Claim:
U.S. President Donald Trump called Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, “Darth Vader” in an October 2025 speech.
Rating:
Context
Trump followed up his statement with praise for Vought and pointed out that critics call him Darth Vader: “They call him Darth Vader. I call him a fine man. But he’s cutting Democrat priorities and they’re never going to get them back.”
During an October 2025 speech in the White House Rose Garden, U.S. President Donald Trump apparently called Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, “Darth Vader,” the name of a villainous character from the “Star Wars” movie series.
Per the footage that circulated online, while Trump did not specifically name Vought, he gestured to someone in the crowd listening to his speech and said:
We have Darth Vader. You know Darth Vader, right? Darth Vader is a man who is sitting — is that Darth? Stand up please. Does everybody know — they call him Darth Vader, I call him a fine man. But he’s cutting Democrat priorities and they’re never gonna get them back.
Posts on TikTok poked fun at Trump, showing him edited to appear in a scene taken from a “Star Wars” movie while making the speech.
Trump did refer to Vought as “Darth Vader,” as seen in official White House footage of the event on Oct. 21, 2025. While he did not name Vought directly, he gestured toward Vought in the audience and referenced Vought’s work cutting $20 billion worth of New York City infrastructure projects. As such, we’ve rated this claim true.
Trump preceded his comments by blaming the Democrats for the federal government shutdown, before pointing out Vought in the audience:
I will say this, that we have Darth Vader. You know Darth Vader, right? Darth Vader is a man who, I think, is sitting right… Is that Darth? Stand up, please, Darth Vader. They call him Darth Vader. I call him a fine man. But he’s cutting Democrat priorities and they’re never going to get them back. And they’ve caused us and they’ve really allowed us to do it. And by the way, thank you. You’re doing a great job, I have to tell you. Because many of the things that they’re cutting, like the New York project, $20 billion, we’re cutting it. They’re not going to get it back. I mean, they’re not going to get a lot of things back. They may not get it back. Maybe we’ll talk to them about it, but they’re losing all the things that they wanted. But many of the things that they wanted are things that we don’t want. They’re things that are just so bad for our country.
The comments can be heard at the 40-minute mark of the video embedded below:
As we have previously reported, Vought was best known as the head of the lobbying branch of The Heritage Foundation and a leading adviser for Project 2025, earning him the media moniker “Project 2025 architect.” He previously led the OMB for two years during Trump’s first term, and Trump reappointed him in his second term.
Just hours after the government shutdown began in early October, Vought announced on X that the administration was stopping billions of dollars on infrastructure projects in New York City, the same projects that Trump referenced in his speech above: “Roughly $18 billion in New York City infrastructure projects have been put on hold to ensure funding is not flowing based on unconstitutional DEI principles.” He added that the cut would affect “the Hudson Tunnel Project and the Second Ave Subway.”
Vought was present at the Oct. 21 Rose Garden speech, as seen in photographs that appeared on the reputable image bank Getty Images. A C-SPAN video of the event noted in the caption that Trump was shouting out Vought as “Darth Vader.”
Reports have described Vought as “the driving force behind the [government] shutdown” and “basically a second commander-in-chief, a shadow president.” A ProPublica investigation of Vought’s work at the OMB found he was responsible for freezing vast sums of federal spending, laying off tens of thousands of federal workers and bringing federal agencies to a standstill.
We have previously covered Vought’s efforts through Project 2025, including its potential connections to Trump’s hiring plan for federal workers.
Sources
“Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought…” Getty Images, 21 Oct. 2025, https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/director-of-the-office-of-management-and-budget-russell-news-photo/2242034232. Accessed 21 Nov. 2025.
“Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought ,…” Getty Images, 21 Oct. 2025, https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/director-of-the-office-of-management-and-budget-russell-news-photo/2242034283. Accessed 21 Nov. 2025.
Ibrahim, Aleksandra Wrona, Nur. “The Facts About Project 2025: The Pro-Trump Proposal To ‘Reshape America.'” Snopes, 11 July 2024, https://www.snopes.com/news/2024/07/11/project-2025-explained/. Accessed 21 Nov. 2025.
Ibrahim, Nur. “Unpacking Trump Admin’s New Hiring Plan for Federal Workers — Including Question about Implementing Presidential Policy.” Snopes, 4 June 2025, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-policy-hiring-plan/. Accessed 21 Nov. 2025.
Izzo, Jack, and Taija PerryCook. “A Complete Guide to Trump’s Cabinet Appointees.” Snopes, 9 Jan. 2025, https://www.snopes.com/articles/468475/trump-cabinet-appointees/. Accessed 21 Nov. 2025.
Kroll, Andy. “Russell Vought, Trump’s Shadow President.” ProPublica, 17 Oct. 2025, https://www.propublica.org/article/russ-vought-trump-shadow-president-omb. Accessed 21 Nov. 2025.
“President Trump Hosts a Rose Garden Club Lunch .” YouTube, The White House, 21 Oct. 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY8feOdV4TU&t=2286s. Accessed 21 Nov. 2025.
Project Articles | Snopes.Com. https://www.snopes.com/tag/project_2025/. Accessed 21 Nov. 2025.
“Shadow President: How Russell Vought Is Using Shutdown to Gut Federal Agencies.” Democracy Now!, https://www.democracynow.org/2025/10/21/russell_vought_propublica_shadow_president. Accessed 21 Nov. 2025.
“Trump Names Project 2025 Architect Russell Vought to Key White House Role.” PBS News, 25 Nov. 2024, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/trump-names-project-2025-architect-russell-vought-to-key-white-house-role. Accessed 21 Nov. 2025.
“White House Freezes $18 Billion in New York City Infrastructure Funding.” NBC News, 1 Oct. 2025, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/white-house-freezes-18-billion-new-york-city-infrastructure-funding-rcna234928. Accessed 21 Nov. 2025.
