:Project 2025

File:KevinRoberts.png, president of the Heritage Foundation, established Project 2025 with the goal of "building a governing agenda, not just for next January but long into the future".{{Cite news |last1=Boorstein |first1=Michelle |last2=Knowles |first2=Hannah |date=June 13, 2024 |title=Here's what the Christian right wants from a second Trump term |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/06/13/trump-christian-right-abortion-prayer/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240613113747/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/06/13/trump-christian-right-abortion-prayer/ |archive-date=June 13, 2024 |access-date=June 13, 2024 |newspaper=The Washington Post |url-status=live }}|alt=Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts established the Project in 2022.]]

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank founded in 1973, has had significant influence in U.S. public policy making. In 2019, it ranked among the most influential public policy organizations in the United States.{{Cite web |title=Guides: Public Policy Research Think Tanks 2019: Top Think Tanks – US |url=https://guides.library.upenn.edu/c.php?g=1035991&p=7509974 |url-status=live |access-date=2022-12-03 |website=guides.library.upenn.edu |language=en |archive-date=2022-12-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221203154727/https://guides.library.upenn.edu/c.php?g=1035991&p=7509974 }}{{cite news | last1 = Weisberg | first1 = Jacob | author-link1 = Jacob Weisberg | url = http://www.slate.com/id/2299/ | title = Happy Birthday, Heritage Foundation | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100323144821/http://slate.com/id/2299 | archive-date= 2010-03-23 | work=Slate | date = 1998-01-08 | df = dmy-all}} It coordinates with many conservative groups to build a network of allies.

The Heritage Foundation is closely aligned with Trump.{{Cite news |last1=Treene |first1=Alayna |last2=Contorno |first2=Steve |last3=Sullivan |first3=Kate |date=July 5, 2024 |title=Trump seeks to distance himself from pro-Trump Project 2025 |url=https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/05/politics/trump-distance-project-2025/index.html |access-date=July 6, 2024 |website=CNN |language=en |archive-date=July 6, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240706200148/https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/05/politics/trump-distance-project-2025/index.html |url-status=live |quote=In a post to his social media site, Trump claimed, 'I know nothing about Project 2025,' the name given to a playbook crafted by the Heritage Foundation to fill the executive branch with thousands of Trump loyalists and reorient its many agencies' missions around conservative ideals. }} The project's president, Kevin Roberts, sees the organization's current role as "institutionalizing Trumpism."{{cite news |last1=Garcia-Navarro |first1=Lulu |title=Inside the Heritage Foundation's Plans for 'Institutionalizing Trumpism' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/21/magazine/heritage-foundation-kevin-roberts.html |work=The New York Times |date=January 21, 2024 |access-date=June 23, 2024 |archive-date=February 13, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240213083434/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/21/magazine/heritage-foundation-kevin-roberts.html |url-status=live }} At a 2022 Heritage Foundation dinner, Trump endorsed the organization, saying it was "going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do ... when the American people give us a colossal mandate."{{Cite news |last=Durkee |first=Alison |title=Project 2025 Explained: What To Know About The Controversial Right-Wing Policy Map For Trump—As Director Steps Down |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2024/07/30/project-2025-explained-what-to-know-about-the-controversial-right-wing-policy-map-for-trump-as-director-steps-down/ |access-date=August 3, 2024 |website=Forbes |language=en |quote=Trump has also seemingly endorsed Heritage's policy work in the past, saying at a 2022 dinner for the Heritage Foundation that the group was "going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do ... when the American people give us a colossal mandate." |archive-date=August 3, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240803151145/https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2024/07/30/project-2025-explained-what-to-know-about-the-controversial-right-wing-policy-map-for-trump-as-director-steps-down/ |url-status=live }} Roberts said in April 2024 that he had talked to Trump about Project 2025; the Trump campaign denied this.{{Cite news |last1=Arnsdorf |first1=Isaac |last2=Dawsey |first2=Josh |last3=Knowles |first3=Hannah |date=August 7, 2024 |title=Trump took a private flight with Project 2025 leader in 2022 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2024/08/07/trump-heritage-project-2025-roberts/ |access-date=August 7, 2024 |newspaper=The Washington Post |archive-date=August 7, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240807223915/https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2024/08/07/trump-heritage-project-2025-roberts/ |url-status=live }}

Vice President JD Vance wrote the foreword to Roberts's book Dawn's Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America. Some have claimed that Vance is connected to Project 2025 through shared views on policy matters.{{Cite magazine |last=Mehrotra |first=Dhruv |title=J.D. Vance Left His Venmo Public. Here's What It Shows |url=https://www.wired.com/story/jd-vance-venmo/ |access-date=2024-07-27 |magazine=Wired |language=en-US |issn=1059-1028 |archive-date=November 18, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241118015015/https://www.wired.com/story/jd-vance-venmo/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Prokop |first=Andrew |date=July 25, 2024 |title=J.D. Vance has made it impossible for Trump to run away from Project 2025 |url=https://www.vox.com/politics/362917/jd-vance-project-2025-book-kevin-roberts-trump |access-date=July 25, 2024 |website=Vox |language=en-US |archive-date=July 25, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240725224802/https://www.vox.com/politics/362917/jd-vance-project-2025-book-kevin-roberts-trump |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Musgrave |first=Shawn |date=2024-07-17 |title=On Abortion, J.D. Vance Is the Bridge Between Trump and Project 2025 |url=https://theintercept.com/2024/07/17/jd-vance-trump-project-2025/ |access-date=2024-07-27 |website=The Intercept |language=en-US |archive-date=November 18, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241118013510/https://theintercept.com/2024/07/17/jd-vance-trump-project-2025/ |url-status=live }}

Project 2025 was established in 2022 with Paul Dans as director to provide the 2024 Republican presidential nominee with a personnel database and ideological framework. According to the Johnson Amendment, 501c3 organizations like Heritage cannot explicitly promote a particular election candidate.{{cite news |title=Political Campaign Activities – Risks to Tax-Exempt Status |url=https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/running-nonprofit/governance-leadership/political-campaign-activities-risks-tax-exempt-status |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240613152915/https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/running-nonprofit/governance-leadership/political-campaign-activities-risks-tax-exempt-status |archive-date=June 13, 2024 |access-date=June 12, 2024 |publisher=National Council of Nonprofits |quote=In return for its favored tax-status, a 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit, foundation, or religious organization promises the federal government that it will not engage in "political campaign activity".}} The Heritage Foundation spent $22 million preparing staffing recommendations for a conservative government in 2025. This was much more than what the group typically does for its staffing recommendations because President Trump said he had terrible staff during his first term.{{Cite news |last1=Haberman |first1=Maggie |author-link=Maggie Haberman |last2=Swan |first2=Jonathan |author-link2=Jonathan Swan |date=April 20, 2023 |title=Heritage Foundation Makes Plans to Staff Next G.O.P. Administration |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/20/us/politics/republican-president-2024-heritage-foundation.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230913101937/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/20/us/politics/republican-president-2024-heritage-foundation.html |archive-date=September 13, 2023 |access-date=July 7, 2024|newspaper=The New York Times|quote=But for this election, after conservatives and Mr. Trump himself decried what they viewed as terrible staffing decisions made during his administration, more than 50 conservative groups have temporarily set aside rivalries to team up with Heritage on the project, set to start Friday.}} Citing the Reagan-era maxim that "personnel is policy", some political commentators have argued that personnel is the most important aspect of Project 2025.{{Cite news |last=Serwer |first=Adam |date=August 1, 2024 |title=Why Trump Can't Banish the Weirdos |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/08/trump-project-2025-director-weird/679321/ |access-date=August 5, 2024 |website=The Atlantic |language=en |archive-date=October 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241009121239/https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/08/trump-project-2025-director-weird/679321/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=MacGillis |first=Alec |date=August 1, 2024 |title=The Man Behind Project 2025's Most Radical Plans |url=https://www.propublica.org/article/project-2025-trump-campaign-heritage-foundation-paul-dans |access-date=August 14, 2024 |website=ProPublica |language=en |quote=The most important pillar of Project 2025 has always been about personnel, not policy. Or rather, the whole effort is animated by the Reagan-era maxim that personnel is policy, that power flows from having the right people in the right jobs. |archive-date=October 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241009121203/https://www.propublica.org/article/project-2025-trump-campaign-heritage-foundation-paul-dans |url-status=live }}

File:Former President Donald Trump Holds Campaign Rally In Rochester, New Hampshire (53481310366).jpg and his 2024 presidential campaign.{{efn|{{harvp|Skibell|2024}}: {{Blockquote|Many of the authors of the blueprint are former Trump officials, and the Heritage Foundation has spent the past year-plus recruiting people to implement the plans within the administration, Scott said.

"So they don't just have a long, sprawling policy document," he said, "they also have a growing list of staff who are being tested to see if they are loyal to Trump and if they are willing to administer this in his potential administration."|multiline=yes|author=Scott Waldman}}

{{harvp|Klawans|2024}}: {{Blockquote|Former Trump staffers involved with Project 2025 include former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Trump's former senior adviser Stephen Miller, the latter of whom has been described as a white nationalist.

However, as New York magazine said,{{Cite magazine |last=Hartmann |first=Margaret |date=28 June 2024 |title=Trump's Most Unhinged Plans for His Second Term |url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trumps-second-term-agenda.html |department=Early and Often (story series) |magazine=Intelligencer |access-date=6 November 2024 |archive-date=March 30, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240330201440/https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trumps-second-term-agenda.html |url-status=live }} many of Trump's indicated plans for a second term fall in line with the Project 2025 outline.|multiline=yes|author=Justin Klawans}}

{{harvp|Mascaro|2024|ref=MascaroJune}}: {{blockquote|While the Trump campaign has repeatedly said that outside groups do not speak for the former president, Project 2025's 1,000-page proposal was drafted with input from a long list of former Trump administration officials who are poised to fill the top ranks of a potential new administration.}}

}}|alt=Donald Trump at a campaigning event in New Hampshire in January 2024]]

The Mandate for Leadership series has had updated editions released in parallel with United States presidential elections since 1981.{{Cite web |date=April 21, 2023 |title=Project 2025 Publishes Comprehensive Policy Guide, 'Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise' |url=https://www.heritage.org/press/project-2025-publishes-comprehensive-policy-guide-mandate-leadership-the-conservative-promise |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231120155902/https://www.heritage.org/press/project-2025-publishes-comprehensive-policy-guide-mandate-leadership-the-conservative-promise |archive-date=November 20, 2023 |access-date=November 19, 2023 |publisher=The Heritage Foundation}} Heritage calls its Mandate a "policy bible", claiming that the implementation of almost two-thirds of the policies in its 1981 Mandate was attempted by Ronald Reagan,{{Cite news |last=Leingang |first=Rachel |date=July 9, 2024 |title=What is Project 2025 and what is Trump's involvement? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/26/what-is-project-2025-trump |access-date=July 9, 2024 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077 |quote=Still, Heritage claimed credit for a bevy of Trump policy proposals in his first term, based on the group's 2017 version of the Mandate for Leadership. The group calculated that 64% of its policy recommendations were implemented or proposed by Trump in some way during his first year in office. |archive-date=June 13, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240613152914/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/26/what-is-project-2025-trump |url-status=live }} and similarly, the implementation of nearly two-thirds of the policies of its 2015 Mandate was attempted by Trump.

In April 2023, the Heritage Foundation published the 920-page Mandate, written by hundreds of conservatives.{{Cite news |last=Waldman |first=Scott |date=July 28, 2023 |title=Conservatives Have Already Written a Climate Plan for Trump's Second Term |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/28/far-right-climate-plans-00107498 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231110135235/https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/28/far-right-climate-plans-00107498 |archive-date=November 10, 2023 |access-date=November 13, 2023 |work=Politico}} Nearly half of the project's collaborating organizations have received dark money contributions from a network of fundraising groups linked to Leonard Leo, a major conservative donor and key figure in guiding the selection of Trump's federal judicial nominees.{{Cite news |last=Doyle |first=Katherine |date=November 17, 2023 |title=Donations Have Surged to Groups Linked to Conservative Project 2025 |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/donations-surged-groups-linked-conservative-project-2025-rcna125638 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231118071504/https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/donations-surged-groups-linked-conservative-project-2025-rcna125638 |archive-date=November 18, 2023 |access-date=November 18, 2023 |website=NBC News}}

File:President Donald J. Trump’s Dinner with Grassroots Leaders 01.jpg (left front) co-founder of the Heritage Foundation, and other conservative group leaders in 2017]]

The 2024 Trump campaign said no outside group speaks for Trump and that Agenda 47 is the only official plan for a second Trump presidency.{{Cite web |title=Trump. Make America Great Again! 2024. Agenda47 |url=https://www.donaldjtrump.com/agenda47 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231213220539/https://www.donaldjtrump.com/agenda47 |archive-date=December 13, 2023 |access-date=December 13, 2023 |publisher=Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign |publication-date=2023}}{{Cite news |last1=Allen |first1=Mike |last2=VandeHei |first2=Jim |date=November 13, 2023 |title=Behind the Curtain: Trump Allies Pre-Screen Loyalists for Unprecedented Power Grab |url=https://www.axios.com/2023/11/13/trump-loyalists-2024-presidential-election |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231113214832/https://www.axios.com/2023/11/13/trump-loyalists-2024-presidential-election |archive-date=November 13, 2023 |access-date=November 13, 2023 |website=Axios}}{{cite news |last1=Levien |first1=Simon J. |date=June 27, 2024 |title=Biden Campaign Takes Aim at Project 2025, a Set of Conservative Proposals |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/27/us/politics/biden-trump-project-2025.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240627205306/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/27/us/politics/biden-trump-project-2025.html |archive-date=June 27, 2024 |access-date=June 27, 2024 |work=The New York Times}} Policy suggestions from groups in Project 2025 reflected Trump's own words. His campaign said it appreciated these groups' policy suggestions.{{Cite news |last1=Haberman |first1=Maggie |author-link=Maggie Haberman |last2=Savage |first2=Charlie |author-link2=Charlie Savage (author) |last3=Swan |first3=Jonathan |date=November 10, 2023 |title=Trump Campaign Officials Try to Play Down Contentious 2025 Plans |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/13/us/politics/trump-campaign-2025-statement.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231114231459/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/13/us/politics/trump-campaign-2025-statement.html |archive-date=November 14, 2023 |access-date=November 14, 2023 |work=The New York Times }} On July 5, 2024, Trump denied any knowledge of Project 2025. Political commentators including Robert Reich, Michael Steele, and Olivia Troye dismissed Trump's denial.{{cite news |last1=Yang |first1=Maya |title=Donald Trump claims to 'know nothing' about Project 2025 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/05/donald-trump-project-2025 |work=The Guardian |date=June 6, 2024 |access-date=July 6, 2024 |archive-date=July 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240712191610/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/05/donald-trump-project-2025 |url-status=live }}{{cite news |last1=Teshome |first1=Eden |title=Michael Steele ridicules Trump for post disowning Project 2025 |url=https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4756929-michael-steele-donald-trump-project-2025-remarks/ |work=The Hill |access-date=July 25, 2024 |date=June 6, 2024}}{{cite news |last1=Troye |first1=Olivia |title='Just ludicrous': Ex-Pence advisor on Trump's attempt to distance himself from 'Project 2025' |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/07/politics/video/trump-distance-project-2025-olivia-troye-nr-digvid |access-date=July 8, 2024 |publisher=CNN |date=July 8, 2024 |archive-date=July 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240712195530/https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/07/politics/video/trump-distance-project-2025-olivia-troye-nr-digvid |url-status=live }}

Heritage briefed other 2024 Republican presidential primaries candidates on the project, but focused on policies Trump could implement.

Project 2025 is not the only conservative program with a database of prospective recruits for a potential Republican administration, though these initiatives' leaders all have connections to Trump. In general, these initiatives seek to help Trump avoid the mistakes of his first term, when he arrived at the White House unprepared.{{Cite news |last1=Berry |first1=Lynn |last2=Tang |first2=Didi |last3=Colvin |first3=Jill |last4=Knickmeyer |first4=Ellen |date=May 9, 2024 |title=Trump-affiliated group releases new national security book outlining possible second-term approach |url=https://apnews.com/article/america-first-trump-biden-russia-ukraine-policy-54080728c6e549c8312c4d71150480ba |access-date=June 24, 2024 |publisher=Associated Press |archive-date=June 25, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240625030338/https://apnews.com/article/america-first-trump-biden-russia-ukraine-policy-54080728c6e549c8312c4d71150480ba |url-status=live }} By reclassifying tens of thousands of merit-based federal civil service workers as political appointees in order to replace them with Trump loyalists,{{Cite news |last=Licon |first=Adriana Gomex |date=July 5, 2024 |title=Trump denies knowing about Project 2025, his allies' sweeping plan to transform the US government |url=https://apnews.com/article/trump-project-2025-biden-9d372469033d23e1e3aef5cf0470a2e6 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240706163811/https://apnews.com/article/trump-project-2025-biden-9d372469033d23e1e3aef5cf0470a2e6 |archive-date=July 6, 2024 |access-date=July 6, 2024 |work=Associated Press |publisher= |language=en |quote=The 922-page plan outlines a dramatic expansion of presidential power and a plan to fire as many as 50,000 government workers to replace them with Trump loyalists.}} some fear they would be willing to bend or break protocol, or in some cases violate laws, to achieve his goals.

