Russell Vought's kid got life-saving drug — that his policies are now attacking: report

Daniel Hampton

Feb. 12, 2025, 2:31 a.m.

The daughter of a key architect of Project 2025 benefitted from a life-changing drug — which was created with the help of the National Institutes of Health which, under President Donald Trump, recently capped its funding for such research.

The Trump administration capped NIH grants for "indirect" research costs at 15 percent late last week. That's down from an average of about 30 percent.

Experts issued a dire warning following the news, with some calling the effect "cataclysmic," and saying it could severely hamper medical research.

In doing so, the agency said grant recipients — particularly new and inexperienced organizations — use grant money to cover things such as overhead.

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"NIH is obligated to carefully steward grant awards to ensure taxpayer dollars are used in ways that benefit the American people and improve their quality of life," the agency said in its announcement.

On Tuesday night, Mother Jones reporter Julia Métraux noted that the daughter of Russell Vought, who was just confirmed as Trump's head of the Office of Management and Budget, benefitted from a drug that has ties to NIH-funded research.

"But some of those so-called insiders—that is, the NIH—funded research that helped scientists better understand cystic fibrosis, which led to Vertex Pharmaceuticals developing a cutting-edge treatment that Vought’s daughter Porter benefited from," according to the report. "In a 2021 Instagram post, Vought’s then-wife shared that the couple’s daughter had started Trikafta, a drug that has shown great promise in managing pulmonary issues associated with cystic fibrosis, which affects some 40,000 Americans."

The drug is currently the subject of a study that's backed by a nearly $3 million grant from the NIH. It also doles out $84 million a year for research related to the disease.

Vought, wrote Métraux, "appears to be shutting that door firmly behind him, helping to mount a dizzying range of attacks on lifesaving medical research at (and beyond) NIH."