Impeachment articles filed against 'unelected shadow president'

A House Democrat on Thursday introduced articles of impeachment against White Housebudget chief Russell Vought, accusing the Project 2025 architect and far-right ideologue of unlawfully terminating federal funds appropriated by Congress and putting the Trump administration’s political priorities over the law.

Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.), who is leading the push to remove Vought, pointed to his partisan cancellation of federal funding for Democratic-led states as “just the latest example” of illegal and impeachable conduct.

“Vought has repeatedly and openly broken the law to stroke Trump’s fragile ego,” Kamlager-Dove said in a statement. “These nakedly partisan schemes to punish Democratic voters ultimately hurt families and workers of all political stripes. We cannot sit idly by while an unelected shadow president continues to weaponize the federal government and steal taxpayers’ hard-earned money. Russell Vought’s blatant abuse of power and complete disregard for the Constitution warrants immediate removal by Congress.”

Kamlager-Dove filed two articles of impeachment against Vought, who has quietly become one of the most powerful and influential figures in the second Trump administration. One of the new articles accuses the White House budget director of “abuse of power through improper impoundment of congressionally appropriated funds,” and the other alleges “failure to faithfully execute the laws of the United States.”

Last month, Trump administration officials admitted in court filings that they terminated billions of dollars worth of Biden-era federal grants for clean energy projects in some states “based solely” on political considerations, including whether former Vice President Kamala Harris won the state in the 2024 election.

“Such conduct represents an unconstitutional interference with Congress’ exclusive authority over appropriations and an abuse of executive power,” states Kamlager-Dove’s first impeachment article against Vought.

The California Democrat launched her impeachment push as Vought worked to place billions of dollars in federal grant money under the control of political appointees, a change that scientists, environmental groups, and other critics say would leave funding for key research at the mercy of the Trump administration’s political whims.

“The proposed rule would systematically politicize federal funding and allow Trump officials to cancel grants at any time for any reason,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said this past weekend. “Enabling this rule would only give [President Donald] Trump the green light to take even more federal funding hostage.”

“While Republicans rejected killing the proposed rule outright, I’m going to keep fighting to put a stop to it once and for all, and I will keep pressing my Republican colleagues to do exactly that,” said Murray.