By February 2024, Project 2025 had over 100 partner organizations.{{Cite news |last=Talcott |first=Shelby |date=February 20, 2024 |title=The Heritage Foundation Recruits an Army to Build a Trump Presidency Playbook |url=https://www.semafor.com/article/02/20/2024/heritage-recruits-an-army-to-build-a-trump-presidency-playbook |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240222082332/https://www.semafor.com/article/02/20/2024/heritage-recruits-an-army-to-build-a-trump-presidency-playbook |archive-date=February 22, 2024 |access-date=February 22, 2024 |work=Semafor}} The Southern Poverty Law Center identified seven of these as hate or extremist groups.{{Cite news |last=Dent |first=Alec |date=July 21, 2024 |title=Trump 2024 vs. Project 2025 |url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-2024-vs-project-2025.html |access-date=August 1, 2024 |website=Intelligencer |language=en |quote=They also include seven organizations identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as hate or extremist groups, including the Center for Immigration Studies, which was designated a hate group 'for its decadeslong history of circulating racist writers, while also associating with white nationalists.' (CIS denies this.) |archive-date=July 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240712195022/https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-2024-vs-project-2025.html |url-status=live }}

File:Russell Vought swearing in.jpg

In May 2024, Russell Vought was named policy director of the Republican National Committee platform committee.{{cite news |last1=Dixon |first1=Matt |date=May 23, 2024 |title=Trump team moves behind the scenes to shift the GOP platform on abortion and marriage |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-team-shift-rnc-gop-platform-abortion-marriage-rcna152677 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240613152932/https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-team-shift-rnc-gop-platform-abortion-marriage-rcna152677 |archive-date=June 13, 2024 |access-date=May 28, 2024 |publisher=NBC News }} The Center for Renewing America (CRA), founded by Vought, is on Project 2025's advisory board.{{Cite web |title=Advisory Board |date=February 2, 2023 |url=https://www.project2025.org/about/advisory-board/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231119034220/https://www.project2025.org/about/advisory-board/ |archive-date=November 19, 2023 |access-date=August 15, 2024 |publisher=The Heritage Foundation}} CRA drafted executive orders, regulations, and memos that could have laid the groundwork for rapid action on Trump's plans when he won. The CRA identified Christian Nationalism as one of the top priorities for the second Trump term. Vought claimed that Trump blessed the CRA, and that his effort to distance himself from Project 2025 was just politics.{{Cite news |last1=Devine |first1=Curt |last2=Tolan |first2=Casey |last3=Ash |first3=Audrey |last4=Lah |first4=Kyung |date=August 15, 2024 |title=In secretly recorded video, Project 2025 co-author says he's drafted hundreds of executive orders for Trump |url=https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/15/politics/russ-vought-project-2025-trump-secret-recording-invs/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240815183424/https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/15/politics/russ-vought-project-2025-trump-secret-recording-invs/index.html |archive-date=August 15, 2024 |access-date=August 15, 2024 |publisher=CNN}} Vought was Trump's director of the Office of Management and Budget during his first term and was reappointed to the position for the second term.{{cite web | url = https://apnews.com/article/trump-russell-vought-confirmation-budget-project-2025-7d1c476694176876256e95cecbd49231# | title = Senate confirms Project 2025 architect Russell Vought to lead powerful White House budget office | work = Associated Press | date = 2025-02-07 | access-date = 2025-02-07 | first = Stephen | last = Groves }}

In July 2024, Stephen Miller, a former Trump advisor, sought to remove his company, America First Legal, from the Project 2025 list of advisory board members.{{cite news |last1=Steakin |first1=Will |title=Pro-Trump group asks to be removed from Project 2025 advisory board: Sources |url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/pro-trump-group-asks-removed-project-2025-advisory/story?id=111896330 |publisher=ABC News |date=July 12, 2024 |access-date=July 25, 2024 |archive-date=July 13, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240713025126/https://abcnews.go.com/US/pro-trump-group-asks-removed-project-2025-advisory/story?id=111896330 |url-status=live }} Before leaving Project 2025, he appeared in a promotional video for it.{{Cite news |last=Leingang |first=Rachel |date=2024-12-09 |title=Project 2025: the Trump picks with ties to ultra-rightwing policy manifesto |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/22/project-2025-trump-picks |access-date=2024-12-16 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} In November 2024, he was appointed as an advisor to the White House for Trump's second term.{{Cite web |last=Treene |first=Alayna |date=November 11, 2024 |title=Trump expected to announce Stephen Miller as White House deputy chief of staff for policy |url=https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-election-house-11-11-24#cm3d5sttk00053b6m0grsiibj |access-date=November 11, 2024 |publisher=CNN}}{{Cite news |last=Ordoñez |first=Franco |date=13 November 2024 |title=Stephen Miller will be Trump's homeland security advisor in new White House role |url=https://www.npr.org/2024/11/11/g-s1-33741/trump-stephen-miller-deputy-chief-of-staff-immigration-policy-deportations |access-date=13 November 2024 |work=NPR |archive-date=November 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241111194712/https://www.npr.org/2024/11/11/g-s1-33741/trump-stephen-miller-deputy-chief-of-staff-immigration-policy-deportations |url-status=live }}

Project 2025 partners employ over 200 former Trump administration officials.{{cite news |last1=Contorno |first1=Steve |title=Trump claims not to know who is behind Project 2025. A CNN review found at least 140 people who worked for him are involved |url=https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/11/politics/trump-allies-project-2025/index.html |access-date=July 11, 2024 |publisher=CNN |date=July 11, 2024 |archive-date=July 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240712195023/https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/11/politics/trump-allies-project-2025/index.html |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Prokop |first=Andrew |date=July 13, 2024 |title=Project 2025: The myths and the facts |url=https://www.vox.com/politics/360318/project-2025-trump-policies-abortion-divorce |access-date=July 17, 2024 |website=Vox |language=en-US |archive-date=October 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241009121239/https://www.vox.com/politics/360318/project-2025-trump-policies-abortion-divorce |url-status=live }} Trump was not personally involved in drafting or approving the plan. Six of his cabinet secretaries are authors or contributors to the 2025 Mandate, and about 20 pages are credited to his first deputy chief of staff. By summer 2023, the project was seen as a fitting organization for Trump's young and loyal advisors.{{Cite news |last=Ward |first=Ian |date=August 2, 2024 |title=It Was Supposed to Be Trump's Administration in Waiting. But Project 2025 Was a Mirage All Along: The inside story of how Project 2025 fell apart |url=https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/08/02/project-2025-trump-inside-story-00172299 |work=Politico |access-date=August 2, 2024 |archive-date=August 2, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240802174602/https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/08/02/project-2025-trump-inside-story-00172299 |url-status=live }}

John McEntee, a senior advisor for Project 2025 and former Trump aide, said the project was doing valuable work in anticipation of Trump's second term.{{cite news |last1=Samuels |first1=Brett |title=Ex-Trump aide John McEntee joins Heritage operation as senior adviser |url=https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3984096-ex-trump-aide-john-mcentee-joins-heritage-operation-as-senior-adviser/ |access-date=2 February 2025 |work=The Hill |date=2 May 2023 |archive-date=May 31, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230531225857/https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3984096-ex-trump-aide-john-mcentee-joins-heritage-operation-as-senior-adviser/ |url-status=live }}{{cite news |last1=Allen |first1=Mike |last2=Basu |first2=Zachary |date=July 5, 2024 |title=Trump disavows Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, despite MAGA ties |url=https://www.axios.com/2024/07/05/trump-project-2025-heritage-foundation |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240705215915/https://www.axios.com/2024/07/05/trump-project-2025-heritage-foundation |archive-date=July 5, 2024 |access-date=July 5, 2024 |work=Axios |quote=in April 2024, Project 2025 senior advisor John McEntee stated that they and the Trump campaign planned to 'integrate a lot of our work'}}

Christopher Miller, who was secretary of defense for the last month of Trump's first term, wrote the Mandate's chapter on the Department of Defense.{{rp|page=91}}{{cite news |last1=Mallinder |first1=Lorraine |title=What could Project 2025 mean for the rest of the world? |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/7/10/what-does-project-2025-mean-for-the-world |access-date=7 February 2025 |work=Al Jazeera |language=en |archive-date=February 4, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250204184033/https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/7/10/what-does-project-2025-mean-for-the-world |url-status=live }}

Before his second term, many Project 2025 contributors were expected to have positions in the second Trump administration,{{Cite news |last=Layne |first=Nathan |date=July 5, 2024 |title=Trump seeks to disavow 'Project 2025' despite ties to conservative group |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-seeks-disavow-project-2025-despite-ties-conservative-group-2024-07-05/ |access-date=July 27, 2024 |publisher=Reuters |quote=Trump's post came three days after Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts' comments on Steve Bannon's 'War Room' podcast about a second American Revolution. Democrats and others criticized what they viewed as a veiled threat of violence. [...] Trump's statements and policy positions suggest he is aligned with some but not all of the project's agenda.}} and the administration was expected to use the database of potential federal employees the project recruited and trained.{{Cite news |last=Dent |first=Alec |date=July 21, 2024 |title=Trump 2024 vs. Project 2025 |url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-2024-vs-project-2025.html |access-date=August 1, 2024 |website=Intelligencer |language=en |quote=There is a good chance, though, that he will use at least the project's list of loyalists to staff a second administration...Despite Trump's annoyance with Project 2025, it seems probable that he will wind up being particularly enticed by its personnel database, overseen by McEntee. |archive-date=July 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240712195022/https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-2024-vs-project-2025.html |url-status=live }} Peter Navarro, one of Mandate's authors, was appointed Senior Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing.{{cite news |last1=Gangitano |first1=Alex |date=4 December 2024 |title=Trump taps ex-aide Peter Navarro for senior counselor on trade and manufacturing |url=https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5021849-peter-navarro-senior-counselor-trade/ |access-date=6 February 2025 |work=The Hill |archive-date=December 5, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241205042428/https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5021849-peter-navarro-senior-counselor-trade/ |url-status=live }}

Associate project director Spencer Chretien, associate director of presidential personnel during Trump's first term, said it was "past time to lay the groundwork for a White House more friendly to the right".{{Cite news |last=Larson |first=Shannon |date=June 13, 2024 |title=What to know about Project 2025, the far-right agenda for a second Trump administration |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/06/13/nation/project-25-explained/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240613163017/https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/06/13/nation/project-25-explained/ |archive-date=June 13, 2024 |access-date=June 15, 2024 |work=The Boston Globe |url-status=live }}

On July 2, 2024, Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts created controversy by saying, "we are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be."{{Cite news |date=July 4, 2024 |title=Leader of the pro-Trump Project 2025 suggests there will be a new American Revolution: Kevin Roberts said the revolution will be bloodless 'if the left allows it to be.' |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2024/07/04/leader-of-the-pro-trump-project-2025-suggests-there-will-be-a-new-american-revolution-00166583 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240706210933/https://www.politico.com/news/2024/07/04/leader-of-the-pro-trump-project-2025-suggests-there-will-be-a-new-american-revolution-00166583 |archive-date=July 6, 2024 |access-date=July 6, 2024 |work=Politico |quote=His call for revolution and vague reference to violence also unnerved some Democrats who interpreted it as threatening. |agency=Associated Press}} Shortly afterward, the Foundation released a statement adding, "Unfortunately, they have a well established record of instigating the opposite."{{cite tweet |date=July 3, 2024 |title=The Second American Revolution will remain bloodless if the Left allows it to be. Unfortunately, they have a well established record of instigating the opposite. Here's a small sample of what they mean when they talk about 'saving democracy.'👇 |user=Heritage |number=1808581655122047025 |access-date=July 12, 2024 |archive-date=July 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240709210952/https://x.com/Heritage/status/1808581655122047025 |url-status=live }}

Project 2025 released a statement on July 5 saying the project "does not speak for any candidate or campaign" and that it is up to "the next conservative president" to decide which of its recommendations to implement.{{Cite news |title=What is Project 2025? What to know about the conservative blueprint for a second Trump administration |first1=Melissa |last1=Quinn |first2=Jacob |last2=Rosen |publisher=CBS News |date=July 8, 2024 |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-is-project-2025-trump-conservative-blueprint-heritage-foundation/ |access-date=July 10, 2024 |archive-date=July 10, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240710042242/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-is-project-2025-trump-conservative-blueprint-heritage-foundation/ |url-status=live }} In July 2024, Trump reiterated his disavowal of Project 2025,{{Cite news |last=Hawkinson |first=Katie |date=July 20, 2024 |title=Trump calls Project 2025 'seriously extreme,' claims he knows nothing about plan |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-project-2025-rally-b2583142.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240721115944/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-project-2025-rally-b2583142.html |archive-date=July 21, 2024 |access-date=July 21, 2024 |website=The Independent}}{{Cite news |last1=Hillyard |first1=Vaughn |last2=Marquez |first2=Alexandra |date=July 11, 2024 |title=Trump disavows Project 2025, but he has long-standing ties to some key architects |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/project-2025-trump-heritage-foundation-what-know-rcna161338 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240721171914/https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/project-2025-trump-heritage-foundation-what-know-rcna161338 |archive-date=July 21, 2024 |access-date=July 21, 2024 |publisher=NBC News}}Multiple sources.

• {{cite web |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/11/politics/trump-allies-project-2025/index.html |title=Trump claims not to know who is behind Project 2025. A CNN review found at least 140 people who worked for him are involved |author=Steve Contorno |publication-date=July 11, 2024 |publisher=CNN |access-date=September 12, 2024 |quote=Donald Trump has lately made clear he wants little to do with Project 2025, the conservative blueprint for the next Republican president that has attracted considerable blowback in his race for the White House.
  "I have no idea who is behind it," the former president recently claimed on social media. |archive-date=September 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240911201617/https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/11/politics/trump-allies-project-2025/index.html |url-status=live }}
• {{cite web |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2024/07/18/trump-campaign-manager-denies-links-between-ex-president-and-project-2025-pure-speculation/ |title=Trump Campaign Manager Denies Links Between Ex-President And Project 2025: 'Pure Speculation' |author=Alison Durkee |publication-date=July 18, 2024 |work=Forbes |access-date=September 12, 2024 |quote=The Trump campaign is continuing to distance itself from the controversial Project 2025 agenda that lays out a series of extreme policy proposals for a second Trump presidency, with the ex-president's campaign manager Chris LaCivita telling Politico on Thursday the right-wing project doesn't speak for the campaign and denouncing it as a "pain in the ass." |archive-date=October 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241009121139/https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2024/07/18/trump-campaign-manager-denies-links-between-ex-president-and-project-2025-pure-speculation/ |url-status=live }}
• {{cite AV media |people=Donald Trump |date=July 25, 2024 |title=Trump dispels myths on Project 2025: 'I have nothing to do' with it |medium=Internet video |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42wRJHgjOgo |access-date=September 12, 2024 |time=04:57 |publisher=Fox News |archive-date=October 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241009121412/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42wRJHgjOgo |url-status=live }}
• {{cite web |url=https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-sends-out-flyer-to-voters-denying-involvement-with-project-2025/ar-AA1pn9eY?ocid=BingNewsVerp |title=Trump sends out flyer to voters denying involvement with Project 2025 |author=Rey Harris |publication-date=August 24, 2024 |publisher=MSN |access-date=September 12, 2024 |quote=Voters in multiple states have been receiving a flyer from Donald Trump's campaign, which seeks to convince them that he isn't involved with this "Project 2025" the Democrats keep talking about. |archive-date=October 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241009121303/https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-sends-out-flyer-to-voters-denying-involvement-with-project-2025/ar-AA1pn9eY?ocid=BingNewsVerp |url-status=live }}
• {{cite web |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-debate-denies-involvement-project-2025/story?id=113569516 |title=Trump in debate again denies involvement in Project 2025 |author=Emily Chang, Ivan Pereira |publication-date=September 10, 2024 |publisher=ABC News |access-date=September 12, 2024 |quote=Trump has said he has not read the 922-page playbook, and does not plan to. |archive-date=October 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241009121156/https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-debate-denies-involvement-project-2025/story?id=113569516 |url-status=live }} but in the same month Project 2025 Director Paul Dans confirmed that his team had ongoing connections with Trump's campaign.{{Cite news |last1=Willacy |first1=Mark |last2=Donaldson |first2=Amy |date=July 15, 2024 |title=If all goes to plan this man will make Donald Trump one of the most powerful presidents of all time |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-16/trump-project-2025-plan-us-election-four-corners/104015688 |access-date=July 24, 2024 |publisher=ABC News (Australia) |language=en-AU |quote=But Dans confirmed his team has ongoing connections with the Trump campaign. 'We have integration with folks on the campaign. The reality is ... we often supply ideas and ultimately we hope to offer personnel suggestions,' Dans says. 'This is really going to be the engine room for the next administration. Many of these folks served and will be called upon to serve again.' |archive-date=July 22, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240722215454/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-16/trump-project-2025-plan-us-election-four-corners/104015688 |url-status=live }} During the week of July 29, Dans told Project staff that he would step down as director in August to focus on the election campaign.{{cite news |last1=Cabral |first1=Sam |title=Project 2025 leader Paul Dans resigns from Heritage Foundation |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpe3kx3vgd1o |access-date=3 February 2025 |work=BBC |date=30 July 2024 |location=Washington |archive-date=January 15, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250115010720/https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpe3kx3vgd1o |url-status=live }}{{cite news |last1=Restuccia |first1=Andrew |title=Head of Project 2025 Steps Down Following Trump Criticism |url=https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/project-2025-head-steps-down-89cba52b?st=hsuq9ll4t19otf1 |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=July 30, 2024 |access-date=July 30, 2024 |archive-date=October 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241009121657/https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/project-2025-head-steps-down-89cba52b?st=hsuq9ll4t19otf1 |url-status=live }} Kevin Roberts assumed leadership of the project.{{cite news |last1=Mascaro |first1=Lisa |title=Project 2025's new leader Kevin Roberts postpones his own book launch until after the election |url=https://apnews.com/article/project-2025-harris-trump-vance-heritage-roberts-01de527325a9a0325bac35989d37ce36 |publisher=Associated Press |date=August 7, 2024 |access-date=August 7, 2024 |archive-date=August 7, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240807233253/https://apnews.com/article/project-2025-harris-trump-vance-heritage-roberts-01de527325a9a0325bac35989d37ce36 |url-status=live }}

Roger Severino is vice president of domestic policy at The Heritage Foundation. He, Roberts, and Dans wrote much of the Mandate.

The Mandate for Leadership outlines four main aims: restoring the family as the centerpiece of American life; dismantling the administrative state; defending the nation's sovereignty and borders; and securing God-given individual rights to live freely.{{cite news |last1=Wendling |first1=Mike |date=July 7, 2024 |title=Project 2025: A wish list for a Trump presidency, explained |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c977njnvq2do |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240612125321/https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c977njnvq2do |archive-date=June 12, 2024 |access-date=June 13, 2024 |publisher=BBC |quote=...a controversial idea known as 'unitary executive theory'}} Roberts writes in the Mandate's foreword: "The long march of cultural Marxism through our institutions has come to pass. The federal government is a behemoth, weaponized against American citizens and conservative values, with freedom and liberty under siege as never before."{{rp|page=xiv}}{{Cite news |last=Shane |first=Peter M. |date=November 13, 2023 |title=Blitzkrieg Against the Administrative State |url=https://washingtonmonthly.com/2023/11/13/blitzkrieg-against-the-administrative-state/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231120022219/https://washingtonmonthly.com/2023/11/13/blitzkrieg-against-the-administrative-state/ |archive-date=November 20, 2023 |access-date=December 1, 2023 |work=Washington Monthly}}

Roberts interprets the phrase "pursuit of happiness" in the Declaration of Independence as "pursuit of blessedness". According to him, "an individual must be free to live as his Creator ordained—to flourish." The Constitution, he argues, "grants each of us the liberty to do not what we want, but what we ought".{{Rp|page=13}} He highlights family and religious devotion as life's most important principles.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Project{{nbsp}}2025 plans to infuse every aspect of federal government with Christian nationalism.{{Cite news |last=Phillips |first=Amber |date=July 12, 2024 |title=What is Project 2025? |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/12/project-2025-summary-trump/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=July 26, 2024 |quote=The centerpiece is a 900-page plan that calls for extreme policies on nearly every aspect of Americans' lives, from mass deportations, to politicizing the federal government in a way that would give Trump control over the Justice Department, to cutting entire federal agencies, to infusing Christian nationalism into every facet of government policy by calling for a ban on pornography and promoting policies that encourage 'marriage, work, motherhood, fatherhood, and nuclear families.' |archive-date=July 18, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240718140410/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/12/project-2025-summary-trump/ |url-status=live }} Roberts writes that the U.S. in 2024 is a place where "inflation is ravaging family budgets, drug overdose deaths continue to escalate, and children suffer the toxic normalization of transgenderism with drag queens and pornography invading their school libraries". Roberts also expressed concern over crime in the U.S.

