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Donald Trump had a cautionary message for the opposition party.

In the near future he will determine what "Democrat agencies" he would cut and whether those cutbacks would be short-term or permanent.

He said the federal closure, which started this week, had afforded him an "unprecedented opportunity."

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

Linking to the 2025 Plan

Vought, the head of the federal budget office, may not be widely known to the public.

But the 2025 initiative, a right-wing plan for governing put together mostly by previous administration figures like the director when the Republicans were out of power, featured prominently during last year's presidential campaign.

The comprehensive policy guide contained proposals for dramatic reductions in the federal bureaucracy, expanded presidential authority, rigorous immigration enforcement, a national prohibition on abortion and other elements of an far-right social program.

It was frequently touted by Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, as Trump's "dangerous plan" for the coming years if he was to win.

During the campaign, seeking to reassure undecided voters, the president attempted to separate himself from the proposal.

"I know nothing about Project 2025," Trump wrote in mid-2024. "I disagree with certain aspects of their proposal and some of the things they're saying are completely unreasonable and terrible."

Shifting Approach

Currently, though, Trump is using the conservative blueprint as leverage to get Democrats to agree to his budgetary demands.

And he is highlighting the budget director, who authored a chapter on the use of executive power, as a sort of financial grim reaper, ready to take a scythe to federal programs important to Democrats.

In case that particular metaphor wasn't clear, on Thursday night the president posted an computer-created spoof video on Truth Social with the director depicted as the figure of death, set to altered lyrics of the rock band's Don't Fear the Reaper.

Washington Responses

On Capitol Hill, GOP officials have repeated the president's description of the director as the administration enforcer.

"We don't control what he's going to do," Republican Senate Majority Leader the senator said. "This is the risk of shutting down the government and handing the keys to the budget director."

The Utah senator of his state told the news network that Vought had been "getting ready for this situation for many years."

That may be somewhat exaggerated, but the director, who gained experience as a Capit Hill aide for Republican budget hawks and helped run the advocacy division of the Heritage Foundation, has extensive background examining the complexities of government spending.

The Bean-Counter Behind the President

He spent a year as the deputy director of the federal budget agency during the initial administration, advancing to become its head in that year.

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

"A lot of those who didn't return embody outdated approaches," said Richard Stern, a think tank official who, similar to the director, began his career in conservative congressional budget circles.

"The director was innovative in the initial administration and perfectly positioned currently."

While the director doesn't tend to shy away from divisive comments – he previously stated that he aspired to be "the individual who dismantles the deep state" – he doesn't exactly look the role of conservative villain.

Thinning hair and wearing glasses, with a salt-and-pepper facial hair, the director's remarks typically have the measured cadence of a bean-counter or academic.

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

Seizing Opportunity in Shutdown

Currently the president has warned to unleash Vought at a time when, because of the legal limbo caused by the federal closure, their reductions could become deeper and more durable than those instituted earlier this year.

Former House Speaker the political veteran, a veteran of the major closure battles of the 1990s, told NPR that the director and his staff have been preparing for exactly these kind of circumstances while they were in the opposition period during the Biden years.

"They all knew a government shutdown was likely," he said. "I believe they concluded from the beginning that you're only going to get the level of transformation they want if you're determined and resolute and every chance you get, you take the opportunity."

The opportunity the closure offers for spending reducers like Vought is that, lacking legislative authorization, the federal operations continue in a regulatory uncertainty with reduced spending constraints.

The administration can, in theory, slash funding and staffing deeper than it could previously, when expenditures followed standard funding levels.

And while job eliminations would still have to follow a 60-day notice, the director could begin the countdown whenever he, and Trump, so choose.

Current Actions and Future Battles

Vought already has announced significant construction initiatives in New York City and the midwestern metropolis are paused, referring to required a examination of potentially illegal racial hiring practices - a review that he said can't take place during the closure.

He's also terminated nearly $8bn in renewable energy initiatives across 16 states, all of which backed Harris, the president's rival, in the recent election.

Democrats and federal worker unions have promised to fight these cuts in court and stated that the president is issuing mostly bluffs to try to pressure them into abandoning the fight.

Many economists have noted that the White House reductions have been paired with other spending-increasing measures, which could weaken their criticism on Democrats for being the group favoring excessive spending.

"Republicans are increasing spending in other areas and cutting taxes at the same time," an economics professor, an economics professor at the Columbia University School of Business noted.

"The notion that they're committed to financial responsibility is not supported by what they're doing."

Political Risks

Certain GOP legislators have voiced worry that the visible enthusiasm with which Trump is touting director-mandated reductions could turn public opinion against them if the closure continues.

GOP officials have cautioned of the serious effects of the shutdown on government services - as part of a strategy to portray Democrats as the ones to blame.

Engaging in this while applauding the methods the government is cutting programs could undermine that approach.

"Russ is less politically in tune than the president," South Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer, a participant in the efficiency group, told the news website Semafor.

"We, as Republicans have never had so much ethical advantage on a government funding bill in our lives… I don't understand why we would squander it, which I think is the risk of employing executive power in the current situation."

The North Carolina senator, a North Carolina senator who has chosen not to run for another term, cautions that government representatives "must exercise caution" in how they present any new cuts.

The Doge-directed layoffs and program reductions were largely unpopular, according to polling data, causing a drag on the president's approval ratings.

A reprise of that might prove perilous.

According to Stern, however, the White House, and the director, may consider the future advantages as worth the immediate difficulties.

"For the director, for me, for anybody who's in the budget space, the nation faces financial crisis,"