Project 2025 outlines plans to consolidate presidential authority, expel thousands of professional civil servants and overhaul regulators. Now that Trump is back in office, key figures like Vought take on leadership roles, the federal department is implementing most of the blueprint.
The plan was originally formulated during the expected second Trump term and aims to institutionalize a long-term conservative agenda by exercising executive power directly rather than relying on congressional negotiations or bipartisan consensus.
Supporters describe it as a necessary restructuring to curb what they call entrenched bureaucracy and inefficiency, while critics warn that it represents an unprecedented far-right grab.
Trump denied playing a role in the 2025 program.
Marc Maron held a special screening of the “Top 2 Lowest” in Los Angeles on Wednesday, August 13, 2025.
Chris Pizzello/AP Photo
What to know
“We have a thug president,” Malone said in a August 23 episode with host Jon Lovett Pod Save America As part of a broader conversation about contemporary comedy and media.
Maron specifically mentioned one of the authors of the Heritage Foundation’s influential 2025 project, saying: “But you see Trump, he’s still a bigger thing, and as long as he can be the one ahead, he won’t give that much.”
Vought in his role as OMB Director oversees the implementation of the executive’s presidential policy, management and regulatory agenda.
Russell, Director of the Office of Management and Budget
Getty
Who is the attractions in Ruth?
Before joining the Trump administration, Vought spent more than 20 years in Washington with grassroots and policy groups. He was formerly vice president of the U.S. advocacy group Heritage Action, former vice president Mike Pence’s policy director for House Republican meetings and executive director of the Republican Research Committee, according to the White House.
“Luss has been in Washington, D.C. for many years and is an active cost cutter and disappearer who will help us implement the first agenda of the United States in all institutions,” Trump wrote in a statement.
“Las knows exactly how to dismantle the deep state and end the weapons government, and he will help us return self-governance to the people. We will restore our nation's fiscal sanity and release the American people into new prosperity and originality.”
Project 2025 and the Trump Administration
According to the 2025 Project Tracker, although the president is far from the agenda, a total of 317 goals with the Blueprint have been completed throughout Trump's second semester and 63 are in progress.
Many of Trump’s appointees contributed to the publication, with key policies on the project already implemented, including the president’s extensive trade tariffs, eliminating overseas aid programs provided by the U.S., cutting diversity, equality and inclusion measures, and federal efficiency reductions in the Department of Government Efficiency.