Dans, also an editor of the project's guiding document, described Project 2025 as preparing a staff of conservatives to fight the deep state with their training from partner organizations.{{Cite web |title=Paul Dans |url=https://www.heritage.org/staff/paul-dans |access-date=April 28, 2024 |publisher=The Heritage Foundation |archive-date=April 25, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240425171805/https://www.heritage.org/staff/paul-dans |url-status=unfit }}{{Cite magazine |last=Gira Grant |first=Melissa |date=January 4, 2024 |title=The Right Is Winning Its War on Schools |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/177563/right-winning-war-schools |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240113215004/https://newrepublic.com/article/177563/right-winning-war-schools |archive-date=January 13, 2024 |access-date=January 13, 2024 |magazine=The New Republic |quote=systematically preparing to march into office and bring a new army, [of] aligned, trained, and essentially weaponized conservatives ready to do battle against the deep state.}} He wrote that Project 2025 has four pillars:{{rp|page=xiv}}

1. The Mandate for Leadership.
2. A personnel database, open to submissions from the public that Heritage can share with Trump's team.
3. The Presidential Administration Academy, an online educational system.
4. A secret playbook for creating teams and plans to activate after inaguration.{{Cite book |url=https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf |title=Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise |publisher=The Heritage Foundation |year=2023 |isbn=978-0-89195-174-2 |editor-last=Dans |editor-first=Paul |location=Washington, D.C. |access-date=November 15, 2023 |editor-last2=Groves |editor-first2=Steven |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231116113522/https://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/project2025/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf |archive-date=November 16, 2023 |url-status=live}}{{rp|xiv}}

File:2025 Mandate for Leadership SVG Cover.svg

Project 2025's supporters say it will dismantle a government bureaucracy that is, they believe, unaccountable and biased toward liberalism. Its critics have called it authoritarian, Christian nationalist, and autocratic. Legal experts say it would undermine the rule of law, the separation of powers, the separation of church and state, and civil liberties. Some critics have suggested Project 2025 is based on personal vengeance, or that its proposals for national conservatism are merely an "attempt to intellectually retrofit a rationale for Trumpism". Compared to previous Republican agendas, Project 2025 contains more elements of culture war and advocates for wider implementation of policy across the federal government.{{Cite news |date=July 13, 2023 |title=The meticulous, ruthless preparations for a second Trump term |url=https://www.economist.com/briefing/2023/07/13/the-meticulous-ruthless-preparations-for-a-second-trump-term |url-access=registration |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240123092421/https://www.economist.com/briefing/2023/07/13/the-meticulous-ruthless-preparations-for-a-second-trump-term |archive-date=January 23, 2024 |access-date=June 24, 2024 |newspaper=The Economist}} While some proposals might require the support of Republicans in Congress or favorable rulings from the Supreme Court, much relies on executive authority.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

{{See also|Foreign trade of the United States|United States energy independence}}

Project 2025 provides a range of options for economic reform that vary in their degree of radicalism. It is critical of the Federal Reserve, which it blames for the business cycle, and proposes abolishing it; it advocates instead that the dollar be backed by a commodity like gold. It recommends eliminating full employment from the Federal Reserve's mandate, instead focusing solely on targeting inflation.{{Rp|page=740}}{{Cite news |last=Dorn |first=Andrew |website=News Nation Now |date=July 18, 2024 |title=What Project 2025 says about taxes, trade |url=https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/2024-election/project-2025-taxes-trade-impact/ |access-date=July 31, 2024 |archive-date=July 31, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240731131600/https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/2024-election/project-2025-taxes-trade-impact/ |url-status=live }}

The Project envisions eventually moving from an income tax to a consumption tax, such as a national sales tax. In the interim, the Project seeks to extend the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA).{{Cite news |last=Cranston |first=Matthew |date=May 14, 2024 |title=What a second Trump presidency could bring |url=https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/what-a-second-trump-presidency-could-bring-20240407-p5fhxn |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240513220323/https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/what-a-second-trump-presidency-could-bring-20240407-p5fhxn |archive-date=May 13, 2024 |access-date=May 14, 2024 |work=Australian Financial Review |url-status=live }} It further recommends simplifying individual income taxes to two flat tax rates: 15% on incomes up to the Social Security Wage Base ($168,600 in 2024), and 30% above that. An unspecified standard deduction would be included, but most deductions, credits and exclusions would be eliminated. The proposal would likely increase taxes significantly for millions of low- and middle-income households.{{cite news |last=Picchi |first=Aimee |date=July 11, 2024 |title=Project 2025 would overhaul the U.S. tax system. Here's how it could impact you. |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/project-2025-tax-trump-economy-heritage-foundation-how-it-works/ |website=CBS News |access-date=July 12, 2024 |archive-date=July 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240711224348/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/project-2025-tax-trump-economy-heritage-foundation-how-it-works/ |url-status=live }}

It aims to reduce the corporate tax rate from 21% to 18% because the Mandate authors see it as the most harmful tax. The 2017 TCJA cut the rate from 35% to 21%.{{Cite news |date=July 12, 2024 |title=Project 2025 would overhaul the U.S. tax system. Here's how it could impact you. |website=CBS News |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/project-2025-tax-trump-economy-heritage-foundation-how-it-works/ |access-date=July 31, 2024 |language=en-US |archive-date=July 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240711224348/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/project-2025-tax-trump-economy-heritage-foundation-how-it-works/ |url-status=live }} It proposes reducing the capital gains rate for high earners to 15% from the 2024 level of 20%. After these reforms are implemented, it recommends that a three-fifths vote threshold be required to pass legislation that increases individual or corporate income tax.{{rp|page=698}}{{Cite web |title=The Alliance Attacking Freedom |website=Corporate Europe Observatory |url=https://corporateeurope.org/en/2024/05/alliance-attacking-freedom |access-date=July 31, 2024 |archive-date=July 31, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240731132429/https://corporateeurope.org/en/2024/05/alliance-attacking-freedom |url-status=live }} The constitutionality of such "legislative entrenchment" is debated, but most legal scholars agree it is not allowed.{{Cite journal |last=Doran |first=Michael |year=2018 |title=Legislative Entrenchment and Federal Fiscal Policy |url=https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4867&context=lcp |journal=Law and Contemporary Problems |publisher=Duke University |volume=81 |issue=27 |pages=27–59 |access-date=April 11, 2024 |archive-date=March 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240311050143/https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4867&context=lcp |url-status=live }}{{rp|28}}

The project proposes merging the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Census Bureau, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics into a single organization, and aligning its mission with conservative principles. It recommends maximizing the hiring of political appointees in statistical analysis positions.{{cite news |last1=Gleckman |first1=Howard |title=Conservatives Lay Out Their Second Term Trump Tax Policy |url=https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/conservatives-lay-out-their-second-term-trump-tax-policy |publisher=Tax Policy Center |date=February 29, 2024 |access-date=July 12, 2024 |archive-date=July 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240711180751/https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/conservatives-lay-out-their-second-term-trump-tax-policy |url-status=live }} It also recommends that Congress abolish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.{{Cite news |date=July 31, 2024 |title=Is this the end of Project 2025, the plan that riled Donald Trump? |url=https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2024/07/31/is-this-the-end-of-project-2025-the-plan-that-riled-donald-trump |access-date=August 3, 2024 |newspaper=The Economist |issn=0013-0613 |archive-date=August 3, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240803153757/https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2024/07/31/is-this-the-end-of-project-2025-the-plan-that-riled-donald-trump |url-status=live }} It plans to abolish the FTC, which is responsible for enforcing antitrust laws, and shrink the role of the National Labor Relations Board, which protects employees' ability to organize and fight unfair labor practices.{{Cite magazine |last=Elliott |first=Vittoria |date=August 1, 2024 |title=What Project 2025 Means for Big Tech ... and Everyone Else |url=https://www.wired.com/story/project-2025-tech-industry/ |access-date=August 3, 2024 |magazine=Wired |language=en-US |issn=1059-1028 |archive-date=August 3, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240803153757/https://www.wired.com/story/project-2025-tech-industry/ |url-status=live }} Some of the authors worked for Amazon, Meta, and Bitcoin companies directly or as lobbyists.{{Cite news |last=Birnbaum |first=Emily |date=July 24, 2024 |title=Harris Targets Trump by Raising Threat of 'Extreme' Project 2025 |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-24/who-s-behind-project-2025-trump-allies-lobbyists-and-conservatives |access-date=August 3, 2024 |work=Bloomberg News |language=en |archive-date=August 1, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240801234703/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-24/who-s-behind-project-2025-trump-allies-lobbyists-and-conservatives |url-status=live }} One expert claimed inconsistencies in the plan are designed for fund-raising from certain industries or donors that would benefit.

Project 2025 suggests abolishing the Economic Development Administration (EDA) at the Department of Commerce, and, if that proves impossible, having the EDA instead assist "rural communities destroyed by the Biden administration's attack on domestic energy production".{{rp|page=683}} Project 2025 also seeks to facilitate innovations in the civilian nuclear industry.{{Rp|page=9}}{{Cite web |last1=Gentry |first1=Dana |date=July 16, 2024 |title=Nuclear waste, atomic testing on tap for Nevada in Project 2025 manifesto • Source New Mexico |url=https://sourcenm.com/2024/07/16/nuclear-waste-atomic-testing-on-tap-for-nevada-in-project-2025-manifesto/ |access-date=July 31, 2024 |website=Source New Mexico |language=en-US |archive-date=July 31, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240731132957/https://sourcenm.com/2024/07/16/nuclear-waste-atomic-testing-on-tap-for-nevada-in-project-2025-manifesto/ |url-status=live }}

The project declares that "God ordained the Sabbath as a day of rest" and recommends legislation requiring that Americans be paid more for working on Sunday.{{rp|page=589}} It also aims to institute work requirements for people reliant on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which issues food stamps. It recommends that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration be more lenient on small businesses and that the overtime exception threshold be kept low enough not to burden businesses in rural areas.{{Cite web |last=Cercone |first=Jeff |title=No, Project 2025 plan wouldn't eliminate OSHA, overtime |url=https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2024/jul/12/threads-posts/project-2025-doesnt-call-for-eliminating-osha-or-o/ |access-date=August 4, 2024 |website=Politifact |language=en-US |archive-date=August 4, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240804050255/https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2024/jul/12/threads-posts/project-2025-doesnt-call-for-eliminating-osha-or-o/ |url-status=live }}

Project 2025 is split on the issue of foreign trade. Mandate author Peter Navarro advocates what he calls a fair trade policy of reciprocal, higher tariffs on the European Union, China, and India, to achieve a balance of trade, though not all U.S. levies are lower than those of its major trading partners. On the other hand, Mandate author Kent Lassman of the Competitive Enterprise Institute promotes a free trade policy of lowering or eliminating tariffs to cut costs for consumers, and calls for more free trade agreements.{{Cite news |date=October 31, 2023 |title=Donald Trump's second term would be a protectionist nightmare |url=https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2023/10/31/donald-trumps-second-term-would-be-a-protectionist-nightmare |url-access=registration |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20231031210612/https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2023/10/31/donald-trumps-second-term-would-be-a-protectionist-nightmare |archive-date=October 31, 2023 |access-date=May 12, 2024 |newspaper=The Economist}} He argues that Trump's and Biden's tariffs have undermined not just the American economy, but also the nation's international alliances.

Regarding banking regulation, Mandate recommends combining the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration, and parts of the Federal Reserve that perform regulatory and fiscal supervision.{{Rp|page=705}} The document says deposit insurance undermines bank depositors' incentive to monitor their banks' balance sheet.{{Rp|page=743}}

{{See also|2025 United States government data removals|Education in the United States|Common Core}}

A major concern of Project{{nbsp}}2025 is what it calls "woke propaganda" in public schools. In response, it envisions a significant reduction of the federal government's role in education, and the elevation of school choice and parental rights. To achieve that goal, it proposes closing the Department of Education, and giving states control over education funding and policy. Programs under the Individuals with Disabilities' Education Act (IDEA) would be administered instead by the Department of Health and Human Services. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) would become part of the Census Bureau.

The federal government, according to Project{{nbsp}}2025, should be no more than a statistics-keeping organization when it comes to education. Federal enforcement of civil rights in schools should be significantly curtailed, and such responsibilities should be transferred to the Department of Justice, which would then be able to enforce the law only through litigation. The federal government should no longer investigate schools for signs of disparate impacts of disciplinary measures on the basis of race or ethnicity. Project{{nbsp}}2025 blames federal government overreach for schools prioritizing "racial parity in school discipline indicators—such as detentions, suspensions, and expulsions—over student safety".{{Cite news |last=Stone |first=Matthew |date=March 25, 2024 |title=What Would Happen to K-12 in a 2nd Trump Term? A Detailed Policy Agenda Offers Clues |url=https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/what-would-happen-to-k-12-in-a-2nd-trump-term-a-detailed-policy-agenda-offers-clues/2024/03 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240326175303/https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/what-would-happen-to-k-12-in-a-2nd-trump-term-a-detailed-policy-agenda-offers-clues/2024/03 |archive-date=March 26, 2024 |access-date=May 12, 2024 |url-status=live |work=Education Week}}

Project 2025 further advocates that Title{{nbsp}}I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 be allowed to expire, removing $18{{nbsp}}billion in federal funds for schools in low-income areas. Public funds for education should be available as school vouchers with no strings attached, even for parents sending their children to private or religious schools. Cuts should be made to the funding for free school meals. The Head Start program that provides services to children of low-income families should be ended. Roger Severino claimed the program does not provide value, but never provided evidence for his claims.{{cite news |last1=Winter |first1=Emery |title=What we can VERIFY about Project 2025's plans for the Head Start program and free school lunches |url=https://www.krem.com/article/news/verify/project-2025-verify/project-2025-free-school-lunch-head-start-cut-fact-check/536-9aa8975a-e7b8-4850-bd75-a34d5e0becdd |publisher=KREM |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240721210619/https://www.krem.com/article/news/verify/project-2025-verify/project-2025-free-school-lunch-head-start-cut-fact-check/536-9aa8975a-e7b8-4850-bd75-a34d5e0becdd |url-status=live |archive-date=July 21, 2024 |access-date=July 26, 2024 |date=July 16, 2024}} For the project's backers, education is a private rather than a public good. Project{{nbsp}}2025 criticizes any programs to forgive student loans.{{Cite news |last=Barber |first=Rachel |date=June 10, 2024 |title=What is Project 2025? The Presidential Transition Project explained. |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/06/10/heritage-foundation-project-2025-explained/74042435007/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240610200412/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/06/10/heritage-foundation-project-2025-explained/74042435007/ |archive-date=June 10, 2024 |access-date=June 10, 2024 |work=USA Today |url-status=live }}

Project{{nbsp}}2025 encourages the president to ensure that "any research conducted with taxpayer dollars serves the national interest in a concrete way in line with conservative principles".{{Rp|page=686}} For example, research in climatology should receive considerably less funding, in line with Project{{nbsp}}2025's views on climate change.

Project 2025 hopes to influence Congress to create legislation that would rescind the Biden administration's Title IX policies and restore the first Trump administration's Title IX regulations. Additionally, it seeks to change the definition of sex under Title IX to mean only biological sex recognized at birth.Burke, Lindsey M. and The Heritage Foundation. Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise. The Heritage Foundation, 2023.{{rp|322,323}}

{{see also|Climate change in the United States|Environmental policy of the Donald Trump administration|Greenhouse gas emissions by the United States|United States offshore drilling debate|NOAA under the second presidency of Donald Trump}}

Mandate's climate section was written by several people, including Mandy Gunasekara, whom Trump previously chose as the EPA's chief of staff, and Bernard McNamee, whom Trump appointed to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Four of the report's top authors have publicly engaged in climate change denial. McNamee dismisses climate change mitigation as progressive policy. Gunasekara acknowledges the reality of human-made climate change but considers it politicized and overstated.{{Cite news |last1=Inskeep |first1=Steve |last2=Simon |first2=Julia |last3=Johnson |first3=Jan |date=August 11, 2023 |title=How climate policy could change if a Republican is elected president in 2024 |url=https://www.npr.org/2023/08/08/1192634090/if-republicans-win-the-white-house-in-2024-climate-policy-will-likely-change |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240515014454/https://www.npr.org/2023/08/08/1192634090/if-republicans-win-the-white-house-in-2024-climate-policy-will-likely-change |archive-date=May 15, 2024 |access-date=May 14, 2024 |website=NPR}} She claimed to have been an instrumental advocate for the United States withdrawal from the Paris Agreement in 2017. On the other hand, project director Paul Dans accepts only that climate change is real, not that human activity causes it.

The manifesto advises the president to go further than merely nullifying Biden's executive orders on climate change, to "eradicate climate change references from absolutely everywhere".{{cite news |last1=Betts |first1=Anna |title=Project 2025 mainly led by ex-Trump officials, leaked videos reveal |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/12/project-2025-training-videos-trump-officials |work=The Guardian |date=August 12, 2024 |access-date=August 13, 2024 |archive-date=October 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241009121700/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/12/project-2025-training-videos-trump-officials |url-status=live }} It proposes abandoning strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change, including by repealing regulations that curb emissions, and abolishing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which the project calls "one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry".{{Cite news |last=Friedman |first=Lisa |date=August 4, 2023 |title=A Republican 2024 Climate Strategy: More Drilling, Less Clean Energy |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/04/climate/republicans-climate-project2025.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230909230443/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/04/climate/republicans-climate-project2025.html |archive-date=September 9, 2023 |access-date=September 9, 2023 |work=The New York Times}}{{Cite news |last=Waldman |first=Scott |date=February 2, 2024 |title=Trump Allies Plan to Gut Climate Research If He Is Reelected |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trump-allies-plan-to-gut-climate-research-if-he-is-reelected/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240209025852/https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trump-allies-plan-to-gut-climate-research-if-he-is-reelected/ |archive-date=February 9, 2024 |access-date=February 5, 2024 |work=Scientific American}}{{Cite news |last=Noor |first=Dharna |date=July 27, 2023 |title='Project 2025': Plan to Dismantle US Climate Policy for Next Republican President |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/27/project-2025-dismantle-us-climate-policy-next-republican-president |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240206233031/https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/27/project-2025-dismantle-us-climate-policy-next-republican-president |archive-date=February 6, 2024 |access-date=February 11, 2024 |work=The Guardian}}{{Cite news |date=February 25, 2024 |title=Beyond Shock and Awe: Inside Trump's Potential Second-Term Agenda |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/25/second-trump-term-00140488 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240226020953/https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/25/second-trump-term-00140488 |archive-date=February 26, 2024 |access-date=February 26, 2024 |work=Politico}} One scientific expert said these policies would endanger lives, are shooting the messenger, and serve the climate change denial movement.{{Cite news |last=Noor |first=Dharna |date=April 26, 2024 |title=Trump will dismantle key US weather and science agency, climate experts fear |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/26/trump-presidency-gut-noaa-weather-climate-crisis |access-date=August 4, 2024 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077 |archive-date=October 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241009121700/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/26/trump-presidency-gut-noaa-weather-climate-crisis |url-status=live }}

The Inflation Reduction Act increased the Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office's loan budget from $40 billion to $400 billion.{{cite news |last1=Plumer |first1=Brad |last2=Friedman |first2=Lisa |title=A Swaggering Clean-Energy Pioneer, With $400 Billion to Hand Out |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/11/climate/jigar-shah-climate-biden.html |work=The New York Times |date=11 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230805222205/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/11/climate/jigar-shah-climate-biden.html |archive-date=August 5, 2023}} Project 2025 supports repealing the Inflation Reduction Act and closing the Loan Programs Office. McNamee advocates that the DOE reorient funding at the national labs it sponsors from climate change and renewable energy research to making energy more affordable. He advocates entrenching these changes by closing the DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations.

Project 2025 advocates downsizing the EPA. In particular, it seeks to close the EPA's Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights.{{cite web | title=About the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights | publisher=US EPA | date=2022-08-23 | url=https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/about-office-environmental-justice-and-external-civil-rights | access-date=2024-11-18 | archive-date=October 24, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221024205430/https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/about-office-environmental-justice-and-external-civil-rights | url-status=live }}{{Cite news |last1=Joselow |first1=Maxine |last2=Dance |first2=Scott |date=June 12, 2024 |title=Why scientists fear a second Trump term, and what they are doing about it |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/06/12/trump-federal-scientists-climate-environment/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240612152028/https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/06/12/trump-federal-scientists-climate-environment/ |archive-date=June 12, 2024 |access-date=June 13, 2024 |newspaper=The Washington Post}} Heritage Foundation energy and climate director Diana Furchtgott-Roth has suggested that the EPA support the consumption of more natural gas, despite climatologists' concern that this would increase leaks of methane (CH₄), a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the short term. Project 2025 wants to reverse a 2009 EPA finding that carbon dioxide emissions are harmful to human health, preventing the federal government from regulating greenhouse gas emissions. It also advocates preventing the EPA from using private health data to determine the effects of pollution. Under its blueprint, the expansion of the national electrical grid would be blocked, the transition to renewable energy stymied, and funding for the DOE's Grid Deployment Office curtailed. Nonpartisan experts said renewable energy projects will have to slow down if the electrical grid is not expanded.

The project further advocates that states be prevented from adopting stricter regulations on vehicular emissions, as the state of California has, and that regulations on the fossil fuel industry be relaxed. For example, restrictions on oil drilling imposed by the Bureau of Land Management could be removed.

Project 2025's manifesto includes eliminating climate change mitigation from the National Security Council's agenda and encouraging allied nations to use fossil fuels. It declares that the federal government has an "obligation to develop vast oil and gas and coal resources" and supports Arctic drilling.

Project 2025 recommends incentives for members of the general public "to identify scientific flaws and research misconduct" and to legally challenge climatology research.

