By BILL BARROW, Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) — The Trump administration’s demand that federal agencies plan to radically downsize is driven by a key figure in the conservative movement who has long planned this move.

In President Donald Trump’s first term, Russell Vought was a largely behind-the-scenes player who eventually became director of the influential but underappreciated Office of Management and Budget. He is back in that job in Trump’s second term after being the principal author of Project 2025, the conservative governing blueprint that Trump insisted during the 2024 campaign was not part of his agenda.

The memo Vought co-signed Wednesday is the clearest assertion of his power and the latest seminal writing for a man who argues the federal bureaucracy is an existential threat to the country itself and that it should dramatically downsize. An OMB spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Here is the context of the Wednesday memo and Vought’s previous work:

To Vought, the federal bureaucracy is itself a constitutional crisis

In Wednesday’s memo, Vought framed the federal government as “costly, inefficient, and deeply in debt” and declared that it is “not producing results for the American public. Instead, tax dollars are being siphoned off to fund unproductive and unnecessary programs.”

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He used similar language in passages of Project 2025 and in a 104-page budget plan proposed by his think tank, the Center for Renewing America, in 2022.

“The overall situation is constitutionally dire, unsustainably expensive, and in urgent need of repair. Nothing less than the survival of self-governance in America is at stake,” he wrote in Project 2025.

That tracks with what Vought said before Trump again nominated him to the role in November.

In a post-election appearance with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, Vought was even more explicit: “The left has innovated over 100 years to create this administrative state … that is totally unaccountable to the president.”

Vought made clear he would leverage a second chance at OMB

In Project 2025, Vought wrote that OMB “is a President’s air-traffic control system” and that “the Director must view his job as the best, most comprehensive approximation of the President’s mind.”

OMB, he wrote, should be “involved in all aspects of the White House policy process,” becoming “powerful enough to override implementing agencies’ bureaucracies.”

He told Carlson that “OMB is the nerve center of the federal budget” and that “it has the ability to turn off the spending that is going on at the agencies” and control “all of government execution.”

Presidents, he said, “use OMB to tame the bureaucracy, the administrative state.”

Speaking with Carlson, Vought described the approach as “radical constitutionalism.”

In his Project 2025 writing, Vought says the OMB director “should present a fiscal goal to the President early in the budget development process” without specifying a date.

Vought has praised DOGE and pushed back at Trump critics

Asked after the election about the president’s proposal to empower billionaire Trump aide Elon Musk and, at the time, former presidential GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, with sweeping power over the federal government, Vought was on board.

“I think they’re bringing an exhilarating rush … of creativity, outside the box thinking, comfortability with risk and leverage,” he told Carlson.

Ramaswamy left DOGE by Inauguration Day.

As for concerns over constitutional separation of powers, meaning those who believe Trump’s White House seeks to takeover spending decisions that rest with Congress, Vought said, “separation of powers is meant to have strong, opinionated conviction and leadership that go as fast as they can and hard as they can in their direction.”

The memo goes into more detail than previous Vought writing

Vought’s latest memo requires agencies to submit an initial overhaul plan by mid-March. This so-called “Phase I” deadline was introduced by Trump.

So-called “Phase II” plans are due by April 14. Among other details, they must include a “future-state organizational chart” and documentation of “all reductions, including (full-time) positions, term and temporary positions, reemployed annuitants, real estate footprint, and contracts.”

Vought invokes religious imagery and texts with his agenda

The latest OMB memo does not venture into religious texts or assertions. But Vought is an outspoken conservative Christian and invokes his faith as part of his governing philosophy.

The Center for Renewing America’s 2022 budget outline begins by quoting the Old Testament, specifically the eighth chapter of the first book of Samuel, to set up a critique of the federal government’s size and scope:

“He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to the officers and to his servants … He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day, you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves.”

By JESSICA DAMIANO

If you’ve ever had a dog, you know they don’t exactly tiptoe through the tulips. I’m fortunate that none of mine ever had a penchant for digging holes, but my late pit bull, Maddie, used to run through my perennial beds like a weed whacker, leaving horizontal coneflowers and black-eyed Susans in her destructive path.

Her bathroom breaks would also imprint an ever-expanding array of canine crop circles on the lawn.

Fortunately, my little Havanese, Miguel, doesn’t pose as much of a threat to my plants, but there are other important elements to consider when planning a garden where dogs and plants can safely coexist.

Let’s start with the lawn

The type of grass you select should be suited to your region and your sun exposure. In my sunny Northeastern front yard, that means starting with a Kentucky bluegrass seed blend, which holds up well against foot and paw traffic, and mixing in roughly 10 percent each of urine-resilient perennial ryegrass and shade-tolerant fine fescue.

