Few at the MAGA White House would appear to have been happier seeing the tail end of Elon Musk’s tenure as government efficiency czar than Donald Trump’s budget bigwig Russell Vought. Over the past few months, the budget chief has pressured legislators into cancelling $9 billion earmarked for foreign aid and broadcasting. Legal experts told the newspaper that much of Vought’s work thus far, in particular his efforts to help centralize power around the executive branch, has increasingly imperiled the very foundations of U.S. democracy. “One of the main sources of power that Congress has over the executive branch is the budget,” as Georgetown University law professor Eloise Pasachoff put it. “If the executive branch isn’t controlled by the power of the purse, then there is very little that will control the president.