Republican climate advocates have disagreed with Project 2025's climate policy. Joseph Rainey Center for Public Policy president Sarah E. Hunt{{cite web | title=Sarah E. Hunt | website=Rainey Center | date=2024-10-21 | url=https://www.raineycenter.org/team/sarah-e-hunt | access-date=2024-11-18}} considered the Inflation Reduction Act crucial, and U.S. Representative (now U.S. Senator) John Curtis said it was vital that Republicans "engage in supporting good energy and climate policy". American Conservation Coalition founder Benji Backer noted growing consensus among younger Republicans that human activity causes climate change, and called the project wrongheaded.

The project abandons the habitat conservation goal of 30 by 30, and advocates that the National Flood Insurance Program be replaced by private insurers. The League of Conservation Voters has criticized this as a giveaway to private industry.{{Cite magazine |last=Teirstein |first=Zoya |title=Project 2025 Wants to Propel America Into Environmental Catastrophe |url=https://www.wired.com/story/project-2025-wants-to-propel-america-into-environmental-catastrophe/ |access-date=July 28, 2024 |magazine=Wired |language=en-US |issn=1059-1028 |archive-date=July 28, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240728135120/https://www.wired.com/story/project-2025-wants-to-propel-america-into-environmental-catastrophe/ |url-status=live }}

Project{{nbsp}}2025 seeks to place the federal government's entire executive branch under direct presidential control, eliminating the independence of the DOJ, the FBI, the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and other agencies. The plan is based on a controversial interpretation of unitary executive theory, "an expansive interpretation of presidential power that aims to centralize greater control over the government in the White House."{{Cite news |date=September 15, 2023 |title=The 2024 Executive Power Survey – Unitary Executive |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/us/politics/unitary-executive-executive-power.html |access-date=July 19, 2024 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331 |quote=Lawyers in the Reagan-era Justice Department developed the so-called unitary executive theory, an expansive interpretation of presidential power that aims to centralize greater control over the government in the White House. Under stronger versions of this vision, Congress cannot fracture the president's control of federal executive authority, such as by vesting the power to make certain decisions in an agency head even if the president orders the agency to make a different decision, or by limiting a president's ability to enforce his desires by removing any executive branch official — including the heads of 'independent' agencies — at will. |archive-date=October 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241009121701/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/us/politics/unitary-executive-executive-power.html |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Dorf |first=Michael C. |author-link=Michael C. Dorf |date=June 19, 2023 |title=The Misguided Unitary Executive Theory Gains Ground |url=https://verdict.justia.com/2023/06/19/the-misguided-unitary-executive-theory-gains-ground |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240419150631/https://verdict.justia.com/2023/06/19/the-misguided-unitary-executive-theory-gains-ground |archive-date=April 19, 2024 |access-date=April 19, 2024 |website=verdict.justia.com |language=en}}{{cite news |last1=Wendling |first1=Mike |date=July 7, 2024 |title=Project 2025: A wish list for a Trump presidency, explained |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c977njnvq2do |website=BBC News |quote=...a controversial idea known as 'unitary executive theory' |access-date=June 13, 2024 |archive-date=June 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240612125321/https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c977njnvq2do |url-status=live }}{{Cite book |last1=Dodds |first1=Graham G. |last2=Kelly |first2=Christopher S. |chapter=Presidential Leadership and the Unitary Executive Theory: Temptations and Troubles |date=2024 |title=Leadership and Politics |page=547 |editor-last=Akande |editor-first=Adebowale |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-3-031-56415-4_22 |access-date=July 18, 2024 |place=Cham |publisher=Springer Nature Switzerland |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-031-56415-4_22 |isbn=978-3-031-56414-7 |archive-date=September 26, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240926133954/https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-56415-4_22 |url-status=live }} "Constitutionally, the unitary executive theory is not some long-established doctrine that is widely accepted by courts and other political actors. Far from it, the constitutional status of the theory is rather controversial." Kevin Roberts said that all federal employees should answer to the president. Since the Reagan administration, the Supreme Court has embraced a stronger unitary executive led by conservative justices, the Federalist Society, and the Heritage Foundation, and overturned some precedents limiting Project 2025's vision of executive power.{{Cite journal |last=Sitaraman |first=Ganesh |date=2020 |title=The Political Economy of the Removal Power |url=https://harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-134/the-political-economy-of-the-removal-power/ |journal=Harvard Law Review |publisher=Harvard University School of Law |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |volume=134 |pages=380 |quote=The unitary executive theory gained steam through the initiative of conservative presidential administrations (Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush) and a systematic effort to articulate and defend the theory in legal scholarship. Chief Justice Roberts's straightforward, briefly reasoned opinion in Seila reflects the success of the conservative legal movement in making the theory plausible. Justice Kagan's piercing dissent lays bare how contested this reasoning is. Taken together, the conservative push for a unitary executive and the battle between Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Kagan should leave readers with the sense that the case is "political" in a different sense. |access-date=August 16, 2024 |archive-date=August 16, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240816050304/https://harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-134/the-political-economy-of-the-removal-power/ |url-status=live }}

Project{{nbsp}}2025 advocates for all Department of State employees in leadership roles to be dismissed before January{{nbsp}}20, 2025.{{cite news |last1=Borger |first1=Julian |date=June 13, 2024 |title=Trump win could see mass purge of state department, US diplomats fear |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/13/trump-state-department-project-2025-purge |access-date=June 13, 2024 |work=The Guardian |archive-date=July 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240712195530/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/13/trump-state-department-project-2025-purge |url-status=live }} It explicitly recommends replacing these executive branch positions with ideologically vetted State Department leaders appointed to acting roles that do not require Senate confirmation.{{cite encyclopedia |last=Duignan |first=Brian |date=Mar 21, 2025 |title=Project 2025 |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Project-2025 |encyclopedia=Britannica |access-date=March 21, 2025 |archive-date=February 1, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250201121353/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Project-2025 |url-status=live }} Kiron Skinner, who wrote the State Department chapter of Project{{nbsp}}2025, ran the department's office of policy planning for less than a year during the Trump administration before being forced out of the department. She considers most State Department employees too left-wing and wants them replaced by those more loyal to a conservative president. When asked by Peter Bergen in June 2024 if she could name a time when State Department employees obstructed Trump policy, she said she could not.{{cite news |last1=Toosi |first1=Nahal |last2=Johnson |first2=Eliana |date=August 2, 2019 |title=Top State Department adviser fired over 'abusive' management style |url=https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/02/top-state-department-adviser-fired-1444894 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190802202600/https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/02/top-state-department-adviser-fired-1444894 |archive-date=August 2, 2019 |access-date=June 13, 2024 |work=Politico}}

If Project{{nbsp}}2025 were implemented, Congressional approval would not be required for the sale of military equipment and ammunition to a foreign nation, unless "unanimous congressional support is guaranteed".{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

In 2019, Trump said that Article Two of the U.S. Constitution grants him the "right to do whatever as president", a common claim among supporters of the unitary executive theory. Similarly, in 2018, Trump claimed he could fire special counsel Robert Mueller. Trump is not the first president to consider policies related to the unitary executive theory.{{Cite web |last1=Rozell |first1=Mark |last2=Stollenberger |first2=Mitchell |date=November 2011 |title=The Unitary Executive Theory and the Bush Legacy |url=https://markrozell.gmu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Rozell_and_Sollenberger_UE_and_Bush_Legacy_Chapter_2013.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230927005637/https://markrozell.gmu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Rozell_and_Sollenberger_UE_and_Bush_Legacy_Chapter_2013.pdf |archive-date=September 27, 2023 |access-date=September 27, 2023 |publisher=George Mason University}}{{Cite journal |last1=Barilleaux |first1=Ryan J. |last2=Maxwell |first2=Jewerl |date=January 2017 |title=Has Barack Obama Embraced the Unitary Executive? |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ps-political-science-and-politics/article/abs/has-barack-obama-embraced-the-unitary-executive/026347F2F70FD4534428C85FB41BD514 |url-status=live |journal=PS: Political Science & Politics |volume=50 |issue=1 |pages=31–34 |doi=10.1017/S1049096516002055 |issn=1049-0965 |s2cid=157225045 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230927005637/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ps-political-science-and-politics/article/abs/has-barack-obama-embraced-the-unitary-executive/026347F2F70FD4534428C85FB41BD514 |archive-date=September 27, 2023 |access-date=September 27, 2023}} The idea has seen a resurgence and popularization within the Republican Party since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001.{{Cite news |last=Heer |first=Jeet |date=July 21, 2023 |title=Why Trump 2.0 Would Be Much Worse |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-unitary-executive/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230927005636/https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-unitary-executive/ |archive-date=September 27, 2023 |access-date=September 27, 2023 |work=The Nation |issn=0027-8378}}

In 2023, Stephen Miller proposed immediately mobilizing the military at the start of second Trump administration for domestic law and immigration enforcement under the Insurrection Act of 1807.{{cite news |title=Sweeping Raids, Giant Camps and Mass Deportations: Inside Trump's 2025 Immigration Plans |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/11/us/politics/trump-2025-immigration-agenda.html |work=The New York Times |date=November 11, 2023|last1=Savage|first1=Charlie|last2=Haberman|first2=Maggie|last3=Swan|first3=Jonathan |access-date=July 26, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240705091646/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/11/us/politics/trump-2025-immigration-agenda.html |archive-date=July 5, 2024 |url-status=live|issn=0362-4331}} Jeffrey Clark, a senior fellow at CRA and Project 2025 contributor, has investigated using the Insurrection Act for other purposes, including suppressing protests like the George Floyd protests. The Heritage Foundation denied Project 2025 planned to use the Insurrection Act, but Mandate has a single line that says it is possible to use the Insurrection Act to secure the southern border.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/11/05/trump-revenge-second-term/ |title=Trump and allies plot revenge, Justice Department control in a second term |newspaper=The Washington Post |author1=Isaac Arnsdorf |author2=Josh Dawsey |author3=Devlin Barrett |date=November 6, 2023 |access-date=November 5, 2023 |archive-date=November 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231105234529/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/11/05/trump-revenge-second-term/ |url-status=live }}{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/17/us/politics/trump-2025-insurrection-act.html |title=Deploying on U.S. Soil: How Trump Would Use Soldiers Against Riots, Crime and Migrants |author1=Charlie Savage |author2=Jonathan Swan |author3=Maggie Haberman |date=August 17, 2024 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=August 20, 2024 |archive-date=August 20, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240820072909/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/17/us/politics/trump-2025-insurrection-act.html |url-status=live }} Russell Vought said the CRA was working to keep legal and defense communities from preventing use of the Insurrection Act.{{Cite web |last1=Redden |first1=Molly |last2=Kroll |first2=Andy |last3=Surgey |first3=Nick |date=2024-10-28 |title="Put Them in Trauma": Inside a Key MAGA Leader's Plans for a New Trump Agenda |url=https://www.propublica.org/article/video-donald-trump-russ-vought-center-renewing-america-maga |access-date=2024-10-28 |website=ProPublica |language=en}}

Clark also promoted making the Department of Justice less independent of the president in order to let Trump prosecute his political rivals.{{cite news |last1=Ortega |first1=Bob |last2=Lah |first2=Kyung |last3=Gordon |first3=Allison |last4=Black |first4=Nelli |date=April 27, 2024 |title=What Trump's war on the 'Deep State' could mean: 'An army of suck-ups' |url=https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/27/politics/trump-federal-workers-2nd-term-invs/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240428053329/https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/27/politics/trump-federal-workers-2nd-term-invs/index.html |archive-date=April 28, 2024 |access-date=April 28, 2024 |website=CNN |quote=[Jeffrey] Clark also helped draft portions of the Project 2025 blueprint for a second Trump term, including outlining the use of the Insurrection Act of 1807 to deploy the military for domestic law enforcement, as first reported by the Washington Post.}}{{Cite news |last=Stanley-Becker |first=Isaac |date=August 3, 2023 |title=Jeffrey Clark Is GOP Star After Trying to Use DOJ to Overturn Election |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/08/03/jeffrey-clark-trump-coconspirator-doj-indictment/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231023161017/https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/08/03/jeffrey-clark-trump-coconspirator-doj-indictment/ |archive-date=October 23, 2023 |access-date=November 29, 2023 |newspaper=The Washington Post}} For his alleged acts while working at the DOJ during the end of Trump's term, Clark has become a co-defendant in the Georgia election racketeering prosecution and an unnamed co-conspirator in the federal prosecution of Trump for alleged election obstruction.{{Cite news |last1=Haberman |first1=Maggie |author-link=Maggie Haberman |last2=Savage |first2=Charlie |author-link2=Charlie Savage (author) |last3=Swan |first3=Jonathan |date=November 1, 2023 |title=If Trump Wins, His Allies Want Lawyers Who Will Bless a More Radical Agenda |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/01/us/politics/trump-2025-lawyers.html |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231105230440/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/01/us/politics/trump-2025-lawyers.html |archive-date=November 5, 2023 |access-date=November 5, 2023 |work=The New York Times}} Heritage said Project 2025 contains no plans to prosecute political enemies.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

Media Matters reported that several Project{{nbsp}}2025 partners praised the 2024 Supreme Court decision Trump v. United States, which grants broad immunity from prosecution for acts committed in the course of a president's official duties.{{cite news |first1=Jack |last1=Wheatley |first2=Jacina |last2=Hollins-Borges |first3=Sophie |last3=Lawton |title=Project 2025 partners celebrate Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity |url=https://www.mediamatters.org/project-2025/project-2025-partners-celebrate-supreme-court-ruling-presidential-immunity |website=Media Matters |date=July 2, 2024 |access-date=July 3, 2024 |archive-date=July 3, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240703020020/https://www.mediamatters.org/project-2025/project-2025-partners-celebrate-supreme-court-ruling-presidential-immunity |url-status=live }}{{Better source needed|date=February 2025}}

Democracy experts, political scholars, and other commentators have described the project as dangerous,{{Cite news |last=Ordoñez |first=Franco |date=December 6, 2023 |title=Trump allies craft plans to give him unprecedented power if he wins the White House |url=https://www.npr.org/2023/12/06/1217562544/trump-and-insiders-craft-plans-for-unprecedented-power |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240516150608/https://www.npr.org/2023/12/06/1217562544/trump-and-insiders-craft-plans-for-unprecedented-power |archive-date=May 16, 2024 |access-date=May 16, 2024 |publisher=NPR |quote=It's not that the federal service isn't in need of reforms, says Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, a senior fellow at the University of Virginia's Miller Center. But she says Trump wants to create a class of federal workers who will do whatever the president wants—and if they don't, they can be easily fired. 'It's just a dangerous sign,' she says. 'It really suggests that a president wants to aggrandize more authority and more power. And that should make everybody nervous.'}} risking authoritarianism,{{Cite news |last=Greenhut |first=Steven |date=June 28, 2024 |title=Project 2025: The Heritage Foundation's plan to embrace bigger government during Trump's second term |url=https://reason.com/2024/06/28/project-2025-the-conservative-agenda-to-embrace-bigger-government-during-trumps-second-term/ |access-date=July 8, 2024 |website=Reason |language=en-US |archive-date=July 8, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240708232258/https://reason.com/2024/06/28/project-2025-the-conservative-agenda-to-embrace-bigger-government-during-trumps-second-term/ |url-status=live }} and apocalyptic. Many legal experts have said it would undermine the rule of law, the separation of powers, the separation of church and state, and civil liberties.

Political experts have said Project{{nbsp}}2025 represents significant executive aggrandizement, a type of democratic backsliding involving government institutional changes made by elected executives that has been seen in Russia, Hungary, Turkey, and Venezuela.{{Cite news |last=Frei |first=Matt |date=July 23, 2024 |title=Europe fears 'American autocracy' if Trump wins – Anne Applebaum |url=https://www.channel4.com/news/europe-fears-american-autocracy-if-trump-wins-anne-applebaum |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240726214656/https://www.channel4.com/news/europe-fears-american-autocracy-if-trump-wins-anne-applebaum |archive-date=July 26, 2024 |access-date=July 28, 2024 |website=Channel 4 News |language=en-GB}}{{Cite news |last=Hawkinson |first=Katie |date=March 15, 2024 |title=The 'authoritarian' lessons Trump and the GOP want to learn from Orbán's Hungary |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-viktor-orban-hungary-b2511594.html |access-date=July 28, 2024 |website=The Independent |language=en}} Cornell University political scientist Rachel Beatty Riedl says this global phenomenon represents threats to democratic rule not from violence but rather from using democratic institutions to consolidate executive power. She has said, "if Project{{nbsp}}2025 is implemented, what it means is a dramatic decrease in American citizens' ability to engage in public life based on the kind of principles of liberty, freedom and representation that are accorded in a democracy."{{Cite news |last=Tomazin |first=Farrah |date=June 14, 2024 |title=A 920-page plan lays out a second Trump presidency. Nadine has read it and is terrified |url=https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/a-920-page-plan-lays-out-a-second-trump-presidency-nadine-has-read-it-and-is-terrified-20240614-p5jlqc.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240627093843/https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/a-920-page-plan-lays-out-a-second-trump-presidency-nadine-has-read-it-and-is-terrified-20240614-p5jlqc.html |archive-date=June 27, 2024 |access-date=June 21, 2024 |website=The Sydney Morning Herald |language=en |quote=Cornell University political scientist Rachel Beatty Riedl says Project 2025 is emblematic of a broader global trend in which threats to democracy are emerging not just from coups, military aggression or civil war, but also from autocratic leaders using democratic institutions to consolidate executive power. This type of backsliding, known as 'executive aggrandisement', has taken place in countries such as Hungary, Nicaragua and Turkey but is new to America, says Beatty Riedl, who runs the university's Centre for International Studies and is the co-author of the book Democratic Backsliding, Resilience and Resistance. 'It's a very concerning sign,' she says. 'If Project{{nbsp}}2025 is implemented, what it means is a dramatic decrease in American citizens' ability to engage in public life based on the kind of principles of liberty, freedom and representation that are accorded in a democracy.'}} Phillip Wallach, a senior fellow studying separation of powers at the American Enterprise Institute, characterized the project as visions that bleed into authoritarian fantasies.{{Cite web |last=Mascaro |first=Lisa |date=2023-08-29 |title=Conservative groups draw up plan to dismantle the US government and replace it with Trump's vision |url=https://apnews.com/article/election-2024-conservatives-trump-heritage-857eb794e505f1c6710eb03fd5b58981 |access-date=2024-07-09 |website=Associated Press |language=en |quote='Some of these visions, they do start to just bleed into some kind of authoritarian fantasies where the president won the election, so he's in charge, so everyone has to do what he says — and that's just not the system the government we live under.' |archive-date=September 22, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922112031/https://apnews.com/article/election-2024-conservatives-trump-heritage-857eb794e505f1c6710eb03fd5b58981 |url-status=live }}

Donald B. Ayer, the deputy attorney general under George H. W. Bush, said,

{{Blockquote|text=Project{{nbsp}}2025 seems to be full of a whole array of ideas that are designed to let Donald Trump function as a dictator, by completely eviscerating many of the restraints built into our system. He really wants to destroy any notion of a rule of law in this country{{nbsp}}... The reports about Donald Trump's Project{{nbsp}}2025 suggest that he is now preparing to do a bunch of things totally contrary to the basic values we have always lived by. If Trump were to be elected and implement some of the ideas he is apparently considering, no one in this country would be safe.}}

{{See also|Spoils system|Schedule F appointment}}

Project{{nbsp}}2025 proposes reclassifying tens of thousands of federal civil service workers as political appointees in order to replace them with Trump loyalists. It established a personnel database shaped by the ideology of Donald Trump. Throughout his first term, Trump was accused of removing people he considered disloyal, regardless of their ideological conviction, such as former attorney general William Barr. In 2020, White House Presidential Personnel Office employees James Bacon and John McEntee developed a questionnaire to test potential government employees' commitment to Trumpism. Bacon and McEntee joined Project 2025 in May 2023.{{Cite news |last=Samuels |first=Brett |date=May 2, 2023 |title=Ex-Trump Aide John McEntee Joins Heritage Operation As Senior Adviser |url=https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3984096-ex-trump-aide-john-mcentee-joins-heritage-operation-as-senior-adviser/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230531225857/https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3984096-ex-trump-aide-john-mcentee-joins-heritage-operation-as-senior-adviser/ |archive-date=May 31, 2023 |access-date=September 9, 2023 |work=The Hill}} The project uses a similar questionnaire to screen potential recruits for adherence to its agenda.{{Cite news |last1=VandeHei |first1=Jim |last2=Mike |first2=Mike |date=December 1, 2023 |title=Behind the Curtain – Scoop: The Trump job applications revealed |url=https://www.axios.com/2023/12/01/trump-government-job-applications-2025 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240514233154/https://www.axios.com/2023/12/01/trump-government-job-applications-2025 |archive-date=May 14, 2024 |access-date=May 14, 2024 |work=Axios}} For Trump's second term the project recommends that a White House Counsel be selected who is "deeply committed" to the president's "America First" agenda.