For further protection, consider incorporating a trample- and urine-resistant groundcover into your grass-seed recipe. I’ve added clover, which also enriches the soil with safe, nourishing levels of nitrogen (free fertilizer!) and reduces or eliminates groundwater pollution from my property.

If you have a beagle-size dog or two, this will go a long way toward retaining your lawn’s integrity. But, to be honest, I don’t know of any grass that will hold up against a German shepherd or bull mastiff kicking it up on a daily basis. Still, starting with the most resilient grass species for your growing conditions will give you the best odds possible.

Barriers to entry

Typical landscaping designs often space plants far apart, leaving areas of mulch-covered soil between plants and shrubs. Dogs love to run obstacle courses on those bare paths, kicking up mulch and, invariably, straying into planting beds.

Instead, opt for a dense garden style that allows only enough space between plants for the expected mature size of each. By their third year, most of the gaps will be filled, eliminating the spaces and, along with them, the invitation to enter.

If you grow delicate plants or edibles, situate them in a raised bed or surround them with short fencing or another barrier to discourage entry.

Avoid toxic plants and chemicals

Next, consider safety. Many common plants are toxic to dogs (and cats), so avoid planting them altogether, even if your pet hasn’t shown an interest in grazing. A one-time curiosity could spell disaster. Check with the ASPCA for a sortable list of plants (including weeds) that are toxic to cats, dogs and horses, and remove any that your pets could access.

Avoid using chemicals. If you must apply them, keep pets out of the garden until the products have dried or dissipated (read package labels carefully and observe warnings and cautionary statements).

Create a zone for digging and playing

If your dog is a digger, fill holes and lay sections of chicken wire over favorite digging spots, then cover them with a few inches of soil. I’ve never met a dog that wasn’t deterred by wire.

Diggers will continue to dig, however, so designate a section of the yard where they can do so with reckless abandon. Bury some toys and bones for them to find, and place balls and other toys in there too. After introducing dogs to the area, watch closely and bring them to the digging zone whenever you catch them in the act elsewhere.

Such a play area or dog run would be a beneficial garden addition even if digging hasn’t posed a problem, as it would reduce or eliminate plant trampling and lawn damage. Enclose it with fencing or another barrier that allows you to keep an eye on the dog — and vice versa.

Similarly, if space allows, designate a pebbled or mulched potty area. Train dogs to use it by moving scooped poop to the spot. Their noses will convey the message, but again, you’ll have to watch closely and move them to the spot when they show signs of intent to relieve themselves elsewhere. It will take some time, but they should catch on.

Finally, be sure to provide access to a clean bowl of water at all times. It will refresh pups as they play outdoors and, as a bonus, dilute their urine to cut down on burn spots in your grass.

Yes, you’ll likely have to lower your aesthetic standards a bit. But getting to relish two of life’s greatest pleasures simultaneously is well worth the compromise.

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

For more AP gardening stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/gardening.

By SARAH PARVINI

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nvidia on Wednesday reported a surge in fourth-quarter profit and sales as demand for its specialized Blackwell chips which power artificial intelligence systems continued to grow.

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For the three months that ended Jan. 26, the tech giant based in Santa Clara, California, posted revenue of $39.3 billion, up 12% from the previous quarter and 78% from one year ago. Adjusted for one-time items, it earned 89 cents a share.

“Demand for Blackwell is amazing as reasoning AI adds another scaling law — increasing compute for training makes models smarter and increasing compute for long thinking makes the answer smarter,” Nvidia Founder Jensen Huang said in a statement.

Wednesday’s earnings report topped Wall Street expectations. Analysts had been expecting adjusted earnings of 85 cents a share on revenue of $38.1 billion, according to FactSet.

The fourth-quarter earnings are the company’s first report since Chinese company DeepSeek boasted it had developed a large language model that could compete with ChatGPT and other U.S. rivals, but was more cost-effective in its use of Nvidia chips to train the system on troves of data.

The frenzy over DeepSeek caused $595 billion in Nvidia’s wealth to vanish briefly. But the company in a statement commended DeepSeek’s work as “an excellent AI advancement” that leveraged “widely-available models and compute that is fully export control compliant.”

The poster child of the AI boom, Nvidia has grown into the second-largest company on Wall Street — it is now worth over $3 trillion — and the stock’s movement carries more weight on the S&P 500 and other indexes than every company except Apple.

