Even budget hawks have a sensitive side.
White House budget director Russ Vought — who President Trump recently depicted as the Grim Reaper relentlessly slashing government headcount — was snapped sketching a pastoral tableau during a lengthy Cabinet meeting Tuesday.
As Trump went around the table for each one of his lieutenants to give glowing reports on their activites, Associated Press photographer Julia Demaree Nikhinson sublty snapped Vought’s handiwork from over his shoulder.
The 49-year-old director of the Office of Management and Budget had drawn pine trees backdropped by rolling mountains and topped by a pair of cumulus clouds straight out of a Bob Ross public television special. Below a line representing the ground, Vought had drawn an upward-pointing arrow.
It was not immediately clear whether the scene or the arrow had some kind of deeper meaning to Vought, who has become a hate figure among Democrats and liberals for implementing federal workforce reductions and spending cuts — including the end of the US Agency for International Development and the removal of federal funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — masterminded by the Department of Government Efficiency.
Trump has played up Vought’s reputation. On Oct. 2, following the onset of the 43-day government shutdown, the president reposted another content creator’s video showing the OMB chief wearing a hood and holding a scythe as he scoured Washington for cuts as Blue Oyster Cult’s 1976 hit “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” played.
Reps for OMB did not immediately respond to questions from The Post, including whether Vought has any favorite artists or deep-seated creative ambitions of his own.
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