In 2020, Trump established the Schedule F job classification by executive order. Biden rescinded this classification at the beginning of his presidency. Russell Vought, who worked on Schedule F during Trump's first term, joined Project 2025. He said that Trump's second term would destroy the administrative state and fire and traumatize federal workers. He advocated reviving Schedule F during Trump's second term. Kevin Roberts said: "People will lose their jobs. Hopefully their lives are able to flourish in spite of that. Buildings will be shut down. Hopefully they can be repurposed for private industry."{{Cite news |last=Weissert |first=Will |date=February 16, 2024 |title=Trump Wants to Fire Thousands of Government Workers. Liberals Are Preparing to Fight Back If He Wins |url=https://apnews.com/article/biden-2024-government-regulations-democrats-6badc3b424b9eff3ba51e0ec35a8d824 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240216213034/https://apnews.com/article/biden-2024-government-regulations-democrats-6badc3b424b9eff3ba51e0ec35a8d824 |archive-date=February 16, 2024 |access-date=February 16, 2024 |publisher=Associated Press}} On January 20, 2025, Trump signed an executive order to that effect.{{cite web |title=Restoring Accountability To Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce |url=https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/restoring-accountability-to-policy-influencing-positions-within-the-federal-workforce/ |website=The White House |access-date=6 February 2025 |date=21 January 2025}}

In response to Schedule F's reinstatement, several unions sued and took other protective measures to prevent its full implementation.{{cite web |title=Federal worker advocates file legal challenges to DOGE, Schedule F |url=https://fedscoop.com/federal-worker-legal-challenges-doge-schedule-f/ |website=FedScoop |access-date=6 February 2025 |date=22 January 2025 |archive-date=February 9, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250209204805/https://fedscoop.com/federal-worker-legal-challenges-doge-schedule-f/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=OPM Establishes Safeguards Against Schedule F |url=https://www.nteu.org/schedulef |website=National Treasury Employees Union – NTEU |access-date=6 February 2025 |archive-date=February 7, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250207121851/https://www.nteu.org/schedulef |url-status=live }}{{better source needed|date=February 2025}} At the end of Biden's term, about 4,000 government positions were deemed political appointments. If fully implemented, Schedule F will affect tens of thousands of professional federal civil servants who have spent many years working under both Democratic and Republican administrations. According to Georgetown University professor of public policy Donald Moynihan, while apolitical and meritocratic selection of public servants is vital to administrative functioning, the Republican Party increasingly views them and public sector unions as threats, or resources to be controlled.{{Cite journal |last=Moynihan |first=Donald P. |date=2021 |title=Public Management for Populists: Trump's Schedule F Executive Order and the Future of the Civil Service |journal=Public Administration Review |publisher=The American Society for Public Administration |volume=82 |issue=1 |pages=174–8 |doi=10.1111/puar.13433 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/puar.13433 |access-date=July 27, 2024 |archive-date=March 19, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240319215558/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/puar.13433 |url-status=live }} Political scientist Francis Fukuyama has said that while the federal bureaucracy is in dire need of reform, Schedule{{nbsp}}F would "dangerously undermine" the government's functionality.{{Cite news |last=Luce |first=Edward |date=May 17, 2024 |title=Trump's real plans for the deep state |url=https://www.ft.com/content/a738e781-5c80-4d9d-b1cd-e9a145878b53 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240517130624/https://www.ft.com/content/a738e781-5c80-4d9d-b1cd-e9a145878b53 |archive-date=May 17, 2024 |access-date=May 20, 2024 |work=Financial Times |url-status=live }}

The Heritage Foundation planned to have 20,000 personnel in its database by the end of 2024.{{cite web |url=https://www.donaldjtrump.com/agenda47/agenda47-president-trumps-plan-to-dismantle-the-deep-state-and-return-power-to-the-american-people |title=Agenda47: President Trump's Plan to Dismantle the Deep State and Return Power to the American People |publication-date=March 21, 2023 |publisher=Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign |access-date=July 3, 2024 |quote=First, I will immediately re-issue my 2020 Executive Order restoring the President's authority to remove rogue bureaucrats. And I will wield that power very aggressively. |archive-date=July 4, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240704195236/https://www.donaldjtrump.com/agenda47/agenda47-president-trumps-plan-to-dismantle-the-deep-state-and-return-power-to-the-american-people |url-status=live }}{{better source needed|date=February 2025}}{{Update inline|date=February 2025}}

Project 2025 encourages Congress to require federal contractors to be 70% U.S. citizens, ultimately raising the limit to 95%.{{rp|page=612}} It also calls for the president to reinstate Executive Orders 13836, 13837 and 13839, which relate to how federal agencies address labor unions, grievances, and seniority.{{rp|page=81}}

By June 2024, the American Accountability Foundation, a conservative opposition research organization led by former Senate aide Tom Jones, was researching certain key high-ranking federal civil servants' backgrounds. Called Project Sovereignty 2025, the undertaking received a $100,000 grant from Heritage. Its objective was to post online the names of 100 people who might oppose Trump's agenda. Announcing the grant in May 2024, Heritage wrote that the research's purpose was "to alert Congress, a conservative administration, and the American people to the presence of anti-American bad actors burrowed into the administrative state and ensure appropriate action is taken." Some found Project Sovereignty 2025 reminiscent of McCarthyism, when many Americans were persecuted and blacklisted as alleged communists.{{cite news |last1=Mascaro |first1=Lisa |date=June 24, 2024b |title=Conservative-backed group is creating a list of federal workers it suspects could resist Trump plans |url=https://apnews.com/article/trump-biden-president-project-2025-33d3fc2999a74f4aa424f1128dca2d16 |publisher=Associated Press |access-date=June 25, 2024 |archive-date=June 25, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240625020848/https://apnews.com/article/trump-biden-president-project-2025-33d3fc2999a74f4aa424f1128dca2d16 |url-status=live }}{{cite news |last1=Owen |first1=Tess |title=Trump loyalists plan to name and shame 'blacklist' of federal workers |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/30/trump-loyalists-deep-state-blacklist-american-accountability-foundation |work=The Guardian |date=June 30, 2024 |access-date=June 30, 2024 |archive-date=July 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240712192710/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/30/trump-loyalists-deep-state-blacklist-american-accountability-foundation |url-status=live }}{{cite magazine |last1=Mayer |first1=Jane |title=The Slime Machine Targeting Dozens of Biden Nominees |url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/a-reporter-at-large/the-slime-machine-targeting-dozens-of-biden-nominees |magazine=The New Yorker |date=April 16, 2022 |access-date=June 30, 2024 |archive-date=June 26, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240626183633/https://www.newyorker.com/news/a-reporter-at-large/the-slime-machine-targeting-dozens-of-biden-nominees |url-status=live }}

Max Stier of the Partnership for Public Service voiced concern the project would revive the early-American spoils-and-patronage system that awarded government jobs to those loyal to a party or elected official rather than by merit. The Pendleton Act of 1883 mandated that federal jobs be awarded by merit.{{Cite news |last=Berman |first=Russell |date=September 24, 2023 |title=The Open Plot to Dismantle the Federal Government |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2023/09/trump-desantis-republicans-dismantle-deep-state/675378/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20231031183356/https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2023/09/trump-desantis-republicans-dismantle-deep-state/675378/ |archive-date=October 31, 2023 |access-date=December 15, 2023 |work=The Atlantic}} Former Trump campaign and presidency senior advisor Steve Bannon has advocated for the plan on his War Room podcast, hosting Jeffrey Clark and others working on the project.

Roger Severino wrote Mandate's chapter on health care. He accuses the Biden administration of undermining the traditional nuclear family, and wants to reform the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to promote this household structure.{{Cite news |last1=Barrón-López |first1=Laura |last2=Popat |first2=Shrai |date=May 22, 2024 |title=Trump's plans for healthcare and reproductive rights if he returns to White House |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/trumps-plans-for-healthcare-and-reproductive-rights-if-he-returns-to-white-house |access-date=May 22, 2024 |work=PBS NewsHour |archive-date=May 23, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240523011547/https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/trumps-plans-for-healthcare-and-reproductive-rights-if-he-returns-to-white-house |url-status=live }}

One example Severino gives is the Biden administration's reversal of the Trump-era finding that using stem cells derived from abortions is unethical. This finding prevented HHS from funding research that uses abortion-derived stem cells.{{rp|page=461}}

According to Project 2025, the federal government should promote the Medicare Advantage program, which consists of private insurance plans,{{Cite news |last=Walsh |first=Joan |date=June 4, 2024 |title=Project 2025 Has Bad Medicine for HHS |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/society/project-2025-trump-hhs/ |access-date=July 26, 2024 |language=en-US |issn=0027-8378 |archive-date=July 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240715153301/https://www.thenation.com/article/society/project-2025-trump-hhs/ |url-status=live }} and federal healthcare providers should deny transgender people gender-affirming care.

Project 2025 suggests a number of ways to cut funding for Medicaid, such as caps on federal funding, limits on lifetime benefits per capita, and letting state governments impose stricter work requirements on beneficiaries of the program.{{Cite web |last=Park |first=Edwin |date=June 17, 2024 |title=Project 2025 Blueprint Also Includes Draconian Cuts to Medicaid |url=https://ccf.georgetown.edu/2024/06/17/project-2025-blueprint-also-includes-draconian-cuts-to-medicaid/ |access-date=June 18, 2024 |publisher=Center for Children and Families, McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University |archive-date=June 17, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240617224857/https://ccf.georgetown.edu/2024/06/17/project-2025-blueprint-also-includes-draconian-cuts-to-medicaid/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite news |last=Tensley |first=Brandon |date=April 25, 2024 |title='Project 2025' and the Movement That Could Erode Black Equality |url=https://www.yahoo.com/news/project-2025-movement-could-erode-130000679.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240514155658/https://www.yahoo.com/news/project-2025-movement-could-erode-130000679.html |archive-date=May 14, 2024 |access-date=May 14, 2024 |work=Capital B |via=Yahoo! News}} Other proposals include limiting state use of provider taxes, eliminating preexisting federal beneficiary protections and requirements, increasing eligibility determinations and asset test determinations to make it harder to enroll in, apply for, and renew Medicaid, providing an option to turn Medicaid into a voucher program, and eliminating federal oversight of state Medicaid programs. The project also advocates cutting funding to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).{{Cite news |last=Wilkinson |first=Joseph |date=July 28, 2024 |title=Schumer slams Project 2025 plans for VA: 'Will not stand' |url=https://www.nydailynews.com/2024/07/28/chuck-schumer-project-2025-department-veterans-affairs/ |access-date=July 28, 2024 |website=New York Daily News |language=en-US |archive-date=July 28, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240728225925/https://www.nydailynews.com/2024/07/28/chuck-schumer-project-2025-department-veterans-affairs/ |url-status=live }}

Project 2025 aims to alter the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by making it easier to fire employees and to remove DEI programs.{{cn|date=April 2025}} Conservatives consider the NIH corrupt and politically biased.{{Cite news |last=Schumacher |first=Erin |date=May 27, 2024 |title=Biden's got a plan to protect science from Trump |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/27/biden-plan-protect-science-trump-00160001 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240613152913/https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/27/biden-plan-protect-science-trump-00160001 |archive-date=June 13, 2024 |access-date=June 5, 2024 |work=Politico}} Severino says the CDC should not publish health advice, because it is inherently political.

{{See also|Birthright citizenship in the United States}}

File:Stephen Miller (27148847234).jpg, known for his anti-immigration views, was and remains a key figure in forming Trump's immigration policy.]]

This Mandate for Leadership suggests abolishing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and replacing it with an immigration agency that incorporates Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and elements of the departments of Health and Human Services and DOJ. Other tasks could be privatized. The admission of refugees would be curtailed, and processing fees for asylum seekers would increase, something the Project deems "an opportunity for a significant influx of money".{{rp|146}} Immigrants who wish to have their applications fast-tracked would have to pay even more.

In April 2024, Heritage said that Project 2025 policy includes "arresting, detaining, and removing immigration violators anywhere in the United States".{{cite news |title=5 Reasons Leftists HATE Project 2025 |url=https://www9.heritage.org/rs/824-MHT-304/images/5%20Reasons%20Leftists%20Hate%20Project%202025%20eBook%20THF.pdf |publisher=The Heritage Foundation |date=April 2024 |access-date=May 3, 2024 |archive-date=July 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240715131533/https://www9.heritage.org/rs/824-MHT-304/images/5%20Reasons%20Leftists%20Hate%20Project%202025%20eBook%20THF.pdf |url-status=unfit }}{{Cite news |last=Levien |first=Simon J. |date=July 11, 2024 |title=What Is Project 2025, and Why Is Trump Disavowing It? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/article/project-2025.html |access-date=July 31, 2024 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=October 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241009121701/https://www.nytimes.com/article/project-2025.html |url-status=live }}

Stephen Miller, a key architect of immigration policy during the Trump presidency, is a major figure in Project 2025. In November 2023, Miller told Project 2025 participant Charlie Kirk that the operation would rival the scale and complexity of "building the Panama Canal". He said it would include deputizing the National Guard in red states as immigration enforcement officers under Trump's command. These forces would then be deployed in blue states.{{Cite news |last=Brownstein |first=Ronald |date=February 8, 2024 |title=Trump's 'Knock on the Door' |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/02/trumps-immigration-plan-is-even-more-aggressive-now/677385/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240210204500/https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/02/trumps-immigration-plan-is-even-more-aggressive-now/677385/ |archive-date=February 10, 2024 |access-date=February 11, 2024 |work=The Atlantic}} Miller considered{{when|date=February 2025}} deputizing local police and sheriffs for the undertaking, as well as agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Drug Enforcement Administration. These forces could then arrest illegal immigrants nationwide. Detainees would then be held in internment camps near the border before deportation. Trump has also spoken of rounding up homeless people in blue cities and detaining them in camps. Funding for the Mexico–United States border wall would increase.

Project 2025 encourages the president to withhold federal disaster relief funds granted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) should state or local governments refuse to abide by federal immigration laws, by, for example, not sharing information with law enforcement.{{Cite news |last=Leingang |first=Rachel |date=May 26, 2024 |title=The rightwing plan to take over 'sanctuary' cities – and rebuild them Maga-style |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/26/trump-project-2025-sanctuary-cities |access-date=May 27, 2024 |work=The Guardian |archive-date=June 13, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240613152959/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/26/trump-project-2025-sanctuary-cities |url-status=live }}

{{see also|LGBT rights in the United States|Social policy of Donald Trump|Identity politics}}

Project{{nbsp}}2025 opposes what it calls "radical gender ideology" and advocates that the government "maintain a biblically based, social-science-reinforced definition of marriage and family".{{rp|481}} To achieve this, it proposes removing protections against discrimination on the basis of sexual or gender identity, and eliminating provisions pertaining to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)—which it calls "state-sanctioned racism"—from federal legislation. Federal employees who have participated in DEI programs or any initiatives involving critical race theory might be fired.{{rp|582,583}}

Public school teachers who want to use a transgender student's preferred pronouns would be required to obtain written permission from the student's legal guardian. Project{{nbsp}}2025's backers also want to target the private sector by reversing "the DEI revolution in labor policy" in favor of more "race-neutral" regulations. Project{{nbsp}}2025 is part of a trend of intensifying backlash against DEI in the early 2020s.

Mandate promotes disbanding the White House's Gender Policy Council.{{rp|62}} Government agencies would be forbidden from instituting quotas and collecting statistics on gender, race, or ethnicity.{{Cite news |last=Guynn |first=Jessica |date=March 3, 2024 |title=Trump tried to crush the 'DEI revolution.' Here's how he might finish the job. |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2024/03/03/trump-plans-crush-dei-affirmative-action/72774345007/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240305011934/https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2024/03/03/trump-plans-crush-dei-affirmative-action/72774345007/ |archive-date=March 5, 2024 |access-date=May 14, 2024 |work=USA Today}} Project contributor Jonathan Berry explains, "The goal here is to move toward colorblindness and to recognize that we need to have laws and policies that treat people like full human beings not reducible to categories, especially when it comes to race." The U.S. Census Bureau would be reformed according to conservative principles.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

File:324a.Rally.StopProject2025.WDC.27January2024 (53693750655).jpg national press secretary Brandon Wolf speaking at a rally against Project 2025]]

LGBTQ+ writers and journalists have criticized Project{{nbsp}}2025 for its proposals to remove protections for LGBTQ+ people and to outlaw pornography by claiming it is an "omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology and sexualization of children". Writing for Dame magazine, Brynn Tannehill argued that The Mandate for Leadership in part "makes eradicating LGBTQ people from public life its top priority", while citing passages from the playbook linking pornography to "transgender ideology", arguing that it related to other anti-transgender attacks in 2023.{{Cite web |last=Tannehill |first=Brynn |date=August 14, 2023 |title=The GOP Has a Master Plan to Criminalize Being Trans |url=https://www.damemagazine.com/2023/08/14/the-gop-has-a-master-plan-to-criminalize-being-trans/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230908201024/https://www.damemagazine.com/2023/08/14/the-gop-has-a-master-plan-to-criminalize-being-trans/ |archive-date=September 8, 2023 |access-date=September 10, 2023 |website=Dame}}

Project 2025 proposes reconsidering the accommodations given to journalists who are members of the White House Press Corps. It proposes defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private, nonprofit corporation that provides funding for the Public Broadcasting System and National Public Radio, as "good policy and good politics" because it accounts for "half a billion dollars squandered on leftist opinion each year".{{rp|246}}{{cite news |last1=Winter |first1=Emery |title=Yes, Project 2025 does call for defunding NPR and PBS |url=https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/verify/project-2025-verify/project-2025-npr-pbs-cpb-defunding-fact-check/536-7590b6b1-cef0-4f64-8a8d-4268cee6bc66 |publisher=WCNC-TV |date=July 11, 2024 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240726113616/https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/verify/project-2025-verify/project-2025-npr-pbs-cpb-defunding-fact-check/536-7590b6b1-cef0-4f64-8a8d-4268cee6bc66 |archive-date=July 26, 2024 |access-date=July 26, 2024}} It also entertains the idea of revoking NPR stations' noncommercial status, forcing them to relocate outside the 88–92 range on the FM dial, which could then be taken by religious programming.{{Cite news |last=Nichols |first=John |date=June 4, 2024 |title=Project 2025's Guide to Subverting Democracy |url=https://www.thenation.com/?post_type=article&p=503442 |access-date=August 4, 2024 |work=The Nation |language=en-US |issn=0027-8378 |archive-date=June 19, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240619032404/https://www.thenation.com/article/society/project-2025-democracy-fcc-fec/ |url-status=live }} Brendan Carr, who wrote the article on the Federal Communications Commission in Project 2025, was appointed by Trump to lead the FCC, and subsequently launched an investigation into NPR and PBS, in accordance with Project 2025.{{cite web | url=https://www.insideradio.com/free/fcc-launches-investigation-into-public-radio-and-tv-underwriting/article_5687dc06-dfaa-11ef-b412-1f99371d0828.html | title=FCC Launches Investigation into Public Radio and TV Underwriting | date=January 31, 2025 | access-date=February 4, 2025 | archive-date=February 14, 2025 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250214231021/https://www.insideradio.com/free/fcc-launches-investigation-into-public-radio-and-tv-underwriting/article_5687dc06-dfaa-11ef-b412-1f99371d0828.html | url-status=live }}

The Project also proposes allowing more media consolidation by changing FCC rules that would allow for the converting local news programs into national news programs.