Nvidia and other companies benefiting from the AI boom have been a major reason the S&P 500 has climbed to record after record recently, with the latest coming last week. Their explosion of profits has helped to propel the market despite worries about stubbornly high inflation and possible pain coming for the U.S. economy from tariffs and other policies of President Donald Trump.

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is sowing confusion and chaos, ordering mass firings of government employees and canceling programs despite having no formal legal authority. In a recent decision, Federal District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan noted that Musk’s actions likely violate the Constitution because he has not been appointed by the president nor confirmed by the Senate. Yet the judge rejected a lawsuit to stop DOGE brought by 14 state attorneys general because she held they lacked standing since they had not identified the specific harms their states suffered.

The AGs’ lawsuit, which was filed when Musk was just getting started, can be brought again with more facts to support it. There will also be other lawsuits by individuals who have already lost their jobs and clearly have standing to challenge DOGE’s legality. Some of these lawsuits will likely prevail, and some district court judge, possibly Chutkan, will likely order DOGE to pause its operations in the coming weeks. The Trump administration will appeal, but the irregularity of DOGE is so obvious, legally speaking, that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit will almost certainly affirm the lower court. The Supreme Court is likely to let lower court decisions stand, finding DOGE’s actions unlawful.

But the high probability that the courts will halt DOGE’s operations will be only one episode in an arc with a series’ worth of material. Further litigation would be necessary to unwind what DOGE will already have done. That will take time.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration will be able to keep many fired employees out of their jobs. All the president has to do is have duly appointed officials fire them again. The employees may be owed a little back pay for the time between their unlawful DOGE firing and their lawful firing by legitimate administration officials. Still, they won’t be reinstated unless they were career employees whom no one in the administration may fire without good cause.

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The legal outcome for the program cancellations DOGE has ordered will likely be similar. Even if the DOGE orders are held unlawful, appointed administration officials can ultimately cancel those programs unless they involve specific congressional appropriations made without room for executive branch discretion.

A roadmap for re-canceling DOGE-eliminated programs already exists. Administration officials have reportedly been re-canceling or re-pausing programs unlawfully paused by Trump’s early executive order freezing most government spending. The courts blocked that initial order, so the administration is trying to achieve the same results by other means. Some courts have attempted to block this strategy, but their actions depend on a technical reading of the court order blocking the initial executive order. Eventually, the administration will find a way to cancel programs that aren’t based on specific congressional appropriations.

The upshot is that many DOGE actions will have lasting consequences, regardless of their illegality when they were first taken. Companies regulated by agencies whose employee ranks have been thinned can expect regulatory enforcement to decrease in proportion to the loss of staff. The same applies to industries that need government approvals to do business: If there are fewer staffers to approve applications, the process will slow accordingly.

Sectors like life sciences or pharmaceuticals that rely on government-funded research will also feel the effects of DOGE and other ongoing cuts. Those cuts can be regularized — effectively, they will likely remain in effect whenever they don’t contradict specific congressional appropriations.

To be sure, specific sectors that require government funds can lobby the Trump administration to reverse or choose not to reaffirm the DOGE cuts. Based on the evidence that lobbying the Trump administration successfully is possible, some of those efforts will doubtless succeed. Those sectors can also lobby Congress to resist DOGE-initiated cuts with specific appropriations bills, although Trump would have to sign those if they were to take effect.

What’s more, the obvious lack of strategic planning in the haphazard firings and cuts means that sometimes, the Trump administration will eventually realize that what has been cut was necessary. So, some reversals will be required, even from the administration’s perspective. Once DOGE’s activities are limited by court order, DOGE and Musk won’t be as interested in fighting selective reversals of their actions.

Musk will have good reason to stop actively engaging in DOGE work once the courts catch up and bar its ongoing actions. He will have achieved meaningful influence in government direction without going through the legal formalities of appointment and confirmation. Courts are likely to rule that he must, at a minimum, obey conflict of interest and disclosure rules that he would have no interest in following. His influence on Trump has already demonstrated that he will be able to continue lobbying the president from outside the White House.

What’s more, by receding from day-to-day DOGE action once ordered by a court, Musk may be able to avoid what otherwise looks like unavoidable conflict with Trump. Each man seems to believe he has the upper hand. Both can’t be right. Neither has anything to gain by confrontation with the other.

Musk’s initial DOGE announcement said he planned to leave the job by July 2026. It’s doubtful he will last until then. But the effects of the DOGE experiment will be felt well beyond. They will underscore the limits of the constitutional system in responding quickly to unlawful cuts made by a president happy to act outside the law.

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People.”