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Despite Trump distancing himself from the right-wing doctrine, Project 2025 remains a key election talking point.
Project 2025 is spearheaded by The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, and funded by over one hundred other right-wing organizations. Notable advisory board members include the National Rifle Association and Turning Point USA, as well as a wealth of public policy foundations, research institutes, and family planning organizations. It is supported by a $22 million budget.
The project proposes “unitary executive theory,” which places the entire federal government in direct control of the president. “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise” frames the project’s objectives for the next conservative administration. Its four pillars are a policy guide, “pulling from the expertise of the entire conservative movement;” a personnel database of “conservatives from all walks of life who are interested in serving in future conservative presidential administrations;” a training program for their personnel; and a playbook for the first 180 days of the next administration “to bring quick relief to Americans suffering from the Left’s devastating policies.”
The proposal is centered around dismantling many of the institutions that form the federal government. It eliminates job protections for thousands of government employees, introducing the possibility of replacement by political appointees from its personnel database. The declassification of government records and eradication of corrupt government officials are also outlined in its policy framework.
The project recommends that the Department of Health and Human Services “maintains a biblically based, social science-reinforced definition of marriage and family.” Abortion is mentioned about 200 times in the policy outline. Although the document does not suggest an outright ban on abortion, it proposes the removal of the abortion pill mifepristone from the market and enforcement of the Comstock Act of 1873 to prevent the drug from being sent via mail.
The Republican Party platform advocates for individual states to determine their laws for reproductive care. It protects access to prenatal care, contraceptives, and artificial insemination but holds that “late-term” abortions should be banned. “Late-term” is not defined in their policy agenda.
Policies bolstering border security aim to increase funding for a wall along the United States-Mexico border. It calls for the dissolution of the Department of Homeland Security, combining its functions with immigration units in other agencies and ultimately constructing a more powerful border policing system. It also recommends the reinstatement of the “remain in Mexico” policy, which would return Mexican asylum-seekers to their home country for the duration of their cases in the U.S. immigration court system. The project is vigilant about the arrest, detainment, and removal of immigration violators throughout the United States.
The project proposes to end diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in schools and government departments, and to shift some of the functions of the Department of Education to other federal agencies, including the Departments of Labor, Justice, and Commerce. It seeks to remove critical race theory and gender ideology from public school curricula and turn control of education over to state and local governments.
The project aims to ensure access to reliable and affordable energy, with no mention of renewable or sustainable energy sources. It would dismiss efforts for sustainable development and cease collaboration with and funding of foundations, corporations, institutions, and non-governmental organizations combating climate change.
Project 2025 includes a Presidential Personnel Database of conservative loyalists as well as a training program for these appointees. The training is fully online, offering classes and certificate programs. Its content ranges from the federal budget process to congressional, from stakeholder relations to media training.
The Heritage Foundation has been producing policy plans for Republican administrations since 1981 when former president Ronald Reagan first took office. Its first doctrine, “Mandate for Leadership: Policy Management in a Conservative Administration,” was published ahead of the incoming Reagan administration in response to former treasury secretary William Simon’s grievance of the lack of guidance for enacting a conservative agenda. The latest version of “Mandate for Leadership”–Heritage releases one every time a new president enters office–is intended to guide the next conservative administration. The Trump administration adopted two-thirds of The Heritage Foundation’s proposals within its first year, including raising military spending, leaving the Paris Climate Accords, and increasing offshore drilling and developing federal lands.
The Heritage Foundation is not affiliated with Trump’s campaign, and Project 2025 is a separate policy outline from the former president’s own agenda. However, there is considerable overlap between the policies and personnel of both entities.
Paul Dans was the chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management while Trump was president. In late July, he stepped down from his position as director of Project 2025. Criticism of the project from Democrats and outrage from the Trump campaign fueled his exit. Dans is also credited with editing Mandate for Leadership, with his name on the cover of the document.
Authors of many of the chapters of Mandate for Leadership can be recognized from their time in the Trump administration, including Russ Vought, who led the Office of Management and Budget; Chris Miller, former acting Defense Secretary, and Roger Severino, former director of the Office of Civil Rights and the Department of Health and Human Services.
The Harris campaign has committed to capitalizing on similarities between Project 2025 and Trump’s entourage and agenda. “We know what a second Trump term would look like,” she said at the Democratic National Convention on August 22. “It’s all laid out in Project 2025. Written by his closest advisors. And its sum total is to put our country back into the past.”
A section of Harris’ campaign website is dedicated to Project 2025, portraying it as “Trump’s plan to take your power, your control, and your money.” The page refers to the project as Trump’s agenda in multiple instances and includes images of the Republican nominees.
Trump has been resolute in distancing himself and his campaign from Project 2025. “I haven’t read it. I don’t want to read it, purposely. I’m not going to read it,” He stated during the September 10 Presidential Debate. His avoidance has been amplified following Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts’ appearance on the podcast “The War Room,” in which he states that the nation is “in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”
No mentions of Project 2025 can be found on Trump’s campaign website. Instead, attention is drawn towards Agenda 47: Trump’s official policy outline should he be elected.
Republican senators and vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance have echoed the Republican nominee’s statements, rendering the project merely the product of a think tank. Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, senior advisors on the Trump campaign, have stated that “any personnel lists, policy agendas, or government plans published anywhere are merely suggestions.”
The Heritage Foundation has reiterated that Project 2025 is not affiliated with Trump’s campaign, stating, “It is ultimately up to that president, who we believe will be Trump, to decide which recommendations to implement.”
It is common for think tanks to generate policy wish lists for future governments, regardless of political persuasion. John McEntee, senior advisor to The Heritage Foundation and director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office during the Trump administration, says his organization will “integrate a lot of our work” with the Trump campaign in the months between the Election and Inauguration Day.
Although Project 2025 has no affiliation with the Republican presidential candidate, the tendency for conservative administrations to adhere closely to the Heritage Foundation’s policy proposals should be sufficient association for voters to consider its implications.
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