The project pushes for legislation requiring social media companies to not remove mainstream political positions from their platforms. It also would prevent the Federal Elections Commission from countering misinformation or disinformation about election integrity. The nonprofit law institute Brennan Center for Justice wrote in an expert brief, "Project 2025 threatens to amplify attacks on election officials and throw the weight of the federal government behind those anti{{shy}}democratic efforts."{{cite web |last1=Petry |first1=Eric |last2=Weiner |first2=Daniel I. |date=August 16, 2024 |title=Project 2025 Would Fuel the Assault on Election Officials |url=https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/project-2025-would-fuel-assault-election-officials |website=www.brennancenter.org |location=New York, NY |publisher=Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law |access-date=22 March 2025 |language=en |archive-date=March 16, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250316212216/https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/project-2025-would-fuel-assault-election-officials |url-status=live }} The institute added that Project 2025 could imperil election officials by misusing the Department of Justice to target those whose actions do not align with the president's ideology.

{{See also|Judicial independence}}

File:Robert S. Mueller III.jpg, former director of the FBI, into Donald Trump.|alt=Robert Mueller was former FBI director and Special Counsel investigating Trump's alleged ties with Russia.]]

In the view of Project 2025, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has become "a bloated bureaucracy with a critical core of personnel who are infatuated with the perpetuation of a radical liberal agenda" and has "forfeited the trust" of the American people due to its role in the investigation of alleged Trump–Russia collusion. It must therefore be thoroughly reformed and closely overseen by the White House, and the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) must be personally accountable to the president.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

A DOJ reformed per Project 2025's recommendations would combat affirmative discrimination or anti-white racism, citing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Former Trump DOJ official Gene Hamilton argues that "advancing the interests of certain segments of American society... comes at the expense of other Americans—and in nearly all cases violates longstanding federal law."{{Cite news |last=Thompson |first=Alex |date=April 1, 2024 |title=Exclusive: Trump allies plot anti-racism protections – for white people |url=https://www.axios.com/2024/04/01/trump-reverse-racism-civil-rights |access-date=May 14, 2024 |work=Axios |archive-date=May 14, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240514182849/https://www.axios.com/2024/04/01/trump-reverse-racism-civil-rights |url-status=live }} Therefore, the DOJ's Civil Rights Division would "prosecute all state and local governments, institutions of higher education, corporations, and any other private employers" with DEI or affirmative action programs. Hamilton was also general counsel for America First Legal, a Project 2025 partner organization.

Legal settlements called consent decrees between the DOJ and local police departments would be curtailed.{{Cite news |last1=Slattery |first1=Gram |last2=Lynch |first2=Sarah N. |last3=Goudsward |first3=Andrew |date=May 17, 2024 |title=Donald Trump wants to control the Justice Department and FBI. His allies have a plan |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/us/donald-trump-wants-control-justice-department-fbi-his-allies-have-plan-2024-05-17/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240517105208/https://www.reuters.com/world/us/donald-trump-wants-control-justice-department-fbi-his-allies-have-plan-2024-05-17/ |archive-date=May 17, 2024 |access-date=May 17, 2024 |publisher=Reuters |url-status=live }} According to Project 2025, if the responsibilities of the FBI and another federal agency, such as the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), overlapped, then the latter should take the lead, leaving the FBI to concentrate on (other) serious crimes and threats to national security.

Project 2025 advocates expanding the use of the death penalty to include crimes such as pedophilia.{{cite news |last1=Andone |first1=Dakin |title=What Donald Trump's election could mean for the federal death penalty |url=https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/19/us/federal-death-penalty-donald-trump/index.html |access-date=24 March 2025 |work=CNN |date=19 November 2024 |language=en}}{{cite web |title='It's not good for public safety': Project 2025's extreme death penalty plan |url=https://www.yahoo.com/news/not-good-public-safety-project-172722361.html |website=Yahoo News |publisher=NBC |access-date=24 March 2025 |date=29 September 2024}} During Trump's first term, the federal government carried out the first federal death sentence since 2003.{{cite news |last1=Berman |first1=Mark |title=Trump administration carries out first federal execution since 2003 after late-night Supreme Court intervention |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/daniel-lewis-lee-execution-terre-haute-supreme-court/2020/07/14/18e3bf20-c5c7-11ea-b037-f9711f89ee46_story.html |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=24 March 2025 |date=14 July 2020}} In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Kennedy v. Louisiana that capital punishment for child rape violates the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution.{{cite news |last1=Callebs |first1=Sean |title=Child rapists can't be executed, Supreme Court rules - CNN.com |url=https://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/06/25/scotus.child.rape/index.html |access-date=22 March 2025 |work=www.cnn.com}}

Like Trump, Project 2025 believes that the District of Columbia is infested with crime and as such suggests authorizing the Uniformed Division of the Secret Service to enforce the law outside of the White House and the immediate surroundings.

Michael Bromwich, who was Justice Department inspector general from 1994 to 1999, said:

{{Blockquote|text=The plans being developed by members of Trump's cult to turn the DOJ and FBI into instruments of his revenge should send shivers down the spine of anyone who cares about the rule of law. Trump and rightwing media have planted in fertile soil the seed that the current Department of Justice has been politicized, and the myth has flourished. Their attempts to undermine DOJ and the FBI are among the most destructive campaigns they have conducted.}}

Peter M. Shane, a law professor who writes about the rule of law and the separation of powers, wrote, "Vought would unblinkingly jettison the norm of independence that presidents and attorneys general of both parties have carefully nurtured since Watergate."

In Mandate, Christopher Miller derides the Biden administration for letting U.S. military capabilities decay. The preface says, "For 30 years, America's political, economic, and cultural leaders embraced and enriched Communist China and its genocidal Communist Party while hollowing out America's industrial base."{{Rp|page=11}} Miller also focuses on China strategy, warning that China is building up its military and its nuclear arms could potentially rival the United States'. He discusses the need to maintain a balance of power that prevents China from becoming a regional hegemon. He suggests that China is a belligerent state best countered by an expanded nuclear arms program and raised expectations of regional allies like South Korea and Japan.

Project 2025 identifies all communist and socialist parties and states, including China, as threats to U.S. national security. It expresses concern over China's influence on American society. It suggests mitigating these concerns through efforts such as banning TikTok and the Confucius Institutes.{{Rp|pages=9–13}} It accuses TikTok of espionage and the Confucius Institutes of corrupting American higher education.{{Rp|pages=9–13}} The Project also expresses concern over Chinese intellectual property theft and accuses Big Tech of acting on the behalf of the Chinese Communist Party to undermine the U.S.{{Rp|pages=9–13}} It encourages U.S. pension funds to avoid Chinese investments and recommends that U.S. companies seeking to invest in sensitive sectors in China face restrictions or denial of permission.

On the campaign trail for his second term, Trump avoided giving specific foreign policy plans.{{Cite magazine |last=Glasser |first=Susan B. |date=June 21, 2024 |title=Project Trump, Global Edition |url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/project-trump-global-edition |access-date=June 25, 2024 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US |issn=0028-792X |archive-date=June 25, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240625220840/https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/project-trump-global-edition |url-status=live }} Project 2025 favors neither interventionism nor isolationism, instead insisting that all decisions related to foreign policy prioritize national interests.{{Cite news |last=Vorozhko |first=Tatiana |date=June 12, 2024 |title=What would Trump's and Biden's second-term policy on Ukraine look like? |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/what-would-trump-s-and-biden-s-second-term-policy-on-ukraine-look-like/7653616.html |access-date=June 24, 2024 |publisher=Voice of America |archive-date=June 14, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240614073909/https://www.voanews.com/a/what-would-trump-s-and-biden-s-second-term-policy-on-ukraine-look-like/7653616.html |url-status=live }} In Mandate, Max Primorac suggests significant changes to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)'s mission due to controversial issues such as the organization's promotion of abortion as healthcare, policies to mitigate climate change, acknowledgment of gender identities, and campaigns against systemic racism. Mandate recommends the words "gender", "abortion", "reproductive health", and "sexual and reproductive rights" be purged from all USAID programs and documents.

{{See also|Second Cold War|North Atlantic Treaty#Article 3}}

File:Secretary Blinken Participates in a Flag Raising Ceremony for Finland at NATO Headquarters (52807659247).jpg to increase their military spending, in order to confront threats from Russia.|alt=Secretary of State Antony Blinken participates in a flag-raising ceremony for Finland at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.]]

Mandate argues that the U.S. should maintain its nuclear umbrella only for nations in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and that these countries should be responsible for deploying their own conventional forces to deter Russian aggression.{{rp|page=94–95}} As of June 2024, 24 of the 32 NATO members had allocated at least 2% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to defense.{{Cite news |last1=Knickmeyer |first1=Ellen |last2=Kim |first2=Seung Min |date=June 17, 2024 |title=A record number of NATO allies are hitting their defense spending target during war in Ukraine |url=https://apnews.com/article/nato-defense-spending-stoltenberg-biden-5246409eec70745e6e936d997073a6f4 |access-date=June 18, 2024 |work=Associated Press |archive-date=June 17, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240617165707/https://apnews.com/article/nato-defense-spending-stoltenberg-biden-5246409eec70745e6e936d997073a6f4 |url-status=live }}

Christopher Miller advocates that the U.S. replace all its Cold War nuclear capabilities and infrastructure and develop the LGM-35 Sentinel. He also promotes testing more weapons in violation of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. The Biden administration also promoted the Sentinel's development.{{cite journal |last1=Kurosawa |first1=Mitsuru |title=Biden Administration's Nuclear Posture Review: Analysis and Assessment |journal=Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament |date=3 July 2023 |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=312–326 |doi=10.1080/25751654.2023.2235764 |doi-access=free }}

More specifically, Mandate calls for a speech shortly after inauguration to "make the case to the American people that nuclear weapons are the ultimate guarantor of their freedom and prosperity", to be followed by additional funding for nuclear weapons modernization programs to develop and produce new warheads such as W87-1 Mod and W88 Alt 370 and deploy as-yet-unproven directed-energy and space-based weapons and a "cruise missile defense of the homeland".{{rp|page=127}} The plan advocates continuing the B61-12 and W80 modernization programs, which began in 2013 and 2014 respectively and have been continued by each administration since.{{cite web |title=W80-4 LIFE EXTENSION PROGRAM |url=https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2023-11/W80-4_1123.pdf |website=www.energy.gov |publisher=National Nuclear Security Administration |access-date=8 February 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231202021410/https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2023-11/W80-4_1123.pdf |archive-date=December 2, 2023}}{{rp|page=127}}{{Cite web| title = NNSA Completes First Production Unit of B61-12 Life Extension Program| work = Energy.gov| date = 2 December 2021| accessdate = 2022-11-19| url = https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/articles/nnsa-completes-first-production-unit-b61-12-life-extension-program| archive-date = 2022-10-04| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20221004134229/https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/articles/nnsa-completes-first-production-unit-b61-12-life-extension-program| url-status = live}} It also advocates restarting funding for nuclear armed submarine-launched cruise missiles.{{rp|page=127}} The Obama administration retired similar missile programs in 2010. Trump restarted funding these SLCM-N in 2018, but the Biden administration canceled the funding in 2022.{{cite report |title=Nuclear-Armed Sea-Launched Cruise Missile (SLCM-N) |url=https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF12084 |website=crsreports.congress.gov |publisher=Congressional Research Service |access-date=8 February 2025 |date=October 17, 2024 |archive-date=February 2, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250202025709/https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF12084 |url-status=live }}

Plans include placing multiple warheads on each Minuteman III ICBM and its Sentinel replacement by 2026, putting nuclear warheads on Army ground-launched missiles, adding nuclear capabilities to hypersonic missile systems, directing the Air Force to investigate a road-mobile ICBM launcher, expanding the pre-positioning of nuclear bombs and weapons in Europe and Asia, and directing the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to "transition to a wartime footing". This would be funded by directing the NNSA to submit monthly briefings to the Oval Office and separate budget requests from the Energy Department, along with directing the Office of Management and Budget to submit a supplemental budget request to Congress.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists called Project 2025's nuclear policy "the most dramatic buildup of nuclear weapons since the start of the Reagan administration" and the beginning of a new global nuclear arms race. It includes the prioritization of nuclear weapons development and production over other security programs, rejecting Congressional efforts to find cost-effective alternatives for the plans, increasing the number of nuclear weapons above treaty limits, rejecting current arms control treaties, expanding the NNSA's capability and funding, preparing to test new nuclear weapons despite the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and accelerating all missile defense programs.{{Cite web |last=Cirincione |first=Joe |date=July 2, 2024 |title=Trump has a strategic plan for the country: Gearing up for nuclear war |url=https://thebulletin.org/2024/07/trump-has-a-strategic-plan-for-the-country-gearing-up-for-nuclear-war/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240702155203/https://thebulletin.org/2024/07/trump-has-a-strategic-plan-for-the-country-gearing-up-for-nuclear-war/ |archive-date=July 2, 2024 |access-date=July 2, 2024 |work=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists|url-status=live}} Project 2025 would require the Defense Department to abolish its DEI programs and immediately reinstate all service members discharged for not getting vaccinated against COVID-19. The United States Armed Forces would not be authorized to take climate change into account in evaluating national security threats.{{Cite news |last=Skibell |first=Arianna |date=April 15, 2024 |title=A deep dive into energy plans for Trump 2.0 |url=https://www.politico.com/newsletters/power-switch/2024/04/15/a-deep-dive-into-energy-plans-for-trump-2-0-00152281 |access-date=May 16, 2024 |work=Politico |archive-date=June 13, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240613153537/https://www.politico.com/newsletters/power-switch/2024/04/15/a-deep-dive-into-energy-plans-for-trump-2-0-00152281 |url-status=live }}

{{see also|Censorship in the United States|Pornography in the United States|}}

In the foreword of Project 2025's Mandate, Kevin Roberts argues that pornography promotes sexual deviance, the sexualization of children, and the exploitation of women; is not protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution; and should be banned. He recommends the criminal prosecution of people and companies producing pornography, which he compares to addictive drugs. Previously, the Supreme Court has ruled against attempts to ban pornography on First Amendment grounds. Roberts has said that despite Trump's past of appearing in Playboy magazine and having an affair with a porn actor, he could still be a powerful advocate against pornography because "our lord works with imperfect instruments".{{Cite news |last=Contorno |first=Steve |date=May 15, 2024 |title=Trump's playboy past is in the spotlight. His allies are readying a new fight against pornography |url=https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/15/politics/trump-conservatives-pornography-fight/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521154826/https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/15/politics/trump-conservatives-pornography-fight/index.html |archive-date=May 21, 2024 |access-date=July 9, 2024 |website=CNN |language=en |quote=Given Heritage's influence – the organization is full of the former president's staff, and the person leading Project 2025, Paul Dans, is a former Trump administration official who told a recent gathering of religious broadcasters that he expects to return to the White House if Republicans are victorious this fall...}}{{Cite news |url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/donald-trump-a-playboy-model-and-a-system-for-concealing-infidelity-national-enquirer-karen-mcdougal/|title=Donald Trump, a Playboy Model, and a System for Concealing Infidelity: One woman's account of clandestine meetings, financial transactions, and legal pacts designed to hide an extramarital affair|author=Farrow, Ronan|magazine=The New Yorker|language=en-US|url-status=live|date=March 18, 2023|access-date=July 8, 2024|archive-date=March 31, 2023|archive-url=https://archive.today/20230331132610/https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/donald-trump-a-playboy-model-and-a-system-for-concealing-infidelity-national-enquirer-karen-mcdougal}} When the Republican Party nominated him for president in 2016, Trump signed a pledge to examine the "public health impact of Internet pornography on youth, families and the American culture". He did not fulfill this promise. The American Principles Project, part of the Project 2025 advisory board, has advocated for state laws that reduce pornography's accessibility.

{{See also|Public transportation in the United States|Amtrak|Infrastructure policy of Donald Trump}}

Project 2025 recommends curtailing the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021, which authorizes funding for de-carbonizing transportation infrastructure.{{Cite news |last=Hewett |first=Frederick |date=March 27, 2024 |title=Project 2025 tells us what a second Trump term could mean for climate policy. It isn't pretty |url=https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2024/03/27/heritage-foundation-project-2025-2024-election-climate-change-frederick-hewett |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240512142007/https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2024/03/27/heritage-foundation-project-2025-2024-election-climate-change-frederick-hewett |archive-date=May 12, 2024 |access-date=May 12, 2024 |publisher=WBUR-FM}} It views the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) unfavorably, calling it a waste of money. It suggests cutting federal funding for transit agencies nationwide in the form of the Capital Investment Grants (CIG) program. It wants the FTA to conduct "rigorous cost–benefit analysis" even though the agency already scrutinizes projects before allocating funding.{{Cite news |last=DeGood |first=Kevin |date=June 10, 2024 |title=Project 2025 Would Increase Costs for Commuters, Defund Transit Maintenance, and Undermine Economic Growth |url=https://www.americanprogress.org/article/project-2025-would-increase-costs-for-commuters-defund-transit-maintenance-and-undermine-economic-growth/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240612094053/https://www.americanprogress.org/article/project-2025-would-increase-costs-for-commuters-defund-transit-maintenance-and-undermine-economic-growth/ |archive-date=June 12, 2024 |access-date=June 10, 2024 |publisher=Center for American Progress}}{{Cite web |date=July 18, 2024 |title=Project 2025 and Public Transportation |url=https://pedestrianobservations.com/2024/07/17/project-2025-and-public-transportation/ |access-date=July 31, 2024 |website=Pedestrian Observations |language=en |archive-date=July 31, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240731134423/https://pedestrianobservations.com/2024/07/17/project-2025-and-public-transportation/ |url-status=live }}

{{see also|Abortion in the United States|United States abortion protests (2022–present)}}

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Project 2025's proponents maintain that life begins at conception. The Mandate says that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) should "return to being known as the Department of Life", as Trump HHS secretary Alex Azar nicknamed it in January 2020, voicing his pride in being "part of the most pro-life administration in this country's history". Project 2025 said Trump should align federal organizations with the policy that abortion is not health care and promote American health "from conception to natural death".{{cite news |last1=Krawczyk |first1=Kathryn |date=January 24, 2020 |title=Alex Azar just called health and human services 'the Department of Life' |url=https://theweek.com/speedreads/891410/alex-azar-just-called-health-human-services-department-life |work=The Week |access-date=May 1, 2024 |archive-date=May 1, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240501110156/https://theweek.com/speedreads/891410/alex-azar-just-called-health-human-services-department-life |url-status=live }}{{cite news |last1=Hellmann |first1=Jesse |date=October 12, 2017 |title=Trump's HHS defines life as beginning at conception |url=https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/355104-health-department-defines-life-as-beginning-at-conception/ |work=The Hill |access-date=May 2, 2024 |archive-date=May 2, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240502012815/https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/355104-health-department-defines-life-as-beginning-at-conception/ |url-status=live }}

In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization that, contrary to Roe v. Wade, state abortion bans are constitutional, but Project 2025 encourages the next president "to enact the most robust protections for the unborn that Congress will support".{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

Severino told a Students for Life conference that Project 2025 was developing executive orders and proposing regulations to roll back Biden's abortion policies and solidify a new environment in the wake of Dobbs. For example, the Reproductive Healthcare Access Task Force Biden created would be replaced by a dedicated pro-life agency that would advocate for health of unborn children and women with newfound authority.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

The project opposes any initiatives that in its view subsidize single parenthood. It encourages the next administration to rescind some of the provisions of the Family Planning Services and Population Research Act of 1970, enacted as Title X of Public Health Service Act, which offers reproductive healthcare services, and to require participating clinics to emphasize the importance of marriage to potential parents.

