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Russell Vought Uses $15M from Foreign Aid Agency He Gutted to Pay for Security Detail

HeadlineFeb 16, 2026

Reuters is reporting that the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, is using $15 million of what remains of USAID’s operating expenses to fund his security detail. A source tells Reuters that Vought’s detail includes more than one dozen U.S. Marshals. Russ Vought is the chief architect of Project 2025, which outlined the Trump administration’s plans to downsize federal agencies and fire thousands of federal workers. Last year, the Trump administration dismantled USAID, canceled most of its aid programs and fired about 10,000 employees. The Trump administration’s decision to shut down USAID resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths from infectious diseases and malnutrition around the world.

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