Russell Vought, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Office of the Management and Budget, has shared his finances as he seeks confirmation.
The Office of Government Ethics posted online Vought’s financial disclosure report and ethics agreement on Friday. The move is a key step in his nomination process and sheds light on one of the top conservative policy thinkers in Trump’s orbit.
Vought earned $542,204 in salary and bonuses from the Center for Renewing America, a think tank aligned with the president-elect that he founded and has led since 2021.
Vought is paid by CRA for services he provides to the think tank and Citizens for Renewing America, its 501(c)(4) nonprofit affiliated group, in “a cost sharing agreement” between the two, according to a report endnote.
In addition, he received $15,000 from the Republican National Committee in “payment for services.” Vought helped prepare the party’s policy platform for its national convention last year where Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination.
Among his assets, Vought reported holding $1,001 to $15,000 in Bitcoin in a Coinbase wallet. He made income of $1,001 to $2,500 in capital gains from the digital currency.
He also reported holding retirement accounts with the Center for Renewing America and Heritage Action for America. Vought picked up honorarium payments too, including $4,000 from Hillsdale College and $500 for a World Magazine article titled “Taking on the Military Caste,” which was about Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) hold on President Joe Biden’s Pentagon nominees.
Vought’s liabilities include a $50,0001 to $100,000 line of credit with Tower Federal Credit Union; a Pennymac home mortgage valued at $500,001 to $1 million; and another home mortgage with Newrez LLC worth $500,001 to $1 million. That later mortgage has been refinanced and paid off, according to an endnote in his report.
In his ethics agreement, Vought said he would divest his interest in Bitcoin no later than 90 days after his confirmation.
He will also resign his positions at the Center for Renewing America, Citizens for Renewing America and America First Legal, a law advocacy group backing Trump policies in the courts, if he is approved by the Senate.
Vought led OMB once already during the prior Trump administration. He has put together conservative policies for the president-elect’s return, including authoring a Project 2025 chapter, on slashing regulations and downsizing the federal government.
“We want their funding to be shut down so that the EPA can’t do all of the rules against our energy industry because they have no bandwidth financially to do so,” Vought said in a CRA training video ProPublica reported on last year. “We want to put them in trauma.”
Vought’s nomination is moving forward.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has scheduled his confirmation hearing for Wednesday.