Severino writes in the project's manifesto that the Food and Drug Administration should reverse its approval of the abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol on ethical grounds.{{rp|page=458}} Project 2025 proposes eliminating insurance coverage of the morning-after pill Ella, which insurance companies are required to cover under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Severino also recommends that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "update its public messaging about the unsurpassed effectiveness of modern fertility awareness-based methods" of contraception, such as smartphone applications that track a woman's menstrual cycle.{{rp|page=455}} He says that the HHS should require states to report the method and motivation of each abortion, the gestational age of the fetus, and the mother's state of residence.{{rp|page=455}}{{Cite news |last1=Becker |first1=Amanda |last2=Rummler |first2=Orion |last3=Davis |first3=Darreonna |date=July 16, 2024 |title=The 19th Explains: What you need to know about Project 2025 |url=https://19thnews.org/2024/07/project-2025-women-education-lgbtq-workforce/ |access-date=July 31, 2024 |website=The 19th |language=en-us |archive-date=July 28, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240728002157/https://19thnews.org/2024/07/project-2025-women-education-lgbtq-workforce/ |url-status=live }}

The project seeks to restore Trump-era "religious and moral exemptions" to contraceptive requirements under the ACA, including emergency contraception (Plan B), which it deems an abortifacient,{{Cite magazine |last=Ramirez |first=Nikki McCann |date=February 23, 2024 |title=The Right Is Cracking Down on Abortion and IVF. Is 'Recreational Sex' Next? |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/birth-control-targeted-right-wing-influencers-1234974833/ |access-date=May 14, 2024 |magazine=Rolling Stone |archive-date=May 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240515001124/https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/birth-control-targeted-right-wing-influencers-1234974833/ |url-status=live }} to defund Planned Parenthood, and to remove protection of medical records involving abortions from criminal investigations if the records' owners cross state lines. Project 2025 contributor Emma Waters told Politico, "I've been very concerned with just the emphasis on expanding more and more contraception." According to her, Project 2025's policy recommendations constitute not restrictions but rather "medical safeguards" for women.{{Cite news |last1=Ollstein |first1=Alice Miranda |last2=Messerly |first2=Megan |date=May 29, 2024 |title=Trump says he won't 'ban' birth control. Here's what he may do instead. |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/29/trump-birth-control-contraception-00159555 |access-date=June 5, 2024 |work=Politico |archive-date=June 13, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240613153550/https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/29/trump-birth-control-contraception-00159555 |url-status=live }} Waters said she wanted the NIH to investigate contraception's long-term effects.

In Project 2025's "Department of Justice" section, Gene Hamilton calls for enforcement of federal law against using the U.S. Postal Service for transportation of medicines that induce abortion.{{rp|page=562}}{{Cite news |last=Cohn |first=Jennifer |date=March 7, 2024 |title=Shocking Online Manifesto Reveals Project 2025's Link to a Coordinated 'Christian Nationalism Project' |url=https://buckscountybeacon.com/2024/03/shocking-online-manifesto-reveals-project-2025s-link-to-a-coordinated-christian-nationalism-project/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240312092733/https://buckscountybeacon.com/2024/03/shocking-online-manifesto-reveals-project-2025s-link-to-a-coordinated-christian-nationalism-project/ |archive-date=March 12, 2024 |access-date=March 12, 2024 |work=Bucks County Beacon}} Project 2025 seeks to revive provisions of the Comstock Act that banned mail delivery of any "instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing" that could be used for an abortion. Congress and the courts have narrowed Comstock laws, allowing contraceptives to be delivered by mail.

Project 2025 aims to enforce Comstock more rigorously at the national level to prohibit sending abortion pills and medical equipment used for abortions through the mail. The project proposes criminal prosecution of senders and receivers of abortion pills.{{Cite news |last1=Yang |first1=John |last2=Zahn |first2=Harry |date=March 24, 2024 |title=Why 2024 may be the most consequential election for reproductive rights in 50 years |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-2024-may-be-the-most-consequential-election-for-reproductive-rights-in-50-years |access-date=May 14, 2024 |work=PBS NewsHour |archive-date=June 13, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240613153425/https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-2024-may-be-the-most-consequential-election-for-reproductive-rights-in-50-years |url-status=live }} It does not explicitly advocate banning abortion, but some legal experts and abortion rights advocates said adopting the Project's plan would cut off access to medical equipment used in surgical abortions to create a de facto national abortion ban.{{Cite news |last=Miranda Ollstein |first=Alice |date=March 27, 2024 |title=Justices Were Skeptical of Abortion Pills Arguments. Anti-Abortion Groups Have Backup Plans. |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/27/conservative-abortion-pill-restriction-efforts-00149199 |work=Politico |access-date=March 28, 2024 |archive-date=March 28, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240328074132/https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/27/conservative-abortion-pill-restriction-efforts-00149199 |url-status=live }}{{cite news |last1=Kurtzleben |first1=Danielle |date=April 10, 2024 |title=Why anti-abortion advocates are reviving a 19th century sexual purity law |url=https://www.npr.org/2024/04/10/1243802678/abortion-comstock-act |publisher=NPR |access-date=May 1, 2024 |archive-date=May 1, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240501230832/https://www.npr.org/2024/04/10/1243802678/abortion-comstock-act |url-status=live }}

To prevent teenage pregnancy, Project 2025 advises the federal government to deprecate what it considers promotion of abortion and high-risk sexual behaviors among adolescents. It also seeks to remove HHS's role in shaping sex education, arguing that this is tantamount to creating a monopoly.{{Rp|page=477}}{{Cite news |last=Walsh |first=Joan |date=June 4, 2024 |title=Project 2025 Has Bad Medicine for HHS |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/society/project-2025-trump-hhs/ |access-date=July 31, 2024 |language=en-US |issn=0027-8378 |archive-date=July 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240715153301/https://www.thenation.com/article/society/project-2025-trump-hhs/ |url-status=live }}

To be admitted to the "Presidential Personnel Database", a recruit must respond to several prompts about their ideologies. One is "name one living public policy figure whom you greatly admire and why". A recruit's social media accounts will be scrutinized. The key people involved with the database are former Trump administration officials, including John McEntee.

Heritage claims to have nearly 20,000 profiles as of July 2024, though those could simply be empty after someone started the process and did not finish. Staffers have privately questioned how many of the people in the database could actually work in a future administration.

Once the second Trump presidency began, White House screening teams fanned out to federal agencies to screen job applicants for their loyalty to the president's agenda. On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order to restore merit-based federal hiring practices and "dedication to our Constitution".{{cite news |last1=Lee |first1=Matthew |last2=Madhani |first2=Aamer |last3=Colvin |first3=Jill |title=Loyalty tests and MAGA checks: Inside the Trump White House's intense screening of job-seekers |url=https://apnews.com/article/trump-loyalty-white-house-maga-vetting-jobs-768fa5cbcf175652655c86203222f47c |publisher=Associated Press |date=January 25, 2025 |archive-date=January 26, 2025 |access-date=January 26, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250126065351/https://apnews.com/article/trump-loyalty-white-house-maga-vetting-jobs-768fa5cbcf175652655c86203222f47c |url-status=live }}{{cite news |last1=Shamim |first1=Sarah |title=What do Trump's executive orders on workplace diversity programmes say? |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/23/what-do-trumps-executive-orders-on-workplace-diversity-programmes-say |publisher=Al Jazeera |date=January 23, 2025}}

The training modules that members in the database had access to were relatively light on substance and heavy on ideology. The database and modules were low-budget productions. ProPublica has published 23 of the videos Project 2025 created to support the training. According to ProPublica, 29 of the 36 speakers in the videos worked for Donald Trump in some capacity, including on his 2016–2017 transition team, in his administration, or in his 2024 reelection campaign.{{Cite web |last1=Surgey |first1=Andy |last2=Kroll |first2=Nick |date=August 10, 2024 |title=Inside Project 2025's Secret Training Videos |url=https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-project-2025-secret-training-videos-trump-election |access-date=August 10, 2024 |website=ProPublica |language=en |archive-date=August 10, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240810182953/https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-project-2025-secret-training-videos-trump-election |url-status=live }}

Project 2025 and the CRA helped draft executive orders that are not public.{{Cite web |last1=Ibrahim |first1=Nur |last2=Wrona |first2=Aleksandra |date=July 3, 2024 |title=What's Project 2025? Unpacking the Pro-Trump Plan to Overhaul US Government |url=https://www.snopes.com//news/2024/07/03/project-2025-trump-us-government/ |access-date=July 13, 2024 |website=Snopes |language=en |quote=The sweeping effort centers on a roughly 1,000-page document that gives the executive branch more power, reverses Biden-era policies and specifies numerous department-level changes. People across the political spectrum fear such actions are precursors to authoritarianism... There's reportedly another facet to Project 2025 that's not detailed on its website: an effort to draft executive orders for the new president. Jeffrey Clark (a former Trump official who sought to use the Justice Department to help Trump's efforts to overturn 2020 election results) is leading that work, and the alleged draft executive orders involve the Insurrection Act—a law last updated in 1871 that allows the president to deploy the military for domestic law enforcement. Speaking to the Post, a Heritage spokesperson denied that accusation. |archive-date=July 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240711040154/https://www.snopes.com/news/2024/07/03/project-2025-trump-us-government/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite news |last=Holmes |first=Kristen |date=November 16, 2023 |title=Trump's Radical Second-Term Agenda Would Wield Executive Power in Unprecedented Ways |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/16/politics/trump-agenda-second-term/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231119040243/https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/16/politics/trump-agenda-second-term/index.html |archive-date=November 19, 2023 |access-date=November 19, 2023 |publisher=CNN}} They include invoking the Insurrection Act to deploy the military for domestic law enforcement, which the Heritage Foundation denied. Russell Vought also developed a 180-day playbook,{{Cite web |last=Lardner |first=Richard |date=2024-08-05 |title=A chief architect of Project 2025 is ready to shock Washington if Donald Trump wins a second term |url=https://apnews.com/article/project-2025-russell-vought-trump-federal-government-38fc446832062e40fc2ccad6f3348dfd |access-date=2025-03-10 |website=AP News |language=en}} which Project 2025 described as a defined transition plan for each federal agency to be undertaken during the first six months of Trump's second term.{{Cite web |date=2023-02-02 |title=180-Day Playbook |url=https://www.project2025.org/playbook/ |access-date=2025-03-10 |website=Project 2025 |language=en-US |archive-date=March 18, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240318165839/https://www.project2025.org/playbook/ |url-status=live }} At least 38 Democratic members of Congress called on Project 2025 to release the playbook, saying it is in the public interest to know what is planned.{{Cite news |last=Alfonseca |first=Kiara |date=August 6, 2024 |title=Democrats call for answers on Project 2025 from the Heritage Foundation |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/exclusive-democrats-call-answers-project-2025-heritage-foundation/story?id=112576667 |access-date=August 10, 2024 |publisher=ABC News |language=en}} In July 2024, CRA director of research Micah Meadowcroft said in a secretly recorded interview that the orders would be distributed during the presidential transition in such a way that they would never be made public.

On September{{nbsp}}24, 2024, Heritage Foundation president and Project 2025 architect Kevin Roberts was due to release the book Dawn's Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America, with a foreword by Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance.{{cite magazine |title=J.D. Vance in Serious Trouble After Damning Project 2025 Book Foreword |url=https://newrepublic.com/post/184182/jd-vance-trouble-heritage-foundation-project-2025-book-foreword |magazine=The New Republic |first=Robert |last=McCoy |date=July 24, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240725082055/https://newrepublic.com/post/184182/jd-vance-trouble-heritage-foundation-project-2025-book-foreword |archive-date=July 25, 2024 |url-status=live |access-date=July 24, 2024}}{{Cite news |last=Pengelly |first=Martin|date= July 24, 2024|title=JD Vance writes foreword for Project 2025 leader's upcoming book |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/jul/24/jd-vance-project-2025-book-kevin-roberts |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240724210614/https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/jul/24/jd-vance-project-2025-book-kevin-roberts |work=The Guardian |archive-date=July 24, 2024 |url-status=live |access-date=July 25, 2024}} The book was initially subtitled Burning Down Washington to Save America.

In the book, Roberts "outlines a peaceful 'Second American Revolution' for voters looking to shift the power back into the hands of the people".{{cite book |url=https://www.harpercollins.com/products/dawns-early-light-kevin-roberts?variant=41585944526882 |title=Dawn's Early Light: Burning Down Washington to Save America|access-date=July 24, 2024 |isbn=9780063353503 |first=Kevin |last=Roberts |date=2024 |publisher=HarperCollins |archive-date=July 25, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240725120725/https://www.harpercollins.com/products/dawns-early-light-kevin-roberts?variant=41585944526882 |url-status=live }} In a review of the book, Vance wrote: "We are now all realizing that it's time to circle the wagons and load the muskets. In the fights that lay ahead, these ideas are an essential weapon." Colin Dickey of the New Republic says the book reveals paranoid, Stalinist tactics like using conspiracy theories to violently enforce their vision for the world.{{Cite magazine |last=Dickey |first=Colin |date=August 9, 2024 |title=Voters Have a Right to Know What Kevin Roberts's Disturbing Book Says |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/184651/voters-right-know-kevin-robertss-disturbing-book-says-j-d-vance-project-2025 |access-date=August 10, 2024 |magazine=The New Republic |issn=0028-6583 |archive-date=August 10, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240810053852/https://newrepublic.com/article/184651/voters-right-know-kevin-robertss-disturbing-book-says-j-d-vance-project-2025 |url-status=live }} Roberts criticizes birth control and law enforcement (preferring a more heavily armed frontier-like society), while promoting public prayer as a key tool in the competition with China.

On August{{nbsp}}6, 2024, the book's release was postponed until after the November election.{{Cite web |last=Wegmann |first=Philip |date=August 6, 2024 |title=Heritage President To Delay Book Publication After Project 2025 Firestorm |url=https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2024/08/06/heritage_president_to_delay_book_publication_after_project_2025_firestorm_151403.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240808005355/https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2024/08/06/heritage_president_to_delay_book_publication_after_project_2025_firestorm_151403.html |archive-date=August 8, 2024 |access-date=August 8, 2024 |website=RealClearPolitics}}{{Cite news |last=Doyle |first=Katherine |date=August 7, 2024 |title=Book with ties to Project 2025 and JD Vance delayed until after the election |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/book-project-2025-jd-vance-delayed-heritage-foundation-rcna165632 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240808005355/https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/book-project-2025-jd-vance-delayed-heritage-foundation-rcna165632 |archive-date=August 8, 2024 |access-date=August 8, 2024 |work=NBC News |publisher= |language=en}}{{Cite news |last=Mascaro |first=Lisa |date=August 7, 2024 |title=Project 2025's new leader Kevin Roberts postpones his own book launch until after the election |url=https://apnews.com/article/project-2025-harris-trump-vance-heritage-roberts-01de527325a9a0325bac35989d37ce36 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240807233253/https://apnews.com/article/project-2025-harris-trump-vance-heritage-roberts-01de527325a9a0325bac35989d37ce36 |archive-date=August 7, 2024 |access-date=August 8, 2024 |work=Associated Press |publisher= |language=en}}

Roberts held book release events in Manhattan and Washington, D.C. On November{{nbsp}}13, 2024, The Guardian published an account of the hostile reception its reporter encountered at one of the events. Although invited to attend the event, the reporter was expelled.{{Cite news |last=Gabbatt |first=Adam |date=2024-11-13 |title='Go to hell': how Project 2025 chief kicked the Guardian out of book event |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/13/kevin-roberts-project-2025-book-events |access-date=2024-12-09 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}

Trump's actions as president reignited scrutiny of Project 2025, with critics warning that his administration is actively implementing its agenda across multiple sectors.{{Cite web |last=Crowley |first=Kinsey |title=What is Project 2025? Trump policy moves bring conservative agenda into spotlight (again) |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/01/29/what-is-project-2025/78020165007/ |access-date=2025-02-03 |website=USA TODAY |language=en-US |archive-date=February 3, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250203210300/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/01/29/what-is-project-2025/78020165007/ |url-status=live }} Paul Dans has expressed satisfaction that Trump's early executive orders align with the project's Mandate for Leadership. Trump's early executive actions closely mirrored Project 2025's outline. This may indicate that his administration was rapidly enacting a pre-planned playbook.{{Cite magazine |last=Popli |first=Nik |date=2025-01-24 |title=Trump's Early Actions Mirror Project 2025, the Blueprint He Once Dismissed |url=https://time.com/7209901/donald-trump-executive-actions-project-2025/ |access-date=2025-01-30 |magazine=Time |language=en |archive-date=January 25, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250125064527/https://time.com/7209901/donald-trump-executive-actions-project-2025/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |title=Trump and Project 2025: President's early moves mirror conservative playbook – National {{!}} Globalnews.ca |url=https://globalnews.ca/news/10989366/donald-trump-project-2025-executive-orders-comparison/ |access-date=2025-02-03 |website=Global News |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Warnock: We're seeing Project 2025 play out 'before our very eyes' |url=https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/warnock-we-re-seeing-project-2025-play-out-before-our-very-eyes-230735941882 |access-date=2025-02-03 |website=MSNBC.com |language=en |archive-date=February 3, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250203051520/https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/warnock-we-re-seeing-project-2025-play-out-before-our-very-eyes-230735941882 |url-status=live }} His executive orders on gender policies, federal hiring, and foreign aid reflected the project's policies, signaling a shift toward more autocratic governance.{{Cite web |last=Mansfield |first=Erin |title=Gender, hiring, foreign aid: 3 ways Project 2025 is turning up in Trump's actions |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/01/31/project-2025-trump-executive-orders/77977234007/ |access-date=2025-02-03 |website=USA TODAY |language=en-US |archive-date=February 2, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250202235802/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/01/31/project-2025-trump-executive-orders/77977234007/ |url-status=live }}

After Trump won the 2024 election, he nominated several Project 2025 contributors to positions in his second administration.{{Cite news |last1=Kanno-Youngs |first1=Zolan |last2=Green |first2=Erica L. |date=November 29, 2024 |title=Trump Disavowed Project 2025 During the Campaign. Not Anymore. |newspaper=The New York Times |work= |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/29/us/politics/trump-project-2025.html |url-access=subscription |access-date=January 19, 2025 |issn=0362-4331 }} His choice to lead the FCC, Brendan Carr, wrote the manifesto's chapter about the agency.{{cite news |last1=Kang |first1=Cecilia |title=Trump Picks Brendan Carr to Lead F.C.C. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/17/technology/fcc-nominee-brendan-carr-trump.html |work=The New York Times |date=November 17, 2024 |archive-date=December 8, 2024 |access-date=November 18, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241208001144/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/17/technology/fcc-nominee-brendan-carr-trump.html |url-status=live }} Tom Homan, picked by Trump to act as a "border czar", also contributed to the Project 2025 document.{{cite news |last1=Treisman |first1=Rachel |title=What to know about Tom Homan, the former ICE head returning as Trump's 'border czar' |url=https://www.npr.org/2024/11/11/nx-s1-5186522/tom-homan-border-czar-trump |work=NPR |date=November 11, 2024}} Trump nominated Russell Vought to direct the Office of Management and Budget. After these selections, Karoline Leavitt issued a statement saying "President Trump never had anything to do with Project{{nbsp}}2025";{{Cite web |last=Barrow |first=Bill |date=2024-11-23 |title=After Trump's Project 2025 denials, he is tapping its authors and influencers for key roles |url=https://apnews.com/article/trump-project-2025-administration-nominees-843f5ff20131ccba5f056e7ccc5baf23 |access-date=2024-12-09 |website=Associated Press |language=en |archive-date=November 24, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241124002204/https://apnews.com/article/trump-project-2025-administration-nominees-843f5ff20131ccba5f056e7ccc5baf23 |url-status=live }} Leavitt herself is an instructor for Project{{nbsp}}2025's "Conservative Governance{{nbsp}}101" training program{{cite web |title=Conservative Governance 101 |url=https://www.project2025.org/training/conservative-governance-101/ |website=Project 2025 |date=July 26, 2023 |publisher=Heritage Foundation |access-date=4 December 2024|archive-date=January 20, 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250120042033/https://www.project2025.org/training/conservative-governance-101/|url-status=live}} and was chosen by Trump as White House Press Secretary.{{cite web | url=https://apnews.com/article/trump-leavitt-white-house-first-press-briefing-5ba5ff116e18c29b04c934a24a8983d1 | title=Karoline Leavitt, the youngest White House press secretary, makes her debut in the briefing room | website=Associated Press News | date=January 28, 2025 | access-date=February 5, 2025 | archive-date=February 5, 2025 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250205125744/https://apnews.com/article/trump-leavitt-white-house-first-press-briefing-5ba5ff116e18c29b04c934a24a8983d1 | url-status=live }}

Other authors or contributors to Project 2025 who have been nominated or appointed to roles in the second Trump administration include Michael Anton (contributor, appointed Director of Policy Planning);{{cite web | url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/statement-president-elect-donald-j-trump-announcing-the-nomination-michael-anton-director | title=Statement by President-elect Donald J. Trump Announcing the Nomination of Michael Anton as Director of Policy Planning at the State Department | the American Presidency Project | access-date=February 4, 2025 | archive-date=February 17, 2025 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250217175025/https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/statement-president-elect-donald-j-trump-announcing-the-nomination-michael-anton-director | url-status=live }} Paul S. Atkins (contributor, nominated for Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission);{{cite web | url=https://natlawreview.com/article/sec-lives-under-new-leadership-what-expect | title=Paul Atkins Nominated as Securities and Exchange Commission Chair }} Steven G. Bradbury (contributor, nominated for Deputy Secretary of Transportation);{{cite web | url=https://www.heritage.org/press/heritage-applauds-steve-bradburys-nomination-deputy-secretary-transportation | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250112010216/https://www.heritage.org/press/heritage-applauds-steve-bradburys-nomination-deputy-secretary-transportation | url-status=unfit | archive-date=January 12, 2025 | title=Heritage Applauds Steve Bradbury's Nomination for Deputy Secretary of Transportation }} Troy Edgar (contributor, nominated for Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security);{{cite web | url=https://executivegov.com/2024/12/trump-taps-troy-edgar-dhs-deputy-secretary/ | title=President-Elect Trump Chooses Troy Edgar as DHS Deputy Secretary | date=December 20, 2024 }} Jon Feere (contributor, appointed Chief of Staff at ICE);{{cite web | url=https://www.ice.gov/leadership | title=ICE Leadership | ICE | date=February 8, 2025 | access-date=February 8, 2025 | archive-date=March 16, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150316202302/https://www.ice.gov/leadership | url-status=live }} Pete Hoekstra (contributor, nominated for ambassador to Canada);{{Cite web |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trump-hoekstra-ambassador-canada-nominee-1.7389147 |title=Archived copy |access-date=February 8, 2025 |archive-date=February 17, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250217175025/https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trump-hoekstra-ambassador-canada-nominee-1.7389147 |url-status=live }} Roman Jankowski (contributor, appointed Chief Privacy Officer and Chief Freedom of Information Act Officer for the Department of Homeland Security); and Peter Navarro (author, appointed Senior Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing).{{cite web | url=https://www.dhs.gov/person/roman-jankowski | title=Roman Jankowski | Homeland Security | access-date=February 8, 2025 | archive-date=February 7, 2025 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250207110906/https://www.dhs.gov/person/roman-jankowski | url-status=live }} Trump's nominations were confirmed faster than in his first term and faster than Biden's cabinet nominations.{{cite web |last1=Kim |first1=June |last2=Yourish |first2=Karen |last3=Lee |first3=Jasmine C. |last4=Cahalan |first4=Sarah |title=Tracking Trump's Cabinet Confirmations |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/01/29/us/politics/trump-cabinet-confirmations-tracker.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=27 March 2025 |date=29 January 2025}}

Aspects of the project implemented in the first days of Trump's second term include executive orders to reopen large areas of Alaska, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, to oil drilling,https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/oil-industry-unlikely-rush-alaska-despite-trumps-call-drill-2025-01-23/ and the withdrawal of a pending Biden administration ban on PFAS in industrial discharge.{{cite web | url=https://www.wect.com/2025/01/31/trump-administration-withdraws-proposal-limit-pfas-discharge-amounts/ | title=Trump Administration withdraws proposal to limit PFAS discharge amounts | date=January 31, 2025 | access-date=February 5, 2025 | archive-date=February 11, 2025 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250211152601/https://www.wect.com/2025/01/31/trump-administration-withdraws-proposal-limit-pfas-discharge-amounts/ | url-status=live }}

Metadata show that United States Office of Personnel Management memos sent to federal workers were written by Peter Noah and James Sherk, both associated with the Heritage Foundation.{{Cite web |last=Cole |first=Samantha |date=2025-01-28 |title=Memos to Federal Employees Were Written By People With Ties to Project 2025, Metadata Shows |url=https://www.404media.co/opm-memos-to-federal-employees-metadata/ |access-date=2025-01-28 |website=404 Media |language=en |archive-date=January 28, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250128075205/https://www.404media.co/opm-memos-to-federal-employees-metadata/ |url-status=live }}

According to Media Matters for America, Trump's early budget freezes and spending cuts reflected Project 2025's aggressive push to downsize government programs and shift power to conservative institutions. In addition, his push to weaken FEMA is part of a broader Project 2025 strategy to reduce the federal government's role in disaster relief and shift responsibility to state and private entities.{{Cite web |last=Fisher |first=Allison |date=2025-01-29 |title=Trump is signaling he wants to shutter or gut FEMA — another Project 2025 scheme |url=https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/trump-signaling-he-wants-shutter-or-gut-fema-another-project-2025-scheme |access-date=2025-02-03 |website=Media Matters for America |language=en}}{{better source needed|date=March 2025}}

On February{{nbsp}}7, 2025, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that it would change its maximum indirect cost rate for university research grants from 50% in some cases to 15%, as recommended by Project{{nbsp}}2025.{{cite news |last1=Jewett |first1=Christina |title=A Trump policy change will restrict billions in funding for medical research programs at universities |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/us/politics/medical-research-funding-cuts-university-budgets.html?smid=url-share |access-date=8 February 2025 |date=2025-02-07 |archive-date=February 8, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250208041818/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/us/politics/medical-research-funding-cuts-university-budgets.html?smid=url-share |url-status=live }}

Trump's policy on TikTok diverged from Project 2025's call to ban the app.{{Cite web |first1=Steve |last1=Contorno |first2=Casey |last2=Tolan |date=2025-01-31 |title=Trump said he hadn't read Project 2025 – but most of his early executive orders overlap with its proposals {{!}} CNN Politics |url=https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/31/politics/trump-policy-project-2025-executive-orders-invs/index.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=blueskyCNN&utm_content=2025-01-31T09:28:27 |access-date=2025-01-31 |website=CNN |language=en |archive-date=February 10, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250210132439/https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/31/politics/trump-policy-project-2025-executive-orders-invs/index.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=blueskyCNN&utm_content=2025-01-31T09%3A28%3A27 |url-status=live }}

Executive Order 14191, "Expanding Educational Freedom and Opportunity for Families", diverted funding from public schools to private school vouchers, a move directly aligned with Project 2025's goal to reshape the education system.{{Cite web |last=Maiers |first=Staci |title=Trump's latest executive order overreaches to steal money from public school students to fund private school vouchers {{!}} NEA |url=https://www.nea.org/about-nea/media-center/press-releases/trumps-latest-executive-order-overreaches-steal-money-public-school-students-fund-private-school |access-date=2025-02-03 |website=www.nea.org |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=7 April 2025 |title=Federal register, EO14191 |url=https://www.federalregister.gov/presidential-documents/executive-orders/donald-trump/2025 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250407172154/https://www.federalregister.gov/presidential-documents/executive-orders/donald-trump/2025 |archive-date=7 April 2025 |access-date=7 April 2025 |website=federal register}} Project 2025 advocated changes to foreign aid, including a foreign aid freeze; in January 2025, Trump initially signed an executive order freezing new foreign aid for 90 days, and later in January the administration sent a notice requiring that stop-work orders be issued for all existing foreign aid.{{cite web | url=https://www.kff.org/policy-watch/the-status-of-president-trumps-pause-of-foreign-aid-and-implications-for-pepfar-and-other-global-health-programs/ | title=The Status of President Trump's Pause of Foreign Aid and Implications for PEPFAR and other Global Health Programs | date=February 3, 2025 }}

The executive order Restoring the Death Penalty and Protecting Public Safety was a step toward Project 2025's goal of expanding capital punishment. It directs the Attorney General to seek the death penalty in cases of murder of a police officer and capital crimes by illegal aliens. It also directs the DOJ to ensure that states that wish to apply the death penalty have a sufficient supply of lethal injection materials.{{cite web |title=Restoring The Death Penalty And Protecting Public Safety |url=https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/restoring-the-death-penalty-and-protecting-public-safety/ |website=The White House |access-date=24 March 2025 |date=21 January 2025}}

At the beginning of his second term, Trump signed Executive Order 14168, Executive Order 14187, and Executive Order 14183, which revoked the federal government's recognition of transgender people.{{cite news |last1=Pengelly |first1=Martin |title=Trump rolls back trans and gender-identity rights and takes aim at DEI |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/20/trump-executive-order-gender-sex |access-date=3 April 2025 |work=The Guardian |date=21 January 2025}}{{cite web |url=https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/protecting-children-from-chemical-and-surgical-mutilation/ |title=Executive Order: Protecting Children for Chemical and Surgical Mutilation |publisher=US White House |date=January 28, 2025 |access-date=January 29, 2025 |archive-date=January 29, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250129224724/https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/protecting-children-from-chemical-and-surgical-mutilation/ |url-status=live}}{{source-attribution}}{{Cite web |date=2025-01-28 |title=Trump signs executive orders prioritizing military 'excellence and readiness'|work=Washington Examiner |url=https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/3302523/trump-executive-orders-military-excellence/ |access-date=2025-01-29 |archive-date=January 28, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250128214519/https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/3302523/trump-executive-orders-military-excellence/ |url-status=live }} In practice, this means the federal government will cease using gender in documents and favor sex. Additionally, only male and female options will be given on forms, and transgender inmates will be imprisoned according to their biological sex. The federal government also ceased to financially support gender-affirming surgery{{cite web |title=Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government |url=https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/defending-women-from-gender-ideology-extremism-and-restoring-biological-truth-to-the-federal-government/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250121214116/https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/defending-women-from-gender-ideology-extremism-and-restoring-biological-truth-to-the-federal-government/ |archive-date=21 January 2025 |website=White House}} and attempted to ban transgender people from the military.{{cite news |title=US judge blocks Trump's ban on trans people serving in the military |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/18/judge-blocks-trump-executive-order-trans-military-ban |access-date=March 18, 2025 |work=The Guardian |agency=Associated Press |date=March 18, 2025}}

File:30a.Rally.StopProject2025.WDC.27January2024 (53492319184).jpg

Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a scholar of fascism and authoritarian leaders at New York University, wrote in May 2024 that Project 2025 "is a plan for an authoritarian takeover of the United States that goes by a deceptively neutral name". She said the project's intent to abolish federal departments and agencies "is to destroy the legal and governance cultures of liberal democracy and create new bureaucratic structures, staffed by new politically vetted cadres, to support autocratic rule". She continues:

{{blockquote|Appropriating civil rights for white Christians furthers the Trumpist goal of delegitimizing the cause of racial equality while also making Christian nationalism a core value of domestic policy. Doing away with the separation of church and state is the goal of many architects of Trumpism, from Project 2025 contributor Russ Vought to far-right proselytizer Michael Flynn, who uses the idea of "spiritual war" as counterrevolutionary fuel{{nbsp}}... Bannon, Roberts, Stephen Miller, and other American incarnations of fascism are convinced that counterrevolution leading to autocracy is the only path to political survival for the far right, given the unpopularity of their positions (especially on abortion) and their leader's boatload of legal troubles.}}

Former Naval War College professor Tom Nichols wrote that Trump is serious about jailing opponents and curtailing the rights of American citizens.{{Cite news |last=Nichols |first=Tom |date=November 6, 2023 |title=Trump Plots Against His Enemies |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2023/11/trump-plot-military-election/675922/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231108055623/https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2023/11/trump-plot-military-election/675922/ |archive-date=November 8, 2023 |access-date=November 8, 2023 |work=The Atlantic}}

In Mother Jones, Washington bureau chief David Corn called Project{{nbsp}}2025 "the right-wing infrastructure that is publicly plotting to undermine the checks and balances of our constitutional order and concentrate unprecedented power in the presidency. Its efforts, if successful and coupled with a Trump (or other GOP) victory in 2024, would place the nation on a path to autocracy."{{Cite news |last=Corn |first=David |date=September 14, 2023 |title=How Right-Wing Groups Are Plotting to Implement Trump's Authoritarianism |url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/09/heritage-foundation-project-2025-trump-authoritarianism-our-land/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230921142323/https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/09/heritage-foundation-project-2025-trump-authoritarianism-our-land/ |archive-date=September 21, 2023 |access-date=September 21, 2023 |website=Mother Jones}}

In July 2024, Donald Moynihan of Georgetown University wrote that:

{{blockquote|[Project 2025] would add measurably to the risks of corruption in American government. President Trump talks a lot about the deep state. Again, that is very similar to what authoritarians in other countries have tended to do to justify taking more direct control over civil service systems. So I think there is a dangerous pattern here, where it would not just reduce the quality of government. It would also open the door for abuses of political power.{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.pbs.org/video/trump-agenda-1720559568/ |title=The Project 2025 plan and Trump's links to its authors |date=July 9, 2024 |language=en |work=PBS NewsHour |access-date=July 11, 2024 |via= |archive-date=July 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240711041110/https://www.pbs.org/video/trump-agenda-1720559568/ |url-status=live }}}}

Even some conservatives are more critical of the project, viewing it as a serious threat to democracy, civil rights, and the separation of church and state.

Several conservatives and Republicans have criticized the plan for its stances on climate change and trade. Ron DeSantis embraced Project 2025 in August 2023.{{Cite news |last=Slattery |first=Gram |date=August 18, 2023 |title=Insight: Conservative think tank emerges as force behind DeSantis campaign |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/us/conservative-think-tank-emerges-force-behind-desantis-campaign-2023-08-18/ |publisher=Reuters |quote=The Florida governor has also embraced Heritage's 'Project 2025.' |access-date=August 12, 2024 |archive-date=September 3, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240903172237/https://www.reuters.com/world/us/conservative-think-tank-emerges-force-behind-desantis-campaign-2023-08-18/ |url-status=live }}

The Biden campaign launched a website critical of Project 2025 hours before his June 27 debate with Trump.{{Cite web |title=Project 2025 |url=https://joebiden.com/project2025/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240723140748/https://joebiden.com/project2025/ |archive-date=July 23, 2024 |access-date=July 23, 2024 |website=Joe Biden for President: Official Campaign Website |language=en-US}} In August 2024, an oversize copy of The Mandate was used as a prop during the 2024 Democratic National Convention.{{cite news |last1=Cappelletti |first1=Joey |last2=Licon |first2=Adriana Gomez |date=August 20, 2024 |title=Throwing the book: Democrats enlarge a copy of the 'Project 2025' blueprint as an anti-GOP prop |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/08/20/project-2025-book-mcmorrow-trump/f4cb124a-5f2e-11ef-ae22-cef4d8785d67_story.html |newspaper=The Washington Post}}{{cite news |last1=Vazquez |first1=Maegan |last2=Dawsey |first2=Josh |date=August 21, 2024 |title=Democrats use oversize text of Project 2025 to warn of Trump, GOP agenda |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/08/21/democrats-use-oversize-text-project-2025-warn-trump-gop-agenda/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240903111015/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/08/21/democrats-use-oversize-text-project-2025-warn-trump-gop-agenda/ |archive-date=September 3, 2024 |access-date=August 23, 2024 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}{{cite magazine |last=Houghtaling |first=Ellie Quinlan |date=August 22, 2024 |title=Kenan Thompson Perfectly Skewers Project 2025 at DNC |url=https://newrepublic.com/post/185143/kenan-thompson-project-2025-dnc |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240823010243/https://newrepublic.com/post/185143/kenan-thompson-project-2025-dnc |archive-date=August 23, 2024 |access-date=August 23, 2024 |magazine=The New Republic}}

After Trump won the 2024 United States presidential election, left-leaning media sources highlighted how right-wing commentators began saying on social media that Project 2025 was the official plan. Former White House advisor Steve Bannon and Texas official Bo French supported transparency about implementing Project 2025.{{Cite web |last=Saric |first=Ivana |date=November 7, 2024 |title=Trump's MAGA allies gloat Project 2025 "is the agenda" |url=https://www.axios.com/2024/11/07/trump-project-2025-second-term-agenda |access-date=November 7, 2024 |website=Axios |archive-date=November 8, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241108225044/https://www.axios.com/2024/11/07/trump-project-2025-second-term-agenda |url-status=live }}{{Cite magazine |last=Oamek |first=Paige |date=November 7, 2024 |title=Steve Bannon's Project 2025 Joke Says What We Knew All Along |url=https://newrepublic.com/post/188097/steve-bannon-donald-trump-project-2025 |access-date=2024-12-09 |magazine=The New Republic |issn=0028-6583}}

In April 2024, responding to criticism of the project, Heritage released a document titled "5 Reasons Leftists {{smallcaps|HATE}} Project{{nbsp}}2025". Restating many of its previously published objectives, the document said that "the radical Left hates families" and "wants to eliminate the family and replace it with the state"; that leftist "elites use the 'climate crisis' as a tool for scaring Americans into giving up their freedom"; that the "radical Left wants our country to travel down [the] same dark path" toward becoming the Soviet Union, North Korea, or Cuba; and that "woke propaganda" should be eliminated at every level of government.

In July 2024, Oren Cass, contributing author of Mandate's chapter on the Department of Labor, criticized the project's leadership: "Gaining productive power requires focusing on people's problems and explaining how you are going to solve them, not pounding the table for Christian nationalism or a second American revolution."{{clear}}

{{Portal|Conservatism|Politics}}

• {{Annotated link|America First Policy Institute}} which has a transition project which is viewed as a rival to Project 2025
• {{Annotated link|Donald Trump and fascism}}
• Hiring and personnel concerns about Donald Trump
• {{Annotated link|Human rights inflation}}
• {{Annotated link|Neopatriarchy}}
• {{Annotated link|Southern strategy}}
• Project Esther

{{Notelist}}

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• {{Cite magazine |last=Heer |first=Jeet |date=February 23, 2024 |title=Hit Trump on Theocracy, Not Hypocrisy |magazine=The Nation |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-theocracy-christian-nationalism/ |access-date=June 29, 2024 |archive-date=July 1, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240701053012/https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-theocracy-christian-nationalism/ |url-status=live}}
• {{cite book |author-last=Roberts |author-first=Kevin |others=Foreword by JD Vance |title=Dawn's Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America |publisher=Broadside Books |date=November 12, 2024 |isbn=978-0063353503}}
• {{Cite news |last=Tony |first=Mike |title='Chilling': Under Trump, Project 2025 Could Undo Climate, Energy Progress in WV |newspaper=Charleston Gazette-Mail |date=June 29, 2024 |url=https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/politics/chilling-under-trump-project-2025-could-undo-climate-energy-progress-in-wv/article_118e7527-68f6-5dd9-a5fa-81544e57cd14.html |access-date=June 29, 2024 |archive-date=June 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240629162150/https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/politics/chilling-under-trump-project-2025-could-undo-climate-energy-progress-in-wv/article_118e7527-68f6-5dd9-a5fa-81544e57cd14.html |url-status=live}}
• {{Cite news |last=Van Hagen |first=John |title=With Project 2025, US Bishops Can't Stand Silently on the Political Sidelines |date=June 26, 2024 |newspaper=National Catholic Reporter |url=https://www.ncronline.org/opinion/guest-voices/project-2025-us-bishops-cant-stand-silently-political-sidelines |access-date=June 29, 2024 |archive-date=June 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240629161329/https://www.ncronline.org/opinion/guest-voices/project-2025-us-bishops-cant-stand-silently-political-sidelines |url-status=